This is the year the reality of plastics EPR arrives in the US

2023 could be the year when the reality of extended producer responsibility for plastics packaging in the U.S. begins to take shape, with the first-mover states of California, Colorado, Maine and Oregon all starting to write EPR rules.

Regulators will be considering things like surcharges on companies to fund cleanup of legacy plastic pollution or tougher rules on less recyclable materials, such as expanded polystyrene. It'll take a few years to write these rules, and it'll be complex.

That was apparent as I watched the online broadcast of a Jan. 31 CalRecycle meeting to start writing rules for Senate Bill 54, California's landmark EPR law passed in mid-2022.

I realize this may sound dry to some of you, tracking agency meetings where they write regulations. But all these EPR discussions are going to have a big role in packaging choices.

The goal in all those states is figuring out how to build — and pay for — much better recycling systems for packaging.

The general idea of EPR is to have companies pay more of the costs that are currently funded by cities and taxpayers.

There are many benefits of plastics packaging, hence its huge growth in recent decades. But does anyone think the U.S.'s current 13 percent recycling rate for plastic packaging is good enough?

Which brings us to these dry-sounding EPR implementation meetings in state governments.

There will be a lot of thorny questions on the agenda, like implementing a plastic pollution fee in California.

SB-54 requires companies to pay $500 million a year, starting in 2027, into a fund to clean up legacy plastic pollution in the state.

Of that, $150 million will come from resin makers, with the other $350 million coming from companies using plastic packaging in the state.

A yet-to-be-formed industry group, called a Producer Responsibility Organization, will figure out how to structure that $500 million payment, under a framework created by CalRecycle, with input from an advisory council.

Sixty percent, or $300 million a year, will go toward communities disadvantaged by plastic pollution, while $200 million a year will be directed to restoring natural areas.

At the meeting, one lawyer who works on the industry side noted that if, as CalRecycle estimates, there are 10,000 "producers" that will be covered by the EPR law, that's $35,000 on average from each company into that fund as an entry fee to be able to sell into California.

It's important to note, especially for Plastics News readers, that the law defines "producers" mainly as the brand owners or companies using packaging to sell their products.

But you can be assured that the decisions brand owners make to meet the law will filter through the supply chain to plastics packaging companies. That's one point of EPR, to steer packaging decisions.

As well, and this is also important, that $500 million payment does not include the additional costs the PRO groups will impose on companies for the main job of EPR, to pay for better recycling systems in the state.

Assessing fees will be thorny. Even within one packaging material, say PET, bottles are recycled much more than PET thermoforms, so it wouldn't make sense to have the same fees for each.

These EPR laws are not specific to plastics. They cover a range of packaging materials, but plastics have already attracted some special attention.

Some states have already started EPR design, and packaging groups like Ameripen are planning multiple webinars in coming months on what to expect.

Each of the four states will structure their EPR differently, and more states are seriously considering it, potentially adding to pressure for national legislation.

California, for its part, has set aggressive targets, calling for 30 percent of plastic packaging to be recycled by 2028, 40 percent by 2030 and 65 percent by 2032.

In general, studies support the idea of EPR raising recycling rates.

A Feb. 2 report from The Recycling Partnership found EPR raised plastics packaging recycling rates in many places, including Belgium, where it went from 38 percent in 2012 to 52 percent in 2021.

But it noted EPR isn't a panacea,

In British Columbia's EPR program, plastics packaging remained flat at a 25 percent recycling rate, which it said was mainly because too much flexible plastic packaging had little value beyond disposal or burning for fuel.

The Jan. 31 CalRecycle meeting, the agency's first meeting toward writing its rules, was an overview of what's to come, as regulators laid out their process and the audience raised many key questions.

For example, the Ecology Center, which operates Berkeley's recycling program, wanted SB-54 to focus on packaging that's not, in practice, recyclable.

It referenced another new California law, SB-343, from 2021 that says products in California have to be effectively recycled by 60 percent of curbside programs or material recovery facilities to be labeled recyclable.

As well, industry representatives asked how SB-54's implementation would impact a longtime California law, the Rigid Plastic Packaging Container program, that requires source reduction, recycled content or other options for certain container types.

Topics ran the gamut. Others asked about provisions for reusable packaging in the law, how SB-54's implementation would or would not harmonize with EPR in other states, and whether some packaging could get credit for food safety benefits.

One environmental group asked if fees on plastics would be more expensive compared to other materials.

Supporters of Colorado's EPR law that passed last year said that could be the case for plastics in that state, based on higher recycling costs for cities.

Along those lines, SB-54 sets some uniquely tough targets for expanded polystyrene foodservice packaging.

A CalRecycle staff presentation said that EPS foodservice will need to have a 25 percent recycling rate by 2025, rising to 65 percent by 2032, to be sold in the state, that could effectively be a ban.

The agency said EPS "has many environmental issues, including the propensity for this material to enter into the environment as litter and degrade into microplastics. It's difficult to recycle and often landfilled."

Less than 1 percent of EPS is recycled in the state, CalRecycle said.

Chemical recycling seems like another potential flashpoint in implementation.

While industry groups have campaigned in more than 20 states for legislation favorable to chemical recycling, CalRecycle's staff presentation said SB-54's definition of recycling excludes combustion, incineration or energy generation.

An agency staffer told the meeting that's "intended to exclude chemical recycling technologies such as pyrolysis or gasification."

As I've watched EPR for packaging debates pick up steam in the United States over the last few years, it's been interesting to see broad agreement emerge over the concept of EPR.

Plastics and packaging industry groups, like the Flexible Packaging Association, the American Chemistry Council and the Plastics Industry Association have all endorsed the idea of EPR, as have environmental groups.

But that doesn't mean they agree on the details, such as who pays, how much they pay and what the final rules look like.

A lot of differences remain and how they get resolved — or don't — will start to become clear as states get to work. That's why we may look back and see 2023 as the year the realities of plastics and packaging EPR arrived in the United States.