NERC Releases Revised Model Glass Minimum Post-Consumer Recycled Content Legislation

February 16, 2023

A revised Glass Minimum Post-Consumer Recycled Content Model Legislation has been published by the Northeast Recycling Council (NERC). A subcommittee of the original stakeholders’ group revised the original version of the Model Legislation.


“The revisions to the Model Legislation provide greater flexibility for policymakers looking at available markets and glass manufacturing activity, and will allow glass recycling to move forward based on what works best in a given region or specific state,” said Chris Nelson, Director of Sustainable Materials Management Planning & Implementation with the CT Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP), NERC Board Member, and Co-facilitator of the Model Legislation Stakeholder Process.


The primary revision to the Model Legislation includes a concept of a credit towards the post-consumer recycled content requirement for products manufactured and/or sold by glass bottle and fiberglass manufacturers in a given year. The credit is based on the amount of post-consumer recycled glass consumed by other end uses that have demonstrated a climate benefit equal to or greater than that of recycling glass in a furnace—pozzolan, foamed glass aggregate, and other saleable products. 


The Model Legislation is intended to be used by legislators as a starting point for creating legislation that would require the use of post-consumer cullet—glass that has been processed to remove contaminants and is furnace ready—in certain products manufactured and/or sold in their state. According to Megan Fontes, NERC’s Executive Director, “The Model Legislation is one tool for building post-consumer glass markets. It is intended to be used with other legislative and non-legislative tools as part of a comprehensive strategy.”


The main goals of the Model Legislation are to incentivize markets for recycled glass, improve the economics of recovering glass, and reduce the environmental impact of manufacturing. The Model Legislation promotes the expanded use of post-consumer cullet in manufacturing new products, motivates development of markets for post-consumer cullet, and reduces the amount of glass that would be treated as waste.

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By Recycled Materials Association July 29, 2025
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By Chaz Miller June 30, 2025
Recycling coordinators know that some people and locations are stubbornly indifferent to recycling. COVID has ruptured civic values and behavior. Creating a recycling culture is harder than ever. Producers know how to sell their products. Now they need to learn how to sell recycling. On July 1, Oregon’s packaging and paper extended producer responsibility (EPR) program begins operating. This will be a first in our country. “Producers”, instead of local governments or private citizens, will be paying to recycle packages and paper products. Colorado’s program begins operating early in 2026. For years we have heard the theory of how packaging EPR will work. At last, we will get results. Five other states also have laws. Their programs should all be operating by 2030. None of the state laws have identical requirements. The Circular Action Alliance, the “producer responsibility organization” responsible for managing the program in most of those states, knows it has a lot on its plate. EPR laws are not new to the U.S. Thirty-two states already have laws that cover a wide variety of products such as electronics, paint, mattresses, batteries, etc. Those laws are relatively simple. Most cover one product. The producer group is a small number of companies. Goals and programs are focused and narrow. They are a mixed bag of success and failure. Packaging EPR is far more complex. The number of covered products is way higher. Thousands of companies are paying for these programs. Goals are challenging. Some are impossible to meet. In addition, local governments treat recycling as a normal service. Their residents will still call them if their recyclables aren’t picked up. It probably hasn’t helped that advocates tout EPR as the solution for recycling’s problems. We are told we will have more collection and better processing with higher recycling rates. Markets will improve and even stabilize. Some of this will happen, but not all. Collection and processing should go smoothly in Oregon. The state has high expectations for recycling. I have no doubt recycling will increase. Collection programs will blanket the state, giving more households the opportunity to recycle. I’m not sure, though, how much of an increase we will see. Recycling coordinators know that some people and locations are stubbornly indifferent to recycling. COVID has ruptured civic values and behavior. Creating a recycling culture is harder than ever. Producers know how to sell their products. Now they need to learn how to sell recycling. Another challenge is the “responsible end market” requirements. You’ve probably seen pictures of overseas dumps created by unscrupulous or just naïve plastics “recyclers”. In response, Oregon and the other states are requiring sellers and end markets to prove they are “responsible”. They must provide information about who and where they are, how they operate, how much was actually recycled, and more. 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