Dive Brief:
- Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources will have new assistance in running the state’s EPR program for household hazardous waste thanks to a partnership with Reverse Logistics Group.
- RLG, an environmental and regulatory compliance company, will offer operational support by managing billing for manufacturers covered under the program. It will also help with sales data collection and other tasks, RLG said in a news release.
- ANR has been running the program itself because no industry-led organizations stepped in to manage as a PRO. The PRO support services are a new offering for RLG, which also provides EPR-related operations in other U.S. states and Canadian provinces. RLG is part of Reconomy, a circular economy and waste management company.
Dive Insight:
Vermont’s first-in-the-nation EPR for HHW law passed in 2023. It covers adhesives, lubricants, degreasers, aerosols, automotive chemicals, non-refillable propane cylinders and cleaning solutions. ANR determined in 2025 that it would need to run the program.
Several factors contributed to ANR leading the HHW EPR program: The law covers a wide range of products, and there’s a lack of consolidated trade groups that cover those items, regulators have said. They hope the lack of PRO will be temporary.
A new state law, signed by Gov. Phil Scott in June, might encourage new PROs to step forward to help run the HHW EPR program in the future. A provision would allow the option for a group of manufacturers to form a PRO for a specific sub-section of products currently covered under the wide-ranging HHW EPR law, as long as those specific products are collected together.
Only one PRO would be allowed for each class of products, but the change would allow multiple PROs to help run the overall program in the future. That provision would go into effect in July 2027, and any resulting PRO plans could take effect on or before July 1, 2030.
ANR is seeking public comment on its draft EPR program plan through Sept. 10 and is hosting stakeholder meetings on Thursday and Friday.
In the meantime, RLG will help assist Vermont ANR with administrative and operational functions of the program, said Andriana Kontovrakis, RLG’s director of EPR solutions.
“States and organizations are being required to take on more complex producer responsibility requirements, and so having reliable billing, data management, producer engagement, and program administration are essential to building effective systems,” she said in a statement.
In addition to working with Vermont on its HHW program, RLG is also working on EPR-related operations in Connecticut, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Ontario, the company said. Those services range from producer engagement tasks and logistics coordination and supplier auditing.
“EPR laws often have incredibly complex regulations and requirements, and RLG has been working globally within these frameworks in dozens of regions to facilitate EPR programs,” said Brad Wright, RLG executive vice president for the Americas region, in a statement.
