Bill of the Day: Reduce, Reuse, Extended Producer Responsibility, Recycle
Moving from a Linear Materials Economy to a Circular Economy accounts for the full lifecycle of products, including disposal. Graphics provided by the Frontier Group.
How Can We Best Manage Plastic and Other Hard-To-Manage-Waste?
We grew up hearing the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” mantra, but localities are continuing to cut or reduce their curbside recycling programs across the state (if they have one at all)—making it impossible for consumers to recycle. Multiple Virginia government agencies and task forces have acknowledged difficulties with recycling plastics and disposing of hard-to-manage waste, but the issue remains: individual Virginians can do very little to reduce plastic pollution. Our waste systems are linear, meaning that products are created to be thrown away and do not reenter the marketplace.
Extended Producer Responsibility is the concept that manufacturers are responsible for the entire lifecycle of their product, particularly for end-of-life disposal and recycling. These programs shift waste management burdens away from consumers, local governments, and taxpayers to the producers, which incentivizes producers to design programs and products to be more sustainable, reusable, or recyclable.
Product stewardship programs are one of the best tools to reduce litter and increase recycling. Fixing the disconnect between producers and recycling options has been shown to decrease single-use items, full landfills, and more trash in the environment.
You can take a deeper dive into recycling in Our Common Agenda. To learn more, read our “Plastic Pollution and Producer Responsibility” policy paper.
Support Bills that Strengthen Virginia’s Repair, Recycling, and Waste Economy
(Delegate Amy Laufer) Establishes a Mattress Stewardship Program, which requires producers to provide end-of-life waste management plans for recycling mattresses with convenient and free recycling locations to keep mattresses out of our landfills while building our recycling industry.
(Del Krizek) Commends Katie Register for her significant dedication to reducing plastic pollution.
(Delegate Sewell) Uses public tax dollars to promote and subsidize fossil fuels and plastic-to-fuel manufacturing (often referred to as advanced recycling) under the misleading label of “sustainable aviation fuel.”
(Delegate Jackie Glass) Gives owners of electronics the “right to repair” by requiring electronic manufacturers to make documentation, parts, and tools available for consumers and repair shops to use for diagnosis, maintenance, or repair of products.
(Delegate Lily Franklin) Gives farmers the “right to repair” their own equipment or use a local repair shop by requiring manufacturers to make agricultural equipment parts and software-based diagnostics to identify issues available.
Would delay the implemented styrofoam takeout container ban.
(Senator Head) Creates a recycling center, fund, and voluntary stewardship program for manufacturers without including measurable recycling targets, clear performance metrics, or strong oversight tied to environmental regulations or outcomes.
Take Action
See the real-time updates from Virginia’s Legislative Information System (LIS) on the bill tracker below: