Closed-loop Recycling and Take-back Program Definition

This question evoked some good comments from the Materials & Resources Technical Advisory Group. Here are a few of their insights: The behavior we are trying to incent is to have manufacturers demonstrate an “Extended Producer Responsibility” by developing an infrastructure and the technology to take back and reuse/recycle their products (and competitor products in the category). The objective is to reduce the use of virgin material in the initial manufacture process. The cost to develop the take back infrastructure and to effectively develop technical recovery processes must be incented and rewarded so that those manufacturers truly change their process and show leadership in “mining the urban environment” This language is designed to provide the marketplace pull for these leadership behaviors. The intent of the credit is to encourage post-consumer recycling, that is, recycling after the use phase. Over the public comment periods, the credit language would will be refined to make that intent more clear.