Packaging waste has hit epidemic proportions in this country. It’s not rare to see individual oranges wrapped in plastic containers at local food stores. Plastic waste is growing by around 4% per year, while recycling rates are decreasing.

We used to ship excess plastic to China (which itself isn’t a great solution), but they’ve recently banned the importing of plastic waste. This is resulting in overflowing landfills and the shipment of waste plastic to countries that aren’t equipped to deal with it, so they respond mostly by dumping it into the ocean or other waterways.

We need to pass a national extended producer responsibility bill, or find a way to shift the costs of disposing of these materials onto the manufacturers. If they pass the cost on to the consumers, each of us can make an informed decision about whether we really want to pay for the amount of packaging that producers are currently using for their goods.