There are really three major items.
First, there is an expansion of extended producer responsibility laws to transfer the legal, financial and operational responsibility back to the actors in the chain that have the most influence, and those would be the manufacturers, brand holders, designers and sellers. However, we've only been able to tackle that in a Canadian context for very specific product lines, such as the plastics that are part of electronics.
When we think of plastics, we often only think about packaging, which represents about 30% of all plastics sold in the marketplace, based on the data that we have. EPR has really done some great things that relate to very narrow product categories, such as electronics and packaging, but there are all kinds of plastic products in the marketplace that at this point are not covered under EPR.
Second, we need to minimize, reduce, and eliminate single use. We know that one-use products are not sustainable in any way, shape or form, either environmentally or economically.
Third, government, in particular, should be using its buying power to create a demand for post-consumer recycling specifications.