Address concerns over consumer products and packaging through encouragement/implementation of one or more of:
Best Practice of this action
Rating Guideline
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Post the CoolClimate household-level consumption-based GHG calculator on a city solid waste/reuse/recycling page; education on reuse, recycling, organics collection for composting; public drinking fountains that encourage refilling water bottles; in-store recycling of thin plastic bags & sale of reusable bags; non-traditional recycling/collection for reuse (e.g., ink cartridges, shoes, batteries, clothes). |
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City ordinance on in-store fees on plastic & paper bags; credits for use of reusable bags. |
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City mandated recyclable/compostable egg cartons, to-go packaging; bans on plastic straws; county or city collection of clean Styrofoam from businesses and industry and use of a polystyrene densifier. |
Resources
- Learn more about how we make, use, and throw away stuff at the Story of Stuff project. For the best, most educational household-level consumption-based GHG calculator, suitable for posting on city waste management/reuse/recycling pages, see the CoolClimate Network carbon footprint page.
- Product stewardship means that all parties involved in designing, manufacturing, selling and using a product take responsibility for environmental impacts at every stage of that product's life. Cities, acting through their county, have played a role in state legislation requiring manufacturers to share in the financial and physical responsibility for collecting and recycling products - including electronics and paint - at the end of their useful lives. When manufacturers share the costs of recycling products, they have an incentive to use recycled materials in new products and design products to be less toxic and easier to recycle, incorporating environmental concerns into the earliest phases of product design.
- See for example the St. Louis Park Zero Waste Packaging ordinance of 2017 that mandates food establishments to place take-out food in packaging that can be recycled or composted. State law is evolving in this area and includes 2017 state legislation prohibiting cities (and a Minneapolis ordinance) from banning any type of bag — paper, plastic or reusable.
- During 2019 Lyon County will be working with the city of Marshall to collect clean Styrofoam from businesses and industry and then prepare it for transport/recycling by use of a polystyrene densifier.
- Product Bans and Restrictions (MPCA: 2016) is a guide for local policy-makers and examines impacts of bonuses, fees or bans on the sale or distribution of specific products from an environmental perspective.
- NOTE: Under the Who's doing it section below, cities that have no star next to their entry are cities that entered, before 2018, an internal city operations recycling/composting action, which is now covered by BPA 22.1 and has been replaced by this current action on consumer products/packaging.
Sublist
a. Education on needless consumption, waste prevention and alternatives, including product stewardship / producer responsibility.
b. Reuse options.
c. Recycling / composting options.
d. Credits, fees.
e. Mandates, bans.
Order Number
2
Action Type
Finite