A bill in Olympia aims to reduce packaging and improve recycling in Washington state.

The Washington Recycling and Packaging or WRAP Act is designed to cut down on unnecessary packaging, which often in plastic, used only once and hard to recycle. One part of the legislation will create a producer responsibility system, which requires companies to be responsible for packaging at the end of its life.

Mazzi Nowicki, a University of Washington student and beyond plastics coordinator for WASHPIRG Students, said the measure would hold producers responsible.

"Recycling in general is really expensive and ends up as a burden on consumers, local governments, taxpayers," Nowicki pointed out. "Whereas that cost should be put on producers instead."

Residents in 11 Washington state counties do not have access to recycling. More than half of Washington's consumer paper and packaging ends up in landfills and incinerators, according to an analyst with Seattle Public Utilities.

Plastics producers and recyclers say the policy will not be useful if it creates too many onerous regulations on their industries.

The legislation was unveiled at an event at the Seattle Aquarium on Wednesday and will be championed by Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, and Rep. Liz Berry, D-Seattle.

Nora Nickum, senior ocean policy manager at the Seattle Aquarium, said under the WRAP Act, packaging producers would pay into a program, which would go toward recycling infrastructure.

"But they would pay less into the system if what they are making is more sustainable," Nickum explained. "So that would be a built-in incentive to redesign things in a way that's more environmentally friendly."

In 2017, Washington state residents and businesses produced about 410,000 tons of plastic packaging waste, and only about 17% of the waste was collected for recycling.

Nickum noted plastic is harmful for the environment and wildlife, especially as it breaks down into microplastics.

"Dealing with the problem of waste in the environment is much easier to address at the source before it gets into the environment in the first place," Nickum stressed. "Because it is so hard to clean up once it's there."

Similar producer-responsibility legislation has been passed in other states, including California and Oregon. The WRAP Act also will establish a bottle-deposit program. The legislative session begins on Monday.

Minnesota ranks high for its recycling rate, but it still has a waste problem, putting more pressure on local governments.

A plan in the Legislature aims to incentivize more product makers to adapt.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says in an e-commerce world, packaging materials and printed paper now account for 40% of the state's waste stream. And it's expected to grow. But local facilities aren't equipped to sort and recycle all the latest products sent their way.

The World Wildlife Fund is among those encouraging the state to create a program where companies that produce these materials would pay a fee. Erin Simon, WWF's vice president and head of plastic waste and business, predicts it would help in a big way.

"It pays for the right technology to separate and process those materials into really high-quality recycled content," Simon said.

Supporters say shifting the cost burden also incentivizes producers to use materials that are easier to recycle to begin with. An advisory board would be created to oversee the transition.

Four other states are launching similar programs. The Minnesota bill has cleared the committee stage, but it has skeptics, including those worried about market disruptions within the current waste and recycling system.

These initiatives are referred to as Extended Producer Responsibility programs, and Simon argues spurring more adoption among government agencies can help stop waste from entering landfills and hurting ecosystems.

"Today, we have so much plastic waste entering nature - 10 million metric tons a year," she noted. "And for us, that is about negative impacts on species. And so, we really need to see [this] sort of holistic change."

According to state data, in 2022, only 45% of household and commercial waste in Minnesota was recycled. Backers of these plans also say it would benefit human health, especially those living near waste incinerators, while potentially reducing the tax and fee burden on residents.

Tech giant Microsoft has responded to concerns about the environmental impact of discontinuing support for Windows 10 by offering extended security updates.

The move is expected to help states such as North Carolina avoid a massive increase in electronic waste, as people ditch their old PCs for newer models.

The decision comes in response to more than 20,000 petition signatures collected by the Public Interest Research Group.

Lucas Gutterman, director of PIRG's "Designed to Last" campaign, said when support for Windows 10 is set to end in 2025, up to 400 million devices could face obsolescence.

"And that means people either need to dispose of those PCs and replace them and buy a new one," he said, "or they'll be left unsecured against potential attacks from folks that are exploiting that older operating system."

Gutterman said the extended security update program, set to begin in 2025, will come with additional costs for individuals, schools and businesses.

It's estimated that about 50,000 tons of computer equiment is already discarded in North Carolina each year, along with more than 30,000 tons of television sets.

Gutterman pointed out that this move by Microsoft represents a step in the right direction to reduce the environmental impact of outdated technology. However, he said he believes further measures should be taken to address the issue, such as automatically extending support.

"It's not just Microsoft. It's not just Google. It's not just Apple," he stressed. "The entire industry really needs to have things that are designed to last, and it does seem like they are listening to folks that stand together and ask them to do that."

According to PIRG, the manufacturing of these devices has already resulted in about 46 million tons of climate pollution, or the equivalent of adding nine million cars on the road for a year.

This Fourth of July, ocean conservation groups want Americans to declare their independence from single-use plastics.

A new report, "Charting a Course to Plastic-Free Beaches," names the five biggest culprits polluting beaches and waterways: cigarette butts, plus plastic foam food ware, bags, straws and stirrers, and utensils.

Anja Brandon, associate director of U.S. plastics policy for the Ocean Conservancy, said non-recyclable plastic items break down in the water and do great harm to wildlife.

"We're calling for bans to eliminate or significantly reduce these five items," Brandon explained. "Eliminating these five items, in the U.S. alone, would cut 1.4 million tons of plastics each year."

The report advised people to bring reusable water bottles, plates, cups and cutlery to their barbecues, and to consider joining a nearby cleanup event. One year ago, California lawmakers passed Senate Bill 54, which requires all packaging in the state to be recyclable or compostable by 2032.

Brandon pointed out the landmark California law jumpstarts the move toward a "circular" economy, where items are designed to be reused or recycled, so they do not end up in a landfill.

"SB 54 also requires that producers of all single-use materials help take responsibility for their items, and help pay for the recycling or composting of those items," Brandon outlined. "Also, the bill requires that plastics meet an incredibly high recycling rate of 65%."

You can find more ways to avoid single-use plastics on the website plasticfreeJuly.org.


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