Environment
Getting Manufacturers to Help Pay for Recycling
Municipalities are tired of footing the bill for recycling excessive packaging materials, from cardboard to foils to plastic. New extended producer responsibility legislation aims to force companies to pay up.
Soda companies and other product makers are increasingly being required to pay to recycle what ends up in the garbage.
Photographer: Christopher Pike/Bloomberg
All that extra wrapping around items consumers pick up at the store or have delivered to their doorstep? A growing number of states want manufacturers, not municipalities, to help pay for recycling it.
Maine is leading the way. It made history in July when it became the first U.S. state to force companies to help cover costs to recycle the packing that makes up about a third of the state’s municipal solid waste.