Packaging & EPR Policy Consultant
Please connect with me through LinkedIn - Gary S. Cohen
Gary Cohen is a 40+ year veteran of the packaging industry with deep experience spanning packaging design, supply chains, recycling systems, and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy.
Most recently, Gary served as the volunteer Executive Director of Tennessee Waste to Jobs, a statewide coalition working to advance packaging EPR legislation and modernize recycling infrastructure across Tennessee.
Today, Gary leverages that hands-on policy experience—combined with decades in packaging and materials management to help companies navigate sustainable packaging solutions, evolving EPR requirements, and the growing gap between packaging design and end-of-life reality. His background uniquely bridges industry, policy, and on-the-ground recycling operations, giving clients practical, real-world guidance rather than theory.
How an EPR Packaging Specialist Can Help You
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) packaging legislation is complex, varies by state, and continues to evolve. As these laws take effect, many businesses face uncertainty around compliance obligations, reporting requirements, and potential packaging fees. Working with a knowledgeable, hands-on EPR packaging specialist helps companies prepare proactively—before confusion turns into cost.
The right EPR packaging specialist and packaging partner can help producers understand applicable legislation, interpret requirements, and implement packaging solutions designed to keep EPR fees as close to cost-neutral as possible—minimizing both operational disruption and financial impact.
Ways an EPR Packaging Specialist Can Support Your Business
Optimize packaging for sustainability and compliance
EPR packaging specialists—working alongside packaging engineers and designers—can audit existing packaging and recommend improvements that reduce material usage and cost, increase recyclability or recycled content, and align packaging with current and emerging EPR regulations.
Evaluate packaging lifecycle impacts
Assess the environmental impact of packaging from raw material sourcing through end-of-life to identify inefficiencies, risks, and opportunities for measurable improvement.
Stay ahead of evolving legislation
EPR regulations differ by jurisdiction and change over time. An EPR packaging specialist helps track relevant state and regional requirements, ensuring your company remains informed, compliant, and prepared as new laws roll out.
Develop cost-effective EPR strategies
Sustainability goals must align with business realities. A specialist helps balance environmental performance with cost, identifying practical solutions that reduce EPR exposure without compromising packaging performance or profitability.
Coordinate with suppliers and validate claims
Work directly with packaging material suppliers to ensure materials align with EPR requirements and that sustainability claims—such as recyclability or recycled content—are accurate, defensible, and compliant.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) 101
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy approach for improving recycling system outcomes for packaging. EPR legislation transfers the cost of recycling from households onto the companies that are responsible for placing the products and packaging on the market.
EPR establishes a nonprofit PRO or Producer Responsibility Organization, whose members are representatives of the producers or brand owners. The PRO collects the fees on all packaging coming into the state and develops a plan for meeting the goal determined through the EPR policy or by the responsible state agency (often a department of health, environment or natural resources).
Once the state agency has approved the PRO’s plan, the PRO uses the collected funds to implement the plan by building new and funding existing recycling infrastructure and programming. The state agency has ultimate oversight of the PRO and the PRO plan.
In many jurisdictions with EPR programs, the PRO also consults with and/or has their work reviewed by a state appointed Advisory Board consisting of representatives from industry, government, haulers, recyclers, packaging, solid waste, & NGO’s.
EPR is used widely throughout Europe and Canada and is growing in the US with 7 states passing EPR legislation since 2021. For more information read my blog about it.