[GreenYes] Europe and Producer Responsibility

["Peter Anderson" <anderson@no.address>]

According to the 1/13/03 Plastics News ("Materials vying to meet recycling
rules in Europe"):

    "Polyester is stepping up as a possible resin of choice for European
automakers seeking a single interiors material to ease recycling demands.

    "Polyolefins have been at the forefront of prospects, pushed in part by
pending European laws taht carmakers take responsibility for recycling more
of their vehicles at the end of a car's life."

    I mention this not out of any particular interest in which resin
ultimately triumphs as that "single interiors material," but rather out of
an intense interest at the enormous power of producer responsibility laws.

    Those laws put the producer in the same predicament as we have been all
these years. Dealing as we do most of the time with low value scrap, we can
ill-afford to engage in costly separation of different materials before
recycling, and now the auto industry is being forced to understand that
directly in their pocketbook as well.

    Very salutory.

                                                    Peter
______________________________
Peter Anderson
RECYCLEWORLDS CONSULTING Corp
4513 Vernon Blvd. Suite 15
Madison, WI 53705
Ph:    (608) 231-1100
Fax:   (608) 233-0011
Cell    (608) 438-9062
email: anderson@no.address