One of the most powerful and ingenious PSAs created first aired in Maine on April 22, 1971, on the first anniversary of Earth Day. The ad was the landmark “People Start Pollution, People Can Stop It,” known as the “crying Indian” ad.
In this enduring minute‑long PSA, an actor in stereotypical Native American clothing silently paddles his canoe with strong, sure strokes slowly up a polluted river. Coming ashore at a litter‑strewn riverbank, the proud and stoic figure walks to the edge of a highway just as a car passenger thoughtlessly tosses out trash that bursts open onto the disheartened visitor’s feet. The camera slowly moves upward for a close‑up on a single tear rolling down his face as the narrator dramatically intones: “People start pollution; people can stop it.”
The producer of this award-winning ad was Keep America Beautiful (KAB) Inc., founded in 1953 by beverage and packaging companies and the tobacco industry. Cleverly, while the ad was extolling the virtues of keeping America beautiful by convincing people to stop littering, KAB funders touted the convenience of their new disposable, single-use beverage containers. The packaging industry strategy was simple: convince individuals that it was their responsibility for litter, not the manufacturers. Meanwhile, KAB was lobbying against the most effective litter prevention program — state “bottle bill” laws.
As disposable plastic packaging replaced glass, paper and metal, producers adapted their message: in addition to preventing plastic litter, individuals were also responsible for recycling disposable packaging. Individuals do not actually recycle but only initiate the process by placing recyclable materials into proper containers. Once collected, recyclable materials go to a materials recovery facility, where they are sorted into marketable categories. Finally, marketable materials are sent to facilities that perform the actual recycling of materials.
In addition to the annual $11.5 billion spent on litter collection, the costs for collecting, transporting, sorting and recycling materials, including plastics, is about $400 per ton. Who is responsible for these costs? The answer: 50 state governments, 38,736 local governments and 127.483 million households, thereby enabling producers to externalize the costs of collecting the litter and recycling their single-use products, essentially through involuntary subsidies.
Recyclability is based on a material’s net economic benefit. Plastics industry lobbying in the 1980s led many states to mandate Resin Identification Codes (1-7) on plastic packaging, the ubiquitous chasing arrows. Multi-layered packaging, like the increasingly popular plastic pouches and snack bags, do not display codes and are rarely recycled due to the complexity and cost of separating the layers. While the “chasing arrows” imply recyclability to consumers, the complexity, high cost and low value of most plastics results in recycling rates around 10%. As packaging becomes more complex and recycling costs increase, the externalization of responsibility and cost onto local governments and households continues.
Most plastics are made from fossil fuels; reducing and recycling disposable plastic packaging reduces fossil fuel consumption and associated greenhouse gases. Yet, as local governments incorporate waste reduction into their climate action plans, only producers and state and federal governments have the authority to reduce packaging at its source. Given the national political climate, federal action is not likely.
There is a simple, effective approach to reduce plastic pollution and increase recycling: shift financial responsibility for packaging waste to producers through the framework of extended producer responsibility (EPR).
When producers become financially responsible for recyclability and recycling, they design better packaging. Producers can reduce costs at the production stage more effectively than local governments can at the waste stage. EPR does not ban plastic but seeks to eliminate plastic packaging that is not recycled. This outcome is proven by decades of EPR policies around the world leading to significantly higher recycling rates, reduced litter and waste and millions in cost savings for local governments.
This is not just theoretical. We can look to Maine. We adopted the first-in-the-nation producer responsibility laws for electronic waste, mercury-containing lamps and thermostats and other materials. In 2021, Maine also became the first state to adopt a producer responsibility law for packaging waste. Maine’s law places financial responsibility for managing packaging waste back onto producers by requiring them to directly reimburse local governments for recycling.
Maine’s law also financially incentivizes the use of reusable or recyclable packaging by imposing higher fees on packaging destined for landfills. The result is lower cost burdens to municipalities and taxpayers that far offset any slight increase in producers’ costs.
As Maine and other states with EPR laws succeed in shifting responsibility away from taxpayers onto producers, national reverberations will follow as local governments nationwide seek relief for strained budgets. People generally want to do the right thing, but sorting recyclables is currently too complicated and inconvenient. EPR is the most cost-effective, simplest approach to improve packaging, reduce costs, increase recycling and minimize plastic pollution.
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