Why nearly half of Americans lack recycling ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

[Image alt text: As You Sow® banner with logo, image of mountains and a lake, and text saying: The nation’s leading non-profit shareholder advocate, with a 30+ year track record of changing corporations for good] < [link removed] > Dear John,

As we enter 2024, I want to begin by saying thank you. Thank you for being a part of the powerful community that makes this work possible. Your generosity and dedication made 2023 an incredible year, and we’re starting 2024 strong, thanks to you.

I’d like to start the year by offering a recent blog post < [link removed] > from As You Sow’s Circular Economy Manager, Kelly McBee. In it, Kelly explores why nearly half of all Americans lack recycling, and why corporations must be an integral part of the solution.Here are some excerpts from Kelly’s blog post:

A colleague recently visited Marietta, Georgia for her son’s baseball tournament only to feel, in her words, “despair and dismay” at the mounds of empty Gatorade bottles guzzled by her son’s team that couldn’t be recycled as there were no bins around the baseball diamonds. Determined not to landfill the dozens of bottles, she bundled them up and thought that, surely, if she looked hard enough, she would find a recycling bin. She hauled those bottles all over town and was not able to find anywhere to recycle them.

U.S. recycling systems rely on an outdated funding model that has left much of the country with under-operational or even absent recycling operations. The vast majority of recycling infrastructure in the U.S. is entirely funded by regional taxpayer dollars. This puts recycling infrastructure in high competition with other public services — like education and public safety. As a result, 40% of Americans lack equitable access to recycling (“equitable access” means recycling as accessible as landfilling).

[Image alt text: Plastic bottles]

As You Sow believes the solution is Extended Producer Responsibility. EPR means that corporations take financial responsibility for collecting and recycling their packaging at its end-of-life. Mandated EPR policies are gaining ground across the U.S., with the adoption of new laws in Maine, Oregon, Colorado, and California. At the federal level, EPR legislation has repeatedly been introduced.

[Image alt text: Woman picking up bottles on the beach]

After years of engaging companies in dialogue on this topic, As You Sow is now escalating to formal shareholder resolutions with companies that do not have a public statement of support for EPR or do not financially support recycling infrastructure. We filed our first EPR resolution with Constellation Brands for the 2023 season and earned support from 25% of shareholders. We’ve now filed resolutions with Hormel and Tyson for 2024.

To universalize recycling, tackle plastic pollution, preserve natural resources, and create a circular economy, companies must extend their perceived responsibility past the point of sale through to the end-of-life of their packaging. Thank you for being the force behind our work to make Extended Producer Responsibility a reality. All our corporate dialogues and all the research in our reports is possible only because of people like you.

Together, we continue to move corporations towards a future we can believe in.

For a world without plastic waste, [Image alt text: Photo of Jenna Belisle] Jenna L. Belisle

Director of Individual Giving

PS: In recent years we have published Corporate Plastic Pollution Scorecards < [link removed] > ranking companies, in part, by their efforts to support EPR. Look for our next Scorecard in Spring 2024.

Donate < [link removed] >

As You Sow’s 30+ year track record promoting corporate responsibility spans a broad range of the most important environmental and social issues facing corporations, investors, and citizens today, including climate change, ocean plastics, pesticides, racial justice, workplace diversity, and executive compensation. < [link removed] > < [link removed] > < [link removed] > < [link removed] >

As You Sow

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DISCLAIMER: As You Sow is not an investment advisor, nor do we provide financial planning, legal or tax advice. The content of our programming, publications and presentations is provided for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered as information sufficient upon which to base any decisions on investing, purchases, sales, trades, or any other investment transactions. We do not express an opinion on the future or expected value of any security or other interest and do not explicitly or implicitly recommend or suggest an investment strategy of any kind.

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