Sustainable Packaging for Mass!

JUNE 2023 UPDATE

The redraft bill on producer responsibility for packaging and printer paper H.4851 expired without further action at the end of the 2021-22 legislative session after being referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

New versions of An Act to save recycling costs in the Commonwealth (H.779/S.572) were refilled at the start of the 2023-24 legislative session and received a hearing before the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources on 7 June 2023.

JUNE 2022 UPDATE

After two extensions of the reporting deadline, the Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture sent redraft H.4851 onward to the House Ways and Means Committee on June 8, 2022.

FEBRUARY 2022 UPDATE

The Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture Committee requested an extension to the deadline to report out on H.878/S.610. The reporting date proposed to extend the deadline to Thursday March 31, 2022, and is pending concurrence.

JUNE 23, 2021 UPDATE

The public hearing on H.878/S.610 was held before the Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture Committee on June 22, 2021.

Volunteer treasurer and campaigns coordinator, Alex Vai, presented written and oral testimony in support of this commonsense legislation that will help reduce plastic and packaging pollution while improving recycling, if passed.

Email FMI: campaigns@ma.surfrider.org

UPDATES

Call to Action for MA residents! Please call and ask your state senator and state representative to co-sponsor SD.1123/HD.1553 An Act to save recycling costs in the Commonwealth before the co-sponsorship deadline (TBD likely late February). You can use this page to find contact information for your own elected representatives.

The bill comes to hearing on Tuesday, June 22, 2021! 

HISTORIC ACCOUNT

‘An Act to save recycling costs in the Commonwealth’ has been filed for the 2021-2022 MA legislative session under the docket numbers HD.1553 and SD.1123 (for the equivalent House and Senate versions, respectively). A one-page summary of this bill, including its key provisions and details on how it will achieve its goals, can be found here.

The legislation aims to reduce single-use plastic and other packaging and improve recycling by advancing the ‘polluter pays’ system of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). It does so by requiring producers to develop and implement a comprehensive plan approved and enforced by the Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) – with feedback from a multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee –to increase recovery of covered materials over a series of milestones to 100% by 2035.

The plan must incorporate a fee schedule set by MassDEP based on the types and amounts of materials producers generate. The fees will be designed to fully reimburse school and residential waste collection costs, as well as those from program administration and enforcement. The fee schedule will also be structured to incentivize: 1) Reduction, reusability, and improved recyclability of materials, 2) Less toxic material choices, 3) Avoidance of disproportionate impacts on Environmental Justice and other disadvantaged communities, and 4) Domestic processing of materials.

This bill is being championed by our friends at the Conservation Law Foundation and the South Shore Recycling Cooperative with our support and with the support of many local non-profit and municipal organizations, including The City of Boston, Clean Water Action, Environment Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Municipal Association, MassPIRG, and others.

Stay tuned for more information and reach out to campaigns@ma.surfrider.org to engage directly in our work to support this bill.