Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for Packaging
What is Extended Producer Responsibility?
Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a policy approach that shifts responsibility for the end-of-life management of products to the manufacturers. EPR is a mandatory type of product stewardship required by law. EPR makes producers responsible for the products they bring to the marketplace and introduces incentives to redesign those products with environmental impacts in mind.
Packaging is used to wrap or protect goods, including food and beverages, during shipping and storage. Packaging can also be designed to help with marketing and sales. Packaging, especially single-use packaging, is often intended to be discarded after one use. With single-use packaging, once the product is used, the packaging reaches its “end-of-life” and may be disposed of in a landfill or incinerator, recycled, or mismanaged and littered. Packaging can include plastic bottles, metal cans, food wrappings, corrugated cardboard boxes, bags, and many more materials. The variety, complexity, and volume of new packaging reaching “end-of-life” can challenge, decrease efficiency, and increase costs for local waste management and recycling programs.
EPR for packaging can shift the financial responsibility for the end-of-life of these items back upstream to the manufacturers, helping to relieve local governments and the public from the costs of waste management and recycling for these items. Shifting the financial responsibility creates incentives for better design, and EPR policies can also be designed to incorporate specific elements intended to increase recycled content, reuse, recyclability, less toxic components, overall reductions in packaging volume, or other environmental and societal benefits.
Why EPR for Packaging?
Containers and packaging make up a major portion of municipal solid waste, totaling 82.2 million tons, or 28.1% of total generation in 2018 (Source: US EPA)
Nearly two-thirds of global plastic waste comes from plastics with lifetimes of under five years, with 40% coming from packaging (Source: OECD)
Global production of plastic is projected to triple by 2060 (Source: OECD)
Consumers and local government waste and recycling managers must deal with the products that are in the marketplace. Shifting responsibility for end-of-life of product packaging to the same entity responsible for product design creates incentives for better design.
EPR for packaging policies, including bottle bills, can support recycling market development and encourage better and more efficient recycling programs.
Plastic pollution impacts wildlife, public health, our food system, property values, tourism, and the economy.
EPR for packaging is growing in the US
Five states have adopted packaging EPR laws and are in the beginning stages of implementation (California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, and Oregon). Three of these states also have in place a specific type of producer responsibility for beverage containers called deposit-return systems or recycling refunds or “bottle bills” (California, Maine, and Oregon). Many more states have introduced bills or are in the early stages of considering EPR for packaging.
Are EPR policies in place in Maryland?
The producer responsibility concept is not new in Maryland (e.g., Maryland has a paint stewardship program), but the Maryland General Assembly is considering several new types of producer responsibility policies during the 2025 legislative session. Two of these policies address beverage containers and other types of packaging that can contribute to trash and litter when they are mismanaged:
HB232/SB346: Maryland Beverage Container Recycling Refund & Litter Reduction Program (the “Bottle Bill”). A small deposit is added to the purchase price of a beverage and then refunded to the customer when the beverage container is returned for recycling. The deposit-return system creates an incentive to recycle.
SB901: Packaging Materials - Producer Responsibility Plans. SB901 would establish a producer responsibility for packaging program in Maryland, building on the Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging Advisory Council and recycling needs assessment set up by SB222 (2023).
EPR for packaging and bottle bills can complement each other and work hand-in-hand to increase recycling rates and collection of recyclable materials generated both at home and on-the-go.