Reduce what you use, reuse what you can, recycle everything else. Many of us are familiar with the three Rs of waste management. The first two tenets are relatively straightforward, but the last involves far more than tossing items into the blue bin. As such, the conversation surrounding the three Rs of waste management has transformed significantly within the last decade, with both policymakers and influencers working to adapt to the ever-evolving market. Given the absence of a federal recycling law, state and local governments are responsible for their own requirements and have taken various actions to address the innumerable nuances of recycling in their own communities.
This toolkit provides a background into the issue of recycling, how states can work to revitalize their markets for recycled materials and explores the issue of extended producer responsibility. The links lead to webpages that explain each resource in detail.