Across North America, an unrecognized labor force is cleaning up communities, reducing municipal costs, raising recycling rates — and has potential to raise return rates for reusables, too.

State legislation such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Deposit Return Systems (DRS) must focus on transitioning to a circular economy that prioritizes reuse. (Updated January 2026).

How do we get producers affected by EPR packaging laws to focus on reuse? By baking funding, requirements, and incentives for reuse directly into the law. Here’s how it’s done.

With big brands signaling support for extended producer responsibility (EPR), deposit-return systems (DRS), and – most recently – reuse/refill, opportunities have opened up to pass policies and build infrastructure to transform how we consume products. But with these commitments come competing ideas around vision, strategies and tactics – and about which policies should come first, and which should follow.