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According to a 2005 report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is defined as "an environmental policy approach under which the responsibility of producers for their products is extended to include the social costs of waste management, including the environmental impact of waste disposal."
Noting that EPR "has been successfully adopted in Canada and Europe, diverting large amounts of plastic, glass, metal, and paper away from landfills into recycling streams that conserve resources," As You Sow has engaged with several major U.S.-based consumer products companies, successfully encouraging several to adopt policies "to recycle a majority of bottles and cans sold over the next six to eight years," according to the organization.
Recent studies have concluded that products and packaging are responsible for 44 percent of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the U.S., and the three major bottlers with which As You Sow has successfully engaged thus far -- Coca Cola, Nestle Waters, and PepsiCo -- have acknowledged that their bottles and packaging contribute significantly to their carbon footprints. Nestle, in fact, estimates the impact at 55 percent.
As a result of As You Sow's engagement, Nestle has committed to recycling 60 percent of beverage industry polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles by 2018. Coca-Cola will recycle 50 percent of PET plastic, glass bottles, and cans sold by 2015, and PepsiCo will recycle 50 percent of its PET plastic, glass bottles, and cans sold by 2018.
As You Sow is expanding its engagement to pressure "key consumer product companies like General Mills, Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever to take responsibility for collection and recycling of their packaging."
"Increased recycling of packaging will yield strong environmental benefits, leading to more efficient use of materials, reduced extraction of natural resources, and lower GHG emissions," As You Sow continued. "EPR policies will create new markets for packaging materials that currently have little value."
In an email to SocialFunds.com, Conrad MacKerron, senior program director for the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Program at As You Sow, stated, "About 40 million tons of consumer product packaging is needlessly landfilled or burned in the U.S. each year. We can no longer afford to discard packaging as resource experts tell us we are already overshooting Earth's ecological limits."
"We're also throwing away potential revenue," MacKerron continued. "The commodity market value of wasted glass, plastic, paper, and metal packaging is estimated at between $15 billion and $23 billion."
This article originally appeared at SocialFunds.com and is reprinted with permission.
Image CC licensed by Flickr user alan.stoddard.
Unwittingly, AYS gives cover
Unwittingly, AYS gives cover for a smokescreen of weak EPR. Looking at As You Sow's website and its documents regarding EPR it's clear that they are using other people's work, watering it down and fundraising off of it without the policy rigor or any real deep understanding of EPR.
To limit their exposure companies are coming up with weak unenforceable and unaccountable EPR schemes. Conveniently, As You Sow is either claiming credit or giving cover here. When it fails, no one will be around to notice it. Not even AYS.
Several years ago, As You Sow took credit for pushing Coke into committing to use 10 percent of their bottles from recycled bottles by 2010. How's that working out now AYS? What about this week's story about how Coke shutdown and laid off the employees for their much touted bottle to bottle recycling scheme. Where's AYS's vaunted "pressure" here?
AYS is well meaning, but even well meaning, uninformed and misdirected organizations can block real gains.
Nice try.
p.s. wanna see some real expertise and thoughtful analysis on Coke's weak white paper on EPR for packaging? Check out:
www.container-recycling.org/assets/pdfs/2011-CRIResponseToNLOnEPR.pdf
If beverage companies like
If beverage companies like Coke and Nestle were serious about reducing beverage container waste and litter and increasing container recycling, they would stop fighting refundable container deposit laws and throwing massive quantities of cash at misleading consultant reports, junkets, seminars, front groups, lobbying and advertising efforts to undercut them. At the same time, groups like As You Sow would quit cheerleading PR-oriented voluntary corporate objectives, especially from companies that are working overtime to block solutions that have reliably delivered two to three times better outcomes everywhere they have been put in place.
Put a SIN tax on all Coca
Put a SIN tax on all Coca Cola, Nestle Waters, and PepsiCo single use bottles or can of 10cents each to be used to upgrade municipal water infrastructure. Then 15cents for every single use bottle or can for returnable recycle fee, this will fix it NOW! People will go out of their way to make sure their trash gets recycled.