last modified: March 22, 2019
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Upper Midwest Beverage Container
Take-Back Campaign

Introduction:  
The GrassRoots Recycling Network starts 2003 with new resources to explore the possibility of state initiatives that embrace the concepts of producer responsibility for beverage container waste. Our campaign aims to enact effective statewide legislation in both Wisconsin and Minnesota where producers are financially responsible for recovering, for re-use or recycling, 80 percent or more of the beverage containers sold in those states.

After developing a policy to accomplish that objective, we will craft and execute grassroots campaigns to build support for legislation embracing the policy in those states. Like other producer responsibility campaigns, we anticipate broad support - environmentalists, students, local governments, and more.

The first step toward enacting producer responsibility legislation in Wisconsin and Minnesota is to develop an effective policy that will accomplish that objective. The stages of policy development include scoping interviews with key solid waste professionals across the state, a statewide multi-stakeholder roundtable discussion designed to identify the key elements of an effective policy premised on producer responsibility, and continual input and engagement of various stakeholders in policy creation and refinement.

• Wisconsin Campaign Development Briefing Paper
• Wisconsin Roundtable Program Agenda
• Notes from the Wisconsin Roundtable
• Participants List [password required]
  • To protect our participants from email harvesters, you must have a user name and password to access this list.

Minnesota [top]
In a state where traditional bottle deposit systems have been a recurring political issue, we have approached policy development a little differently. Scoping interviews with key solid waste professionals were followed by an educational forum on beverage producer responsibility. The forum was designed to expose various stakeholders to alternative redemption systems in preparation for participation in the policy development process. Click below to learn more about information shared at the forum.

• Minnesota Forum Program Agenda
• Summary of Presentations: Key Findings
• The Current State of Beverage Container Recycling in Minnesota [text summary]
  • Garth Hickle – Product Stewardship Team Leader, MOEA
• Beverage Producer Responsibility: Overview, Applications, and New Research [html slide show]
  • David Wood – Co-Director, GrassRoots Recycling Network [text summary]
• The California Redemption System [html slide show]
  • Darryl Young – Director, California Department of Conservation [text summary]
• The Alberta Bottle Depot Association: Representing an Industry [html slide show]
  • Jeff Linton – Executive Director, Alberta Depot Association [text summary]
    

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