In the News
Vermont Proposes Law to Mandate Recycled Content in Plastic Packaging
Jan 28, 2010
On January 5, 2010, Senator Claire Ayer (D-Addison) introduced Vermont bill S.201, which would prohibit the sale of retail packaged products in non-recycled plastic packages. Critically, the Vermont bill goes further than minimum recycled content laws in various states that require 25 percent recycled content in rigid plastic containers. Following in Wisconsin's footsteps, the Vermont bill would require all plastic containers, whether rigid, flexible or film to be either composed of no less than 25 percent recycled materials or have a recycling rate of at least 25 percent in Vermont. A "plastic container" would be defined as "any package composed primarily of plastic resin that is used to hold, protect, or display a product intended for retail sale and that has a maximum capacity of five gallons."
Exemptions include:
- plastic containers for which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved the use of recycled material in the packaging under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act,
- containers holding toxic materials as identified by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, and
- certain containers used to ship hazardous materials.
S. 201 is based in part on Wisconsin's Plastic Container Recycled Content law, but the Wisconsin law only requires 10 percent recycled content. A proposal to raise Wisconsin's minimum content requirement to 25 percent failed to pass the State Senate in 1999. A similar bill was also proposed in New Jersey in 2005, but never went beyond the Senate Environment Committee.
The proposed Vermont bill was read for the first time and sent to the Committee on Natural Resources and Energy on January 5. It would take effect January 1, 2012, if passed.
A full copy of the proposed bill can be found at: http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2010/bills/intro/S-201.pdf.