Assessing the Greenhouse Gas Savings Potential of Extended Producer Responsibility for Mattresses and Boxsprings in the United States

• DOI: 10.1111/jiec.12313
• Publication Date: 2015-08-06T21:38:22Z
• Authors: Roland Geyer; Brandon Kuczenski; Matthew Trujillo
• Keywords: Extended producer responsibility; Industrial Ecology

Summary Extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation in the United States, which currently only exists on state level, now includes three mattress EPR acts, intend to shift financial and operational burden of end‐of‐life (EOL) management away from local government. It is important keep mind, however, that original objective behind reduce environmental life cycle impacts products. This article therefore quantifies greenhouse gas (GHG) savings potential boxspring recycling reuse States also discusses labor implications design issues. We find all acts are unlikely generate redesign incentives, but expected dramatically increase collection recycling. The 35 million EOL units estimated reach end their lives every year would order 10,000 jobs GHG between 1 1.5 metric tonnes.