The Future of Packaging

CHAPTER 4

Who Is Responsible for Recycling Packaging?

Scott Cassel

Founder and CEO, Product Stewardship Institute

WE AMERICANS OFTEN TOSS PACKAGING IN THE TRASH without much thought. As stated previously, even though we are only 4.4 percent of the world’s population, we produce 20 percent of the world’s garbage; much of it is packaging and printed paper (PPP). Proportionally, that’s a lot. SEE 4.1

Everyone who touches packaging has a role to play in ensuring that its value is captured and that it doesn’t add to the world’s pollution. But who should be first in line to take financial responsibility? Is it the producers who make it, the retailers who sell it, or the cities where all of this takes place? Or is it, perhaps, the consumers who choose ...