Colorado
Opinion: Polis should sign recycling bill to cut packaging waste in Colorado
At the moment, simply 13% of plastic packaging within the U.S. will get recycled. In Colorado the scenario is much more dire – a statewide recycling charge that’s half the nationwide common.
That’s unacceptable. As producers and customers of packaging, we will play a number one position to spice up recycling charges and hold recyclable supplies out of nature.
We’re designing our bottles and cans to be recyclable, and our business has been investing in enhancements to optimize recycling techniques. However we have to go additional.
In Colorado and elsewhere, we’re becoming a member of with lawmakers and environmental teams to arrange techniques that we function and pay for to enhance recycling dramatically and get extra of our packaging again so it may be remade into new merchandise.
Due to the management of the Colorado legislature, we’re nearer than we’ve ever been to realizing a system by which producers each run and fund the recycling of the packaging they put available on the market.
The Colorado legislature this yr handed and despatched to Gov. Jared Polis Home Invoice 1355, a measure that places private-sector producers answerable for paying for and working a statewide recycling system that may create a round financial system for recyclable supplies.
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The system endorsed by our firms and the environmental neighborhood in HB 1355 is named Prolonged Producer Duty (EPR), a complete coverage that might assist create a extra environment friendly, cost-effective, round waste administration system. The proposed EPR system relies on greatest practices from related applications all around the world which have led to recycling charges far increased than these achieved in our nation.
Right here’s how it might work: Producers of packaging and printed paper can be assessed charges based mostly on the price of recycling the supplies they use, with incentives for higher bundle design. A nonprofit producer accountability group, or PRO, would pay for and run the gathering system with oversight from a state company to make sure transparency and accountability.
That approach, customers would have expanded, handy entry to recycling and confidence in an efficient system.
This invoice is the strongest and most promising EPR measure launched within the U.S. this yr. It’s championed by a broad coalition of nationwide and state companies, native governments, environmental advocates, recyclers and residents.
We characterize main firms who do substantial enterprise in Colorado. We imagine this invoice is nicely designed; reflective of Colorado’s various demographics, geography and markets; and conscious of the issues of a variety of producers, retailers and recycling entities all through the state.
Practically 6 million tons of recyclable materials are landfilled yearly somewhat than remade in Colorado. These landfilled commodities have a market worth of about $100 million in the event that they had been collected and made accessible to be remade into new merchandise. HB 1355 will assist flip that scenario round.
Colorado has important potential for environmental, financial and social advantages from elevated recycling. HB 1355 will result in financial savings for native governments and taxpayers, and reductions in greenhouse fuel emissions, landfilling, and dependence on fossil fuels. It’ll create extra jobs within the recycling sector and ship for Coloradans who need a cleaner surroundings, diminished plastic use and higher stewardship of supplies.
HB 1355 is nice coverage. It permits producers like us to do our half to get again helpful packaging supplies. We urge Gov. Polis to signal this landmark laws into legislation to assist create a round financial system and scale back waste in Colorado.
Mary Marchun is govt director of the Colorado Beverage Affiliation, representing the state’s non-alcoholic beverage business.
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