Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation for packaging products is rapidly being adopted throughout the United States. EPR is a type of environmental policy which assigns a social cost to the production of a particular product, and typically requires producers to pay taxes associated with the costs of managing these products in the most environmentally sound way. EPR schemes have existed for many types of products including tires and electronic waste for decades, but the application of EPR to packaging has only been practiced domestically within the last five years.
The Impact of EPR on Packaging Design
EPR introduces an operational cost to using environmentally inefficient packaging systems. This typically comes in the forms of taxes on production of packaging materials and mandated fees for packaging producers. Because EPR passes the costs of environmental management of packaging on to the end consumer, organizations who take efforts to improve the resource efficiency of their packaging systems can see greater cost savings than they would without EPR.
The rapid expansion of packaging EPR in the United States
Since 2018, over twenty states have introduced EPR bills setting limits on the types, quantities, and management of packaging materials sold within their state. Four states (California, Colorado, Maine, and Oregon) have already enacted these EPR bills into law. Several EPR bills for packaging are also under consideration at the federal level. The map above shows the extent of packaging EPR legislation throughout the United States.
The waste management hierarchy
The image below from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency describes an ideal “waste management hierarchy.” Since all packaging will eventually become waste, efforts to reduce new packaging material use (source reduction) and prolong the useful life of packaging products (reuse) are the most important steps toward minimizing packaging waste and complying with new and upcoming packaging EPR regulations.
Eco-design: A powerful strategy for EPR adaptation
Eco-design for packaging generally focuses on one of two interventions to reduce the environmental impacts of packaging products at the top of the waste management hierarchy:
- Redesign packaging to use less material, and/or replace existing materials with more sustainable materials.
- Replace one-way packaging systems with returnable packaging systems.
Y.G. Packaging Solutions is the only organization to apply eco-design principles to the largest source of packaging waste in our supply chains: distribution packaging. Our eco-design service provides packaging users with complete distribution packaging solutions that fit seamlessly into their existing operations, reducing environmental impacts by over 25% on average.
To learn more about how our eco-design service can help you adapt to new EPR regulations, click here.