Washington is now the seventh U.S. state with a packaging EPR law.
||| FROM WASTE DIVE |||
Gov. Bob Ferguson signed SB 5284 into law on Saturday, the culmination of years of advocacy to get a bill across the finish line. He called it the “biggest overhaul of our recycling system in decades” during the signing.
Now that Washington has adopted the law, the whole West Coast of the U.S. has an EPR for packaging program. California and Oregon have also adopted such laws.
The Recycling Reform Act creates an extended producer responsibility program for most kinds of paper and packaging. It also establishes a statewide recycling collection list and calls for adding curbside recycling for all homes that already have curbside trash service. Ferguson noted at the bill signing that this could add service for hundreds of thousands of households.
It also calls for the state’s Department of Ecology to conduct and submit a statewide recycling needs assessment, due by Dec. 31, 2026, and update it with any new data by Dec. 31, 2027.
Producers would ultimately reimburse waste service providers 90% of recycling system costs, and that funding could be used for investment in system improvements, according to the bill. A producer responsibility organization would develop, implement and finance the program, and Ecology would oversee it.
According to the bill, reimbursements for recycling service providers would be phased in over time: 50% by Feb. 15, 2030, 75% by the same date in 2031 and 90% come 2032.
There are exemptions for certain types of food and medical packaging. Covered materials can also be exempted if a producer demonstrates a reuse or recycling rate of 65% for three consecutive years. That threshold rises to 70% come 2030.
Service providers seeking reimbursement for services must register with Ecology, including MRFs. MRF operators receiving covered materials would need to annually report data such as volumes and quality of the material. Starting in 2028, MRFs that manage more than 25,000 tons of covered products a year would need to ensure they pay workers a “minimum industry standard compensation.”
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