Home » About Us

History & Achievements

PPI’s inception was inspired by activities in British Columbia, but PPI has grown up in the United States and focuses its work here.

 

Our Achievements

  • Post Carbon Reader2010 – Book chapter from the Post Carbon Reader - Climate Change, Peak Oil and the End of Waste by Bill Sheehan and Helen Spiegelman (2010)
  • 2009 – A white paper by Joshua Stolaroff, PhD - Products, Packaging and US Greenhouse Gas Emissions (September 2010);  PPI was the catalyst for the formation of the New York Product Stewardship Council. 
  • 2008 – PPI was the catalyst for the formation of the Vermont Product Stewardship Council and Texas Product Stewardship Council. PPI created and manages websites for both Councils. 
  • 2007 – The California Integrated Waste Management Board adopted a Strategic Directive on Producer Responsibility (Feb 13, 2007); and an EPR Framework Policy (Sept 2007) and Checklist with input from PPI and CPSC.  
  • 2006  – PPI is catalyst for launching the California Product Stewardship Council
    (CPSC).  EPR Framework was one of the priorities and goals set at the
    Nov 2006 CPSC retreat in Oakland and model framework legislation was
    developed by Sego Jackson and posted on the CPSC website (which PPI
    created and managed until 2008).  Led by local governments, California
    became the first U.S. state in which local and state government
    officials embraced the term EPR. 
  • 2005, March – PPI Board sets strategy of organizing local government Councils and replicating the Northwest Product Stewardship Council
    in other states, starting with California.  Two PPI board members
    (Sego Jackson and David Stitzhal) were founding members of NWPSC (in
    1998).
  • Unintended Consequences2005 – Unintended Consequences: Municipal Solid Waste Management and the Throwaway Society,
    by Helen Spiegelman & Bill Sheehan.  PPI report established the
    role of local government waste management in enabling the production of
    disposable and toxic products and packaging, and in the power of local
    government to effect waste reduction by withdrawing this enabling
    support to producers and consumers.
  • 2004 – “Extended Producer Responsibility Policies in the United States and Canada: History and Status,”
    by Bill Sheehan and Helen Spiegelman; chapter in Governance of
    Integrated Product Policy: In Search of Sustainable Production and
    Consumption, Edited by Dirk Scheer and Frieder Rubik, Greenleaf
    Publishing.  Highlighted the rise of legislative approaches to EPR in
    Canada and voluntary initiatives in the U.S.

PPI Compass RoseWhy the Compass? The Product Policy Institute believes that the proper role of government is setting and enforcing performance standards in the public interest (True North), rather than providing detailed solutions (Maps). Principles on which governments should base standards for sustainable industry performance include producer responsibility, polluter pays and precaution.

 

History: Our Origins

  • 1992 – Helen Spiegelman started writing about Germany’s new Extended Producer Responsibility programs for the Recycling Council of British Columbia’s (RBRC)
    newsletter. She continued to write about EPR over the next six years
    as British Columbia adopted landmark regulations and expanded “industry
    product stewardship” programs. RCBC played a critical role, through
    its quarterly newsletters and annual conferences, in informing local
    governments about the benefits of industry product stewardship.
  • 1997 – GrassRoots Recycling Network developed Model Producer Responsibility Resolution.  Bill Sheehan was co-founder and executive director.  The Producer Responsibility resolution was adopted by Carrboro NC;
    the resolution concept was adopted by Clean Water Action & John
    McNabb who got more than 170 Massachusetts towns to adopt producer
    responsibility resolutions.
  • 2002 – British Columbia Industry Product Stewardship Business Plan
    was issued.  It provided a "vision and policy framework" for industry
    product stewardship. There followed extensive public consultation and
    the publication of an Intentions Paper in September 2003 that outlined a
    "single regulation for BC's industry product stewardship (IPS)
    programs."
  • 2002-2003 – US-Canada EPR Working Group formed by Bill Sheehan and Canadian Beverly Thorpe (Clean Production Action, author of EPR Tool Kit).  Meeting
    of 30 key North American NGOs (including Sheehan, Spiegelman and Sego
    Jackson) in Buffalo NY in June 2003 to agree on principles; produced EPR Working Group Essential Elements of an Effective EPR Program,
    which drew from British Columbia’s Industry Product Stewardship
    Business Plan and Computer TakeBack Coalition’s EPR Legislative
    Principles for electronic waste.
  • 2003 – Product Policy Institute was co-founded by Bill Sheehan and Helen Spiegelman. Emphasis on the US-Canada EPR Working Group’s Essential Elements, British Columbia Business Plan principles, and BC’s framework approach.