Recycling Reinvented extends mission

Shoreview, Minnesota-based Recycling Reinvented, a nonprofit organization created to help increase recycling rates in the U.S. through extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging and printed paper, has announced that it is expanding its mission.

In the last two years, Recycling Reinvented has worked to introduce legislation in several states and to commission a cost-benefit study for Minnesota to show how EPR could increase recycling rates and find cost efficiencies on a statewide level. Recycling Reinvented staff members Paul Gardner and Melissa Walsh Innes, former legislators in Minnesota and Maine, respectively, as well as the group’s board, have reached out to hundreds of stakeholders nationwide from the public, private and nonprofit sectors, according to the organization.

“At the beginning of the decade, no one thought too seriously about EPR for packaging,” says Gardner, Recycling Reinvented executive director. “Today, everyone is talking about it. While not all stakeholders support EPR, everyone agrees that recycling rates need to go up. With that in mind, Recycling Reinvented is going to expand its policy focus beyond just EPR to other supportive policy areas.”

The push for EPR has moved many consumer brands, their suppliers and trade associations to look at other ways to support recycling. Those efforts include the Closed Loop Fund (created by Wal-Mart) and The Recycling Partnership, operated by the Curbside Value Partnership. Both initiatives involve significant financial commitments to advance recycling and have plans to achieve measurable results, according to Recycling Reinvented.

“However, it is also clear that supportive policy changes at the state level will be necessary to create change at a larger scale,” the group says in a news release. “These policies can include, but are not limited to, unit-based pricing for solid waste (often called pay-as-you-throw), disposal bans on recyclables, recycling service provision requirements, as well as commitment to funding local government needs for education and enforcement.”

Recycling Reinvented says it has heard from companies that they’re willing to support other policy ideas to increase quality collection and processing of recyclables.

“Advocating for policy or government funding is not something that comes naturally to the private sector because of fears about the messiness of the policymaking process,” says Gardner. “Recycling Reinvented has the skills to work with companies through the advocacy process to get policy passed that supports recycling.”

Recycling Reinvented Deputy Director Melissa Walsh Innes says, “Recycling Reinvented has built a network of the right contacts at state agencies and state legislatures during the last two years. With the right coalition, we could see some big results during legislative sessions starting in 2015.”