Beverage container recycling forum

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) convened a meeting of stakeholders and interested parties on the subject of recycling beverage containers. This forum met on Oct. 15, 2012, at the St. Paul offices of the MPCA.

Resources

• Beverage Container Data Update
  Peder Sandhei, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, provided an overview of the recycling rate for beverage containers in 2012 and a comparison with the rates to 2008.
• Canadian Beverage Container Recycling Association
  Ken Friesen, Canadian Beverage Container Recycling Association, provided an overview of the EPR program for beverage containers in Manitoba. The program is still relatively young, but he offered information about the success to date.
• Container Deposit
  Molly Pederson, Conservation Minnesota, discussed the benefits of container deposit legislation including information about redemption rates. She also noted that container deposit has been introduced in Minnesota the past three years.
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for Packaging & Printed Paper
  Paul Gardner, Executive Director, Recycling Reinvented, provided a picture of EPR for packaging that Nestle Waters North America is supporting. He was clear that they are targeting states that do not currently have container deposit.

Summary

The MPCA has established a goal of recycling 80% of beverage containers in Minnesota. Recognizing that the state is falling well short of that goal, this forum was developed to get the various stakeholders together to discuss options to fundamentally change the system of beverage container recycling in Minnesota. Presentations were followed by a group discussion to evaluate and ask pointed questions of the different models to help assess which option might be best for Minnesota. One clear outcome from the discussion was that everyone agreed that deposits are an effective way of collecting more beverage containers; however, not everyone agreed that container deposits are the way of moving forward. Many attendees favor the multi-material EPR programs to boost overall recycling rates in the state, and a few attendees appeared to favor the status quo. The other clear outcome was that more details are needed to make an informed decision about EPR or container deposit in Minnesota.

Meeting objectives

• Present latest data on beverage container and packaging recycling
• Discuss policy options to increase beverage container recycling
• Receive information on national and state initiatives to increase recycling
• Gather perspectives from attendees as to the potential paths forward