Final signature count: 13,016

13,016 signatures toward our 50,000 goal

Almost anything you buy today, and everything you buy online, comes in a package. Some of those packages are recyclable and some are not. Either way, once you throw it in the right bin, it’s the responsibility of the municipal waste program to figure out where it goes next.

According to Environmental Protection Agency data, packaging made up 82.2 million tons of trash 2018, nearly one-third of all municipal solid waste. And that number has only grown since1.

The fact is, it’s often cheaper for companies to rely on cheap plastic packaging than sourcing recycled products, meaning every single purchase contributes to pollution and greenhouse gases2.

Federal and state lawmakers in the U.S. are now proposing bills to make companies pay for managing the empty soda bottles, candy wrappers, cereal boxes and other packaging that they produce. These fees could in turn help pay for curbside collection and sorting infrastructure. They may also convince companies to design new recyclable packaging3.

Maine Governor Janet Mills has signed the nation’s first extended producer responsibility (EPR) law, effectively holding corporations accountable for the packaging waste they create. Now, nearly a dozen more states are on track to follow Maine’s lead4.

An EPR policy “puts the financial burden of plastic pollution back on the manufacturers who generate it and profit from it,” said Sen. Tom Udall (D., N.M.), who this year introduced a bill that would make companies pay to collect and process waste3.

“Maybe companies won’t be inclined to ship you something tiny in a box wrapped in another box, all stuffed with plastic bags, because they’ll have to pay for that, not somebody else,” says Sarah Nichols of the Natural Resources Council of Maine. “It really puts the responsibility where it belongs5.”

Federal legislation would go even further in championing this much-needed course of action. It’s time the country’s leading producers of pollution take responsibility. Sign the petition below and demand the EPA draft legislation for a national extended producer responsibility policy.