The package on my doorstep seemed disproportionately large to hold the order I had placed. As the volunteer administrator of a small church lending library, I sometimes place orders with a supplier for items specific to library management.
I opened the box and it was filled with yards of wadded-up paper. Lying nearly flat at the bottom of the box were the items I had ordered.
I was sure that the paper was recyclable, as was the cardboard box. But the sheer volume of the packaging would raise the cost of materials recovery.
A search on the Internet brought up several options including “Caremail” rugged mailers made out of 90-percent total recycled content and 50-percent post-consumer recycled content. The mailers themselves, after use, would be recyclable with mixed papers according to the product description.
That option made much more sense.
Recyclable packaging is a move in the right direction and one that occurs more frequently. But I also believe that packaging should be proportionally sized for the item it is meant to protect. Otherwise, it represents added expenses to make, to ship and to dispose of.
In writing my columns I”ve recurringly promoted “Extended Producer Responsibility,” which holds manufacturers responsible for disposing of a product”s waste. I”ve followed attempts by our county and city governments to meet state-set diversion rates to remove recyclables from our landfill and expressed my concern that governments and consumers were having to take responsibility for the disposal of waste while the manufacturers who created that waste were allowed to avoid responsibility.
I was therefore excited to learn of a Jan. 4 decision by the Lake County Board of Supervisors to adopt a resolution supporting EPR.
As explained by Terre Logsdon with the County of Lake, EPR, or “Product Stewardship,” shifts the cost for product waste management from the county, taxpayers and garbage ratepayers to the producers of products, which incorporate the cost of waste of management into their purchase price.
Logsdon stated in a press release that there is no sustainably-funded collection system for hazardous products that have been banned from landfill disposal. “Other products like sharps (needles and lancets) and packaging aren”t toxic, but they do pose a burden to local governments and franchise haulers due to public health costs and, in the case of packaging, the costs of litter clean-up.”
The resolution notes that if Lake County were able to collect and properly handle all of the household hazardous waste that is generated in the county, it would burden local ratepayers with a cost of more than $700,000. “Costs paid by local governments to manage products are in effect subsidies to the producers of hazardous products and products designed for disposal,” the county”s resolution states.
Lake County urges the California legislature to implement the framework for an EPR system adopted in 2008 by the California Integrated Waste Management Board. It further urges the legislature to enact framework EPR legislation.
In making its resolution, Lake County is acting as a stakeholder with the California Product Stewardship Council, a nonprofit agency that is dedicated to shifting California”s product waste management system from one that is funded by local governments and ratepayers to one that relies upon producer responsibility.
As of Jan. 5, Lake County was among 113 local jurisdictions in the State of California that have passed resolutions in support of EPR. A full list of these supporting jurisdictions can be viewed at www.calpsc.org/policies/local/index.html. Lake County”s resolution can be viewed in detail at www.calpsc.org/assets/policies/2011/2011-01-04_Lake County EPR res.pdf.
As for my shipment, readers may like to know that when I told customer service that my order was shipped with excessive packaging, I was told that my concern would be forwarded to the department manager and that the company was looking into packaging issues at the time. So even though consumers can”t always control the amount of packaging, we can make our opinions known and we can base future purchasing decisions upon the seriousness with which companies respond to our concerns.
Cynthia Parkhill is the focus pages editor for the Record-Bee and editor of the Clear Lake Observer-American. She can be contacted at ObserverAmerican@gmail.com or 263-5636 ext. 39.
