US confronts plastic challenge

A ban on federal procurement of single-use plastics headlines the US Government’s first formal recognition of plastic pollution.

The administration has released its first ‘comprehensive, government-wide strategy to target plastic pollution at production, processing, use, and disposal’. A report, ‘Mobilising Federal Action On Plastic Pollution: Progress, Principles and Priorities’ outlines actions to reduce the impact of plastic pollution throughout the plastic lifecycle.

It calls for sustained and coordinated work with state and local governments, communities, the private sector and other stakeholders.

No single-use

Specifically, the Biden-Harris administration has a goal to phase out federal procurement of single-use plastics from food service operations, events and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035. The commitment builds on an existing executive order directing the federal government to achieve net-zero procurement by 2050.

According to a news release from the White House, ‘The federal government is – for the first time – formally acknowledging the severity of the plastic pollution crisis and the scale of the response that will be required to effectively confront it.’

The Recycled Materials Association (ReMA) welcomed the initiative. ‘The recycled materials industry is constantly innovating and developing new technologies to process more materials even more efficiently. ReMA encourages producers to design products with recycling in mind.

‘ReMA looks forward to working with the Administration as it executes this ambitious program that would take effect over the next several years.’

Key points

The report outlines the principles for reducing plastic pollution, focus areas of federal agencies, and opportunities for further action:

• Assessing and reducing pollution from plastic production: Improved data collection will help to understand the full extent of the environmental and human health risks of plastic production.
• Innovating materials and product design: Actions include participating in the development of standards to promote recyclability and reuse, innovation in materials management, and additional research and development of materials that will create a more circular economy.
• Decreasing plastic waste generation: Federal agencies are reducing single-use plastic within their own operations by targeting specific items or pollution pathways, such as water refill stations as a substitute for single-use plastic bottles.
• Improving environmentally sound waste management: Additional actions are needed to improve environmentally-sound and worker-safe waste management practices and the associated infrastructure needs. These include efforts to optimise the collection of plastic and enhance plastic recycling.
• Informing and conducting capture and removal of plastic pollution: Additional action is needed to improve the capture of plastic, both before it enters the waste management system, and to address and prevent its escape during the waste management process.