Product Stewardship Institute (PSI)

PSI works on extended producer responsibility (EPR) for more than 20 products. 2023 was a successful year all around. The PSI community helped enact four new EPR laws: a first-in-the-nation law for household hazardous waste in Vermont, a first-in-the-nation law for tires in Connecticut, the 12th paint stewardship law in Illinois, and the most comprehensive U.S. battery law yet in Washington State. We also saw two packaging EPR needs assessment laws enacted in Maryland and Illinois, and a successful amendment to modernize Oregon's electronics EPR program. PSI's work contributed to each of these successful policy initiatives. HHW: Many household cleaning fluids, paint removers, fuel additives, and other products contain toxic and flammable ingredients. Known as household hazardous waste (HHW), these products require special handling once consumers are done using them. The Vermont law is the first in the U.S. to engage producers of the most toxic and costly-to-manage portion of the waste stream in developing and operating programs to manage this waste. In addition to protecting the environment, the law will incentivize producers to create less-toxic products. Over the past decade, PSI researched and analyzed the operational feasibility of EPR for HHW in the U.S., including best practices and lessons learned from Canadian programs, which have operated successfully since the 1990's. PSI worked with Vermont's state and local government officials to develop and refine the policy model on which the law was based. TIRES: Connecticut became the first state to enact an EPR law for tires. The law requires tire manufacturers to finance, operate, and report on the post-consumer management of tires they sell into the marketplace and is expected to decrease illegal dumping, boost tire retreading and recycling, and save municipalities and taxpayers money. PSI staff and board members in Connecticut have long championed tire EPR. In 2015, PSI facilitated a national multi-stakeholder tire stewardship dialogue for the Connecticut Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), including developing a tire stewardship briefing document and a tire EPR policy model, which laid the foundation for the new law. PAINT: PSI worked hand-in-hand with our local government members in Illinois and with paint recyclers and the American Coatings Association, which are PSI partners, to establish the 12th paint stewardship law in the U.S., educating stakeholders, building support for the program, and mediating solutions to state-specific challenges. The law was based on a model paint bill that PSI mediated over a decade ago and which has been used as the basis for launching the 11 other PaintCare programs. BATTERIES: Over the past decade, PSI has advocated for battery EPR with a focus on expanding the scope of batteries covered by the laws to respond to increased reliance on batteries and new battery chemistries, and to simplify recycling for consumers. In 2014, PSI helped members in Vermont enact the first single-use battery EPR law, which increased collection of all batteries in the state by 180 percent in the first year. PSI provided technical support to Washington D.C. to incorporate best practices into their 2021 battery law, which was the first to cover both single-use and rechargeable batteries as well as battery-containing devices. California followed in 2022, building on PSI's next-generation policy model that we developed with 10 member states. And Washington State's law, championed by PSI members, was the first to include e-mobility device batteries and study management of large-format batteries and batteries embedded in products. PSI is working with New York State members to add e-mobility devices to the 2010 rechargeable battery law as a solution to deadly fires caused by e-bike batteries. ELECTRONICS: Oregon E-cycles, one of the first electronics EPR programs in the U.S., has diverted more than 268 million pounds of scrap electronics from landfills since 2009, protecting the environment from toxic metals like lead and cadmium. But like many early programs, E-cycles relied on weight-based performance goals and a high level of state agency oversight. Over time, electronics became lighter, and the state added new EPR programs that did not rely on state personnel so heavily. The Oregon DEQ hired PSI to build consensus on a modernized bill. Through five multi-stakeholder meetings and many small group calls, PSI solicited input from producers, collectors, processors, and government officials, engaging them in joint problem solving backed by technical expertise. The amendment, which passed nearly unanimously, expanded the scope of covered products, created a robust convenience standard that will ensure greater collection infrastructure stability, and reduced DEQ's management burden in line with other state EPR programs. PACKAGING: In2023, Maryland and Illinois enacted needs assessment bills, widely considered a first step to establishing a packaging EPR law. PSI provided technical support to stakeholders as the bills evolved from full packaging EPR to needs assessments. PSI's education, stakeholder engagement, and coalition building significantly contributed to the proliferation of packaging EPR discussions happening in 18 states (up from 16 in 2022, 11 in 2021, and 8 in 2020) and federally. PSI continued to facilitate packaging EPR dialogues in Connecticut, Illinois, and Minnesota, and provided technical support in New York, Maryland, and Hawaii, while our policy model informed discussions in Washington, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and other states. Packaging EPR Fact Sheets: Three issues - consumer costs, chemical recycling, and bottle deposits in EPR programs - arose repeatedly in PSI's packaging EPR conversations. To address this need for stakeholder education, PSI developed fact sheets on each of these topics, vetting the content through the EPR experts in our network, including our members and partners. These fact sheets were used in education and stakeholder dialogues in 2023. Chemical Recycling Research: Chemical recycling was among the most contentious issues that arose in packaging EPR conversations in 2023. Always one to address the elephant in the room, PSI researched and published a chemical recycling discussion paper that has laid the foundation for further dialogue, joint fact-finding, and consensus-based solution seeking. Our report sheds light on confusing terminology like "advanced recycling," the lack of understanding about the differences between technologies and the environmental impacts of each, and a dearth of policy guidelines that government officials can follow when faced with permitting decisions. These are all barriers to productive dialogue that PSI's discussion paper begins to break down. PSI launched this discussion on a webinar that featured chemical recycling experts from the Connecticut DEEP, the Oregon DEQ, Closed Loop Partners, Duales System Deutchland, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The webinar garnered coverage in numerous publications, including POLITICO, and has sparked interest in further dialogue. Already, we see consensus on excluding pyrolysis from the definition of recycling and on defining technologies by outputs - majority plastic vs. majority fuel. PSI will continue to advance this issue toward a resolution. Reuse in EPR Mini-Workgroup: Reuse and waste reduction also arose repeatedly in our conversations. PSI conducted a multistakeholder mini workgroup on ways to incorporate reuse into EPR policy and programs. The workgroup included representatives from the American Beverage Association, the Reusable Packaging Association, Coca Cola, EcoCycle, Zero Waste Washington, the New York City Department of Sanitation, Hennepin County (Minnesota), Seattle Public Utilities, the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County (Illinois), Upstream, and the Washington Department of Ecology. Over four calls, PSI presented information about reuse programs around the world, including a guest presentation from CITEO on France's national Reuse Directive and plans to integrate reuse into France's packaging EPR program. Based on the workgroup recommendations and further input from PSI's members, PSI incorporated emerging best practices for reuse into our packaging policy model. Packaging EPR Webinar Series: PSI's webinars continue to be among the most cutting edge and best produced in the U.S. In 2023, PSI hosted five webinars on the following topics: (1) how EPR influences packaging design, (2) how states successfully established packaging EPR programs, (3) how compostable packaging and products can be managed in recycling and EPR systems, (4) chemical recycling, and (5) global trends in packaging EPR. Combined, the webinars attracted 2,825 registrants, of which 1,709 attended live. On average, more than 90% of survey takers rated the webinar speakers and content as excellent or good.