From Waste News, Dec. 23, 2002 Letter to the Editor THE PRODUCER'S CASH Waste News and other national media recently carried the story of a California community that launched the nation´s first diaper recycling program ["City changing diaper disposal," Nov. 25]. The City of Santa Clarita, Calif., announced the program on Nov. 8. The GrassRoots Recycling Network applauds efforts to recycle diapers. However, we believe we are also missing a golden opportunity to fundamentally change the way waste issues are addressed. State and local taxpayers are putting up $500,000 for this demonstration project. The recycling company is putting up $20,000. And diaper makers are putting up exactly zero. Why should diaper recycling be a municipal responsibility? And why should taxpayers finance this project, instead of the brand owners who make and profit from the product? Cleaning up after industry is an open prescription for more disposable, hard-to- recycle products at an ever-increasing cost to taxpayers. The most effective resolution to this and other recycling and waste management challenges employs a principle gaining widespread acceptance in industrialized nations around the world. Called extended producer responsibility or producer take-back, the principle assigns to manufacturers the responsibility for the environmental impacts of their products throughout the product´s life cycle, including at the end of life. The focus is on producers because they have the greatest ability to reduce product environmental impacts through redesign. Producer take-back is being used to good effect to curb waste of many products, including computers, beverage containers, general packaging, automobiles and pesticides -- all at no expense to taxpayers. As communities we can be truly innovative while doing the right thing by saying to diaper producers: "If you want to sell your products in our community, you must pay for a system to take them back and reuse or recycle them. You´ll have two years to set up the system (which you can do yourself or pay someone else to do), and then we´ll ban them from our waste management system. Only those producers who have a take-back system can sell their products here after that." Anne Morse, President GrassRoots Recycling Network [Waste News is a good news source and good value. Subscription info at http://www.wastenews.com/subscribe.html ] ****************************************** To post to the greenyes list, email to: greenyes@grrn.org subscription, faq and netiquette info for this list are available here: http://greenyes.grrn.org/ Please be sure to read the faq and netiquette pages before posting. ******************************************