North America contains two of the world’s top per-capita producers of municipal solid waste, with U.S. waste generation alone exceeding 290 million tons annually – almost 12 percent of global waste.

Despite decades of curbside collection programs, recycling and composting rates in the U.S. and Canada continue to hover around 25 to 35 percent, leaving hundreds of millions of tons sent for disposal in landfills or incinerators. Significant quantities of recyclable materials are landfilled each year due to contamination, limited processing capacity and weak end-market demand.

Policy responses are emerging but remain uneven, with a handful of U.S. states and nearly all Canadian provinces having adopted Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws that shift financial responsibility for packaging waste from consumers to producers. Notably, California’s SB54 requires 65 percent of single-use packaging to be recycled by 2032 and mandates a 25 percent reduction in plastic packaging produced overall.

However, despite these laws, the path to meet these ambitious targets is still uncertain, with some applications (particularly plastic films and flexibles) having limited proven end-market applications.