What I learned through my Environment Washington internship

Last September, I packed up a backpack and headed to the Washington Coast with some friends for a camping trip. We were excited to explore the beaches and forests surrounding our campsite. However, during our explorations, I could not ignore the abundance of plastic and garbage around the campsite and beaches. Seeing firsthand the impact of plastic on our beaches and in our forests, I was determined to battle plastic waste,  protect our ecosystems, and put wildlife over waste. That is why this past legislative session, I interned with Environment Washington, working on a campaign to reduce waste, improve recycling systems and create a producer-funded recycling system in Washington.

Throughout my internship, I became increasingly aware that effective recycling was not just dependent on me properly disposing of my waste or the collection and sorting systems that we’ve designed for municipal waste. It is also impacted by the sheer volume of waste we are producing and consuming as a society, and the types and materials used for packaging the products we buy in stores or online. Unfortunately, more and more, companies are using packaging materials that are not reusable, not compostable, and are difficult- if not impossible- to recycle.

Certain materials create inefficiencies in our recycling system, which can lead to higher operating expenses and costs for consumers. 

Among other factors, the proliferation of plastic and hard-to-manage packaging have made recycling systems more expensive for local governments to run, which have resulted in service cuts and increased costs of recycling for many Washington residents. So long as the companies that make decisions about packaging have no stake in the end-of-life costs of the materials they use for their products, there will be little incentive to lessen the environmental impacts of packaging design.  

This is one of the objectives of the Washington Recycling and Packaging Act, or the ReWRAP Act, which is the main policy that I worked on during my internship. The ReWRAP Act would implement a producer responsibility program for paper and packaging, making companies financially responsible for the collection and processing of Washington recyclables. Through passing and implementing this policy: 

• the costs of recycling would shift from Washington residents onto producers
• curbside recycling access would expand to anyone in Washington with curbside garbage collection
• Recycling rates could increase significantly, as has been the case in locations like British Columbia after they implemented producer-funded recycling models.

Since cities and counties are responsible for managing recycling systems in Washington, local government leaders across the state have seen firsthand the challenges that come with managing solid waste. That’s why more than 115 city and county councilmembers signed onto a letter supporting the establishment of producer responsibility for paper and packaging in Washington, and why elected official wrote op-eds, letters to the editor, and testified in support of the ReWRAP Act, which would have created such a program in Washington. Through my conversations with local elected officials, it became clear that they want to see this policy pass and are committed to reducing plastic waste, improving recycling, and establishing producer funded recycling in our state. 

The ReWRAP Act is a common sense policy that is broadly supported by local elected officials across the state. Producer responsibility for paper and plastic packaging is an important tool for reducing unnecessary plastic waste. I am hopeful that by passing this bill, the next time I’m backpacking the Washington Coast, I can focus on the gorgeous trees and shoreline, rather than the plastic and garbage flooding our environment.