cradle²

Who We Are

The CRADLE² coalition is a national alliance of public interest organizations working to make products and packaging more sustainable.  CRADLE2 represents organizations and citizens across the nation united by our common concern about the squandering of our natural resources, the impacts of waste on climate change, and the loss of jobs from wasting valuable, recyclable materials in landfills and incinerators.  We are also concerned about the human and environmental health impacts of toxic chemicals used in everyday products, and the [...]

CRADLE² Goes Live

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 19, 2012 Contacts: Matt Prindiville, Product Policy Institute, matt@productpolicy.org, 207-236-8603 www.cradle2.org – Steering Committee contacts listed below Earth Day 2012: Groups Organize to Bring Recycling into the 21st Century: New coalition seeks to make manufacturers responsible for collecting and recycling products  TODAY, Forty-two years after the recycling movement began on the first Earth Day, a new coalition launched to “bring recycling into the 21st century” by making manufacturers responsible for collecting and recycling the products and [...]

Problem: Our “Take, Make, Waste” Economy

  Every year, Americans throw away the equivalent of 50 Great Pyramids worth of “trash.” The products and packaging that we discard represent staggering amounts of natural resources, including oil and other energy sources required to manufacture products from virgin materials. The health impacts of toxic chemicals used in everyday products threaten our health and the environment, and there is a disproportionate impact on low-income communities from the improper management of these materials. Our “throw-away” society did not happen by [...]

Wall Street Journal Gets Real on Garbage

Check out this article from the Wall Street Journal, which references how to how Europe holds manufacturers not taxpayers responsible for waste.  While we don’t think that waste incineration has any place in a sustainable economy, the article makes a compelling case for why we need a new approach to designing and managing products and packaging. Wall Street Journal: Grappling With a Garbage Glut We toss out 7 pounds of trash a day each, spending billions to manage it April [...]

Get Involved

We need you to get involved to help build a sustainable economy.  Please read to learn more about how you can join the movement for better products and less waste. Stay Informed Sign up to receive our weekly blog and occasional action alerts. We won’t clog your inbox, but we will let you know about major developments and give you opportunities to weigh in with companies, policymakers, and other opinion leaders.  Take Action Use our Take Action page to let [...]

The Solution: Producer Responsibility

From products designed and managed “Cradle-to-Grave” to “Cradle-to-Cradle” Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a transformative policy that shifts our “Take, Make, Waste” cradle-to-grave production and consumption system into a more sustainable cradle-to-cradle system – dramatically reducing waste and the need for virgin natural resources, reducing toxic pollution and energy use, saving taxpayers money and creating  jobs and local economic development. (top) EPR transforms “waste” into a resource The materials sent to landfills and incinerators did not become “waste” until they [...]

Producer Responsibility = American Jobs

A large body of research conclusively demonstrates that recycling creates jobs and economic development.  Similarly, studies show that jobs are created in direct proportion to the amount of material recycled.  Many jobs are created from collecting and processing the products and packaging that were formerly discarded in landfills and incinerators.  But even more economic development occurs from turning recovered materials into new products. A recent report by the Tellus Institute estimates that getting US recycling rates up to levels achieved [...]