Articles
Published October 10th, 2024
Have you ever wished brands were responsible for making sure their products were recyclable? Us too! Luckily, states across America are introducing extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws, including Colorado, where a new EPR policy will take effect in 2026.
We chatted with Liz Chapman, executive director of Recycle Colorado, about Colorado’s Producer Responsibility Program for Packaging and Paper, which will ask companies that sell printed paper, cardboard, metal, glass and plastic packaging in the state to pay into a fund to create a completely free statewide recycling system (a pretty big deal, since recycling is an extra fee, sometimes bundled within a waste service charge in Colorado). Compost management organizations like Scraps benefit too, as the program will address underlying contamination issues in compostable packaging.
Chapman explains that the concept of producer responsibility began in Europe 20-some years ago with “big format stuff” like refrigerators and ovens.
“In Europe, [a company like] Maytag sells you a refrigerator, and when the refrigerator dies, [the company] is responsible for getting rid of it instead of you, the person who bought it, the logic being you’ve already purchased it — you shouldn’t have to pay for it twice,” Chapman says. And lo and behold, when the producers of those goods became responsible for the end of life of the product, they started redesigning them so that when it was returned at the end of its useful life, the manufacturer could salvage the pieces within and use them to make new refrigerators. “Now that there was a financial incentive to design for recyclability, that’s exactly what they did.”
Colorado’s program is a little different than the European model, tasking brands — like Coca-Cola — with the financial responsibility instead of the manufacturer of the packaging. This is because brands don’t often make their own packaging, but they do drive what gets manufactured.
“Coca Cola doesn’t make its own bottles. They buy bottles from [a company] that makes bottles for [other brands],” Chapman says. “But the profit margin lies with the brand owners, who have influence over who they buy from. So the idea behind the Colorado program is, if it’s more expensive to sell your product in Colorado because you’re using an unrecyclable, problematic material, you are incentivized to use a recyclable material so that you have less dues associated with the sale of that material.”
This incentive is necessary, and it’s the crux of Colorado’s EPR. It’s often tough for brands to invest in recyclable commodities in the first place because there’s so much uncertainty around whether there will be enough raw material to create packaging.
“When you’re buying virgin material, [a company] can tell you a year out, ‘We are going to have X number of tons available for you,’” Chapman explains. “You can’t do that in the recycling market because it’s dependent on individual behavior. Maybe we’ll have as much as we had last year, but we don’t know for sure. Maybe we won’t have enough. Maybe we’ll have too much. So there’s a lot of volatility and uncertainty in the recycling market, and that’s one of the things that contributes to it not being robust in Colorado.”
The new law — signed by Gov. Jared Polis in 2022 — should create more demand for recyclable materials, especially when paired with the EPR legislation enacted in six other states.
It’s important to note that this program only targets larger producers: Those with more than $5 million of sales in Colorado will be considered “obligated producers” who will pay dues to create a completely free statewide recycling program. These dues will be based on a formula that is still being developed by the Circular Action Alliance (CAA), a nonprofit organization funded by thousands of member brand names and tasked with administering the state’s EPR law. Chapman says dues will be calculated based on the type and weight of the packaging material; how recyclable it is; how desirable the material is in the recycling system; the market price for the material and more.
While there are still many important details for the CAA to work out before Colorado’s Producer Responsibility Program rolls out in 2026, Chapman can guarantee a few incredible outcomes.
“For one, all of those residents who are currently paying for recycling won’t have to pay for it anymore,” Chapman says, adding that no one will be forced to recycle (but that’s not anyone reading this blog). “People who want to recycle but haven’t been able to afford it will be able to recycle it now because they won’t have paid for it. [The law] should bring recycling to more multifamily complexes as well as single family homes. And communities that are currently spending money on recycling will no longer have to spend money on that: Fort Collins, Boulder, Aspen, Denver, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, Durango.”
And with representation from the “compostable packaging universe” participating in crafting Colorado’s producer responsibility bill, Chapman says compost hauling organizations like Scraps will benefit from funding to help alleviate contamination issues.
Producer responsibility is a win for everybody, and it definitely has us excited for the future.
Scraps is a proud member of Recycle Colorado, a 501(c) 3, statewide nonprofit advancing circular economies and improving recycling across the state of Colorado. Members share a vision to transform Colorado into a national leader in waste reduction, recovery and diversion.
This blog was authored by Caitlin Rockett. Caitlin is a freelance journalist living in Boulder, Colorado. She can be reached at cait.rockett@gmail.com
