Resolution on Packaging and the Municipal Solid Waste Stream Exposed

The Resolution on Packaging and the Municipal Solid Waste Stream was adopted by the ALEC Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force and was included in ALEC's 1995 Sourcebook of American State Legislation. According to ALEC.org, the Resolution was approved by the Board of Directors in 1995 and re-approved on January 28, 2013. (Accessed on 6/26/2015).

CMD's Bill Summary

This Resolution expresses opposition to waste reduction and mandated recycling laws, including regulations on packaging (such as Styrofoam restrictions). McDonalds, a former member of ALEC, faced a great deal of criticism in the early 1990s for its Styrofoam and other packaging. This bill favors a free-market, voluntary approach to reducing waste rather than government regulations.

ALEC Resolution Text

Summary

ALEC’s model Resolution on Packaging and the Municipal Solid Waste Stream calls for free-market incentives and solutions to be integrated in solid waste policies. Key components to the Resolution include: recycling and source reduction.

Model Resolution

WHEREAS, members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) recognize the importance of effective and integrated solid waste management policies and programs; and

WHEREAS, all benefits of a package, including energy conservation, safety, nutrition and composition are important, a recognized key step in achieving effective integrated solid waste management policies and programs is reducing the amount of material at its source to ensure less waste is going into the municipal solid waste stream; and

WHEREAS, there is increasing evidence that packaging manufacturers, as exemplified by those who manufacture ultra-light aseptic packaging, have demonstrated that market-driven economic and technological incentives will create efficient packaging, as well as packaging disposal capabilities; and

WHEREAS, these steps are being taken without diminishment of the safe, quality, value and efficient distribution of food in the United States; and

WHEREAS, these steps in the reduction of packaging waste and the development of recycling and disposal technologies have come about because of the demands of the marketplace rather than by inefficient and interfering government mandates or restrictions; and

WHEREAS, ALEC strongly believes that government restrictions, prohibitions or taxes on consumer packaging and solid waste will create barriers rather than incentives to reducing the solid waste stream and will inhibit the very technological advances which manufacturers seek to enable them to create source reduced and recycled packaging and remain competitive in the marketplace;

NOW, THEREFORE LET IT BE RESOLVED, that ALEC officially expresses its support for local, state and federal policies including recognition of the effective use of minimal packaging materials, public/private partnerships for recycling, and the evolving market-driven technologies which can make substantial contributions to meeting our solid waste disposal needs; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that ALEC discourages any legislation regarding solid waste and packaging policies which would create government carriers to, and interference with free-market incentives and solutions, and which create special requirements for recycling, recycled content and related solid waste disposal techniques, to the detriment of source reduction, advanced technology and market-driven solutions; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that copies of this resolution be transmitted to all ALEC members and other interested persons.

ALEC's Sourcebook of American State Legislation 1995