Extended producer responsibility laws are common in Asia and Europe but are just getting a foothold in the US. They require companies that make products that pile up in landfills to join or fund organizations that facilitate recycling of those products.to pass such laws for paper and plastic packaging. Colorado and California then followed last year.
The study found that despite those differences, the recycling rates for target materials across five of the jurisdictions surged to over 75 percent and rose to over 60 percent in the remaining two. Dylan de Thomas, the lead author of the report and the group’s vice president of public policy and government affairs, said there were several reasons for the jumps.