Balancing the scales
New Hampshire is facing a critical solid waste crisis, driven by rapidly filling landfills and a mountain of toxic corperate packaging. To protect our state’s natural landscape, we must change how we view waste.
Right now, our system is ecologically and financially broken. Corporations utilize public roads to deliver products, pocket profits and leave proprty owners to foot 100% of the municipal landfill bills. Furthermore, consumers are told to recycle, but we cannot recycle what manufacturers deliberatly design to be thrown away — like multi-layered plastic and styrofoam. Manufacturing and sellling goods in our communities is a privilege, and it must carry the responsibility of managing a product’s full lifecycle footprint.
New Hampshire needs a two-pronged solution to align our waste system with the natural lifecycles of the Earth.
First, Lawmakers must pass an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework. This forces corperate manufacturers to fund our local municipal recycling infrastructure, financially incentivizing them to design non-toxic, truly sustainable packaging.
Second we must pair EPR with a 10-cent beverage container deposit law. This gives consumers direct accountability,creating clear incentive to ensure materials end up in the right recovery streams rather than polluting our forest or dangerously incinerated. True stewardship requires a balanced equation: corperations must design and fund the system, and consumers must do their part to sort it.