AMERIPEN

As his tenure as Board President ends, we’d like to thank Sonoco’s Scott Byrne for his efforts in guiding our association forward. AMERIPEN has experienced record growth and engagement over the past year, in no small part due to Scott’s vision and leadership. Thank you so much for donating your time and talents to help us achieve our lofty goals!

This week, our team headed west to Sacramento to meet with legislators and CalRecycle in support of AMERIPEN’s advocacy and regulatory work on a number of priorities, including EPR implementation and labeling. With a patchwork of policy being proposed across states every day, AMERIPEN aims to unify legislation and regulation to make compliance easy and effective.

With the dust almost settled from last month’s Annual Summit, we’d be remiss to not thank our dedicated staff who made this event and all our other programs happen. Dan Felton, Rob Keith, and Kyla Fisher are all industry leaders in their own right, and we’re incredibly lucky to have them on our team. Thank you all for your tireless efforts in service of our collective cause!

As you may have heard, AMERIPEN recently hit 100 members joining us to promote sustainability across the packaging value chain – and then we blew by that number with seven additional new members! Don’t miss out on joining one of the fastest-growing and highest value packaging associations. More information on membership is available here: https://bit.ly/3y2xreX

On Wednesday, our team visited Albany to oppose unworkable EPR legislation currently under consideration and advocate on behalf of a more balanced alternative. As states continue to explore sustainable packaging policy, AMERIPEN will be there every step of the way to ensure our members’ concerns are heard.

Only two weeks until the next session in our EPR webinar series! Many states have required needs assessments which are just starting to be completed. Join us in a discussion on key findings, and what this data means for eco-modulation, fee-setting, investments needs and other program elements. More information and registration are available here: https://bit.ly/3vOXaGG

In honor of #ArthritisAwarenessMonth, we'd like to celebrate a new initiative developed by our partners at the Arthritis Foundation: all-new Ease of Use design guides and certifications for packaging! As Arthritis Foundation President & CEO Steven Taylor remarks, "Our collaboration [with Target] is leading the way and driving innovation on product and package designs which will offer more in market options to help people with chronic pain or limited mobility - and all families - say yes to the joy of everyday life." Read the full announcement here: https://lnkd.in/eEhtpFfE

AMERIPEN Executive Director Dan Felton recently wrote a great article for Packaging Strategies Magazine on the need for national guidelines in labeling and recyclability. The federal government can play a transformative role in improving packaging recycling rates by endorsing national standards. Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/4d7ZWYJ

With our Annual Summit in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to get back to work on implementing our new strategic plan initiatives! If you’re curious on our plans for the remainder of 2024 and beyond, you can read up on our recently released 2024-27 strategic plan here: https://bit.ly/4cEjJ1Y

Even though our Annual Summit just ended, we’re looking forward to the fourth session in our EPR webinar series! On May 22, we’ll gather to discuss learnings from needs assessments. If the objective of EPR is to help drive innovation and investment into the packaging recovery system, having a baseline understanding of the system and its needs will help inform how fees are spent efficiently to help meet program goals. More information and registration are available here: https://bit.ly/3vOXaGG