This op-ed by Partnership CEO was originally published in Waste Dive on June 8, 2017.
The Tide is Turning. Environmental Preservation is Now Everyone’s Responsibility
Editor’s Note: This piece was written by The Recycling Partnership CEO Keefe Harrison, a 19-year veteran of the waste and recycling industry. The opinions represented in this piece are independent of Waste Dive’s views.
With this week’s Paris Climate Accord withdrawal, the federal government, which was the first entity to create environmental regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the use of landfills, is now working to reverse course on these policies. While at the same time, the retail industry is committing to sustainable packaging goals and funding recycling operations. It’s been a fascinating, troubling, and confusing year for those who watch environmental health and conservation issues closely.
Emotions aside, it is becoming increasingly apparent that preserving the environment is becoming the responsibility of everyone: the government, the public, nonprofits and businesses. The tide is turning. Private individuals and business are now interested in taking a proactive role, and that’s a good thing.
“It’s been a fascinating, troubling, and confusing year for those who watch environmental health and conservation issues closely.” Keefe Harrison, CEO, The Recycling Partnership
Recycling is among the many environmental issues that the government, the public, and business are working on together. It’s easy to assume that recycling is everywhere, however recent research shows that only 53% of the U.S. population has recycling automatically provided at their home. Of those homes, only 44% are served by recycling carts, which is the most effective way of recycling. This is a huge miss for the environment because recycling is one of the most efficient ways to reduce our country’s greenhouse gas production.
It is encouraging to see businesses volunteering to financially support the improvement of recycling efforts in cities and towns across the country. More than 30 companies to date are behind The Recycling Partnership’s work to improve recycling in more than 250 communities. What’s more, innovative companies are creating and committing to their own sustainability goals. Last month, Target set sustainability goals, which, over the next five years include: sourcing its own brand paper-based packaging from sustainably managed forests, eliminating expanded polystyrene from its brand packaging, adding the How2Recycle label to its packaging, creating more demand for recycled packaging, and working to fund improved recycling operations and education in cities and towns across the country.
This is great news and we hope many more retailers will follow suit. Good recycling is not just turning used materials into new, reusable materials; it is about creating packaging from materials that can be recycled in the first place. Creating recyclable packaging is good for business and brand perception. Sustainable companies do not want to produce packaging that, if not recyclable, can easily end up becoming branded trash, reminding the public that their company is contributing to the landfill and litter problem. For this reason, packaging can be a brand asset or a brand liability. On the flip side, sustainable packaging ensures that papers, cans, boxes and containers are called back into duty, which is well aligned with American values.