City of Lansing EPR Resolution & Cover letter

President Ryan Kost

Lansing City Council

124 W. Michigan Ave.
Lansing, MI 48933

Dear Council President Kost: 

The Mayor’s Advisory Commission on Sustainability strongly urges the Lansing City Council to adopt the attached resolution to support an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging and paper products (PPP) in Michigan so that our communities are no longer unfairly forced to shoulder the burden of managing those materials and paying for needed recycling programs. The responsibilities of recycling must be shared with the producers of the packaging, who are in the best position to reduce waste in the design process.

Michigan is working to reach its goal of recycling 35% of our waste by 2029, but we can recycle much more than that. Like many communities, Lansing’s recycling program is struggling. The financial burden of managing greater volumes of diverse and challenging materials is only growing for the community. There is an effective solution to our recycling problems and two more states passed EPR for PPP laws in 2025, Maryland and Washington bringing the U.S. total to seven states. EPR for packaging is already effectively used across the world, including in Australia, Brazil, and Canada, all 28 countries in the EU, and Russia. These systems successfully shift costs of managing recycling from taxpayers to the producers and increase recycling rates to well over 50%. 

EPR in Michigan will make recycling: 

• More Effective: 

  • Producers of packaging materials would have a direct economic incentive to produce packaging that can more easily be managed by municipal recycling programs. 

  • Lansing would have economic support to maintain its robust recycling program.

• More Sustainable: EPR is an insurance policy for Michigan municipalities and connects these programs directly to end markets for the recycled material. Our current approach to recycling is not resilient to changes in the global recycling market. If costs rise unexpectedly or the market changes abruptly, we may be forced to stop or restrict our programs. 

• More Equitable: By internalizing the full lifecycle costs of products and packaging, we are assuring more equitable distribution impact costs. More and more disposable and wasteful packaging enters the market every day because producers have no incentive to design smarter, less wasteful packaging. 

We believe it is up to local communities to pass resolutions like this to let the current legislature know that this is an important issue for local communities all across the state. The mayor has already received our letter and recommendation and supports our request that city council consider the resolution. We welcome any questions from you as you consider this important issue.

Sincerely,

Randy Dykhuis

Chair, Mayor’s Advisory Commission on Sustainability

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WHEREAS, the City of Lansing is committed to reducing materials landfilled by diverting and capturing value from those materials, ultimately reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and

WHEREAS, product packaging, including plastic, glass, metals, paper, and cardboard constitutes approximately 30-40% of the materials managed by Lansing waste and recycling programs; and

WHEREAS, a wide variety of other materials, including but not limited to electronics, batteries, mercury switches, mattresses, carpet, and many other materials are problematic and often dangerous to manage at the end of their useful life; and

WHEREAS, Michigan taxpayers currently bear 100% of the costs and collectively already pay over $1 billion each year to finance the collection and management of this material through fragmented and increasingly expensive disposal and recycling options; and

WHEREAS, producers of products and packaging have little incentive to minimize the use of harmful additives, wasteful packaging, or increase access to recycling; and 

WHEREAS, there is no organized coordination between the producers of products, packaging, and the residents and municipalities that are responsible for disposing of or recycling these materials; and

WHEREAS, producers have taken some or all the responsibility for the management of post-consumer products and packaging in other parts of the world, including all European Union member states and five provinces in Canada, and as a result, have greatly increased recycling rates, expanded infrastructure investment, created jobs, and reduced taxpayer costs; and

WHEREAS, producers of products and packaging materials would have a direct economic incentive to produce less harmful and wasteful products and packaging and the shared responsibility between those who create the waste and those who manage the waste would foster recycling system improvements and enable greater participation in recycling across Michigan; and

WHEREAS, EPR laws for products and packaging assures safe and productive management programs such as recycling and composting are funded and stable event when global recycling markets are unfavorable; and

WHEREAS, Michigan’s counties, municipalities, and taxpayers are currently footing the bill for a problem of which they have little control; 

WHEREAS, Extended Producer Responsibility laws require producers to be bear some of the cost of end-of-life management for covered products and packaging and therefore, taxpayers will no longer be solely responsible for the cost of recycling or end-of-life management since the net costs of recycling or proper handling would be reimbursed or covered by producers, rather the lifecycle costs of the product and its packaging will be internalized and producers will be incentivized to produce less harmful and wasteful, more recyclable packaging; and

WHEREAS, EPR policies will help to achieve some of the goals of the City of Lansing’s Sustainability Action Plan and reduce the impacts of these products and packaging on the City and its residents; and

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, City of Lansing supports Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policies in Michigan.