Following the passage of bills such as Washington’s SB 5284, which established a baseline EPR scheme for producers of packaging and paper products, staff at Cascadia saw an opportunity to leverage the firm’s historical findings throughout Washington, Oregon, and California and offer a data-driven perspective on statewide recycling contamination trends. Cascadia staff Amanda Savagian, Julie Cerenzia, and Kirstin Hervin, who specialize in waste research and analysis, developed a presentation unpacking these findings for the Northern California Recycling Association (NRCA) March 2025 conference, the Washington State Recycling Association (WSRA) May 2025 conference, and the California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA) August 2025 conference.
These presentations primarily focused on recent statewide outbound studies in CA, WA, and OR—and were designed to engage diverse local government representatives, haulers, processors, consultants, and businesses through these talks, delivering a concise yet detailed summary of how Cascadia conducts outbound studies and the need for robust outbound contamination and composition data under EPR.
They highlighted states’ specific contamination challenges and drew connections to recycling policies including California’s single-use plastic source reduction target under SB 54, bottle bills in California and Oregon, post-consumer recycled content minimums, and producer-funded infrastructure investment and end-market development under EPR. The sessions addressed a notable lack of cross-study comparisons and highlighted the benefit of leveraging data across states with different recycling and EPR policies to identify trends and opportunities—presenting the ‘most unwanted’ materials mis-sorted into fiber, plastic, and metal commodity bales as a primary takeaway.
The NCRA, CRRA, and WSRA conferences featured municipal leaders, policy experts, and diverse narratives from medical workers and arts organizations. Cascadia’s program was one of many inspiring sessions at both conferences, and we are honored to bring staff with high expertise into these critical conversations about regional waste strategy.
