With just weeks to go before the Trump administration begins taking office, the U.S. EPA released this long-awaited finalized strategy. It’s framed around six objectives throughout the plastics life cycle: reducing pollution from plastic production,...

This November, negotiators from more than 200 countries are due to convene in Busan, South Korea, to finalize a legally binding global agreement to end plastic pollution. While exact details of the United Nations Global...

The Government of Canada is establishing a Federal Plastics Registry (the Registry) as part of its comprehensive plan to achieve zero plastic waste by 2030. This initiative aims to improve plastic waste management through data...

The Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) is submitting these comments on the SB 54 Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act Regulations. The proposed regulations incorrectly characterize chemical recycling as hazardous waste management instead of...

On behalf of the undersigned organizations, thank you for hosting the topic-based consultation sessions over the past few months and providing the opportunity to offer input into the draft program plan proposal. Specifically, we are...

In October 2021, California enacted a law that continues to send tremors through the worlds of packaging and recycling. The measure amends the state’s Truth in Advertising Law by setting strict standards for claims that...

The year 2024 has been one of intensive regulatory activity related to extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging in the first four states with laws. By the end of the year, California, Colorado, Maine, and...

Let’s start with the unprecedented summer that is leading up to Election Day on November 5, 2024. President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump eventually led to the Democratic Party coalescing...

Each year in the United States, approximately 48 million people are affected by foodborne illnesses, resulting in some 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths, according to a report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)....

The Advocating for Sustainability Committee of the Emerging Leadership Council (ELC) of the Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) has been busy this year. Since 2023, the team restructured and is once again falling under a single...

The second webinar in a three-part series on packaging labeling requirements—“Legislative Pathways: State or Federal?”—will begin at 1 p.m. EST on October 29, 2024, and is sponsored by AMERIPEN—the American Institute for Packaging and the...

The undersigned entities (the “Coalition”) are appreciative of the opportunity to submit comments regarding California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery’s (“CalRecycle”) proposed revisions to the Senate Bill 54 (“SB 54”) permanent regulations. Together, the...

In two separate actions in September, California moved to ban single-use plastic bags at grocery stores and sued ExxonMobil over its claims about the recyclability of plastics. The ban on plastic bags at grocery stores...

A bipartisan bill was introduced in Congress this week that would spur numerous nationwide recycling improvements to increase the use of recycled material in packaging. Introduced by Reps. Larry Bucshon, R-Ind., and Don Davis D-N.C., the...

As part of its ongoing outreach and education program, the Emerging Leadership Council (ELC) of the Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) recently released a new video that explains how flexible packaging works with extended producer responsibility...

We, the undersigned, are writing to request your veto of Senate Bill 1053 (Blakespear), which will prohibit grocery stores from selling certified reusable polyethylene bags made with 40 percent post-consumer resin (PCR) at the point...

In our current economic model, we see a lot of waste and inefficiency. Products are designed, used, and then discarded, often creating environmental and economic burdens. The circular economy offers a solution by designing out...

Plastic bags at stores across California could soon become a relic of the past after lawmakers passed two bills that would expand the state’s existing single-use bag ban to include the “recyclable” alternative now used...

Even with 2024 being a short year for legislative sessions and the national elections taking center stage this November, some states felt the need to introduce legislation on extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging. Out of...

September kicks off the final legislative month before the November elections and both the House and Senate are scheduled to be in recess in October. Most of September will focus on efforts to keep the...

Wausau Coated Products Inc., has announced the appointment of Joe Zanon as chief operating officer (COO). He brings over two decades of manufacturing experience to the company. Zanon earned a bachelor’s degree from Michigan Technological...

If you were to ask extended producer responsibility (EPR) experts from other countries about the lessons they learned that could be applied to EPR programs in the United States, you would receive advice about working...

In continuing with the Biden-Harris Administration's goal to combat plastic pollution, on July 19, 2024, the Interagency Policy Committee on Plastic Pollution and a Circular Economy (IPC)1 released a new joint strategy to tackle plastic...

The Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) is submitting in response to the Department of Environmental Quality’s Plastic Pollution & Recycling Modernization Act Second Rulemaking, which aims to implement the extended producer responsibility (EPR) program outlined in...

Just one packaging EPR bill has made it across the finish line so far in 2024, but stakeholders say they’re still learning lessons about refining producer definitions, compromise and more as such bills have become...

As we hit a midpoint in the state legislative year, various proposals have taken shape. With elections in November, states are feeling pressure to pass legislation on packaging. A continued concern exists about plastic pollution...

The kickoff of FlexPAC™, the political action committee (PAC) for the Flexible Packaging Association (FPA), and its inaugural event at FPA’s annual meeting were huge successes. To reach the flexible packaging industry’s legislative and regulatory...

The federal government is responsible for developing and enforcing workforce and regulatory policies. As a reminder, Congress makes the laws, and the administration implements and enforces policies around workforce policies. In April 2024, the U.S. House...