Two House lawmakers have unveiled legislation intent on boosting plastics recycling, an ambitious plan reflecting industry’s dreams and some environmentalists’ nightmares.
The bipartisan bill, H.R. 9676, from Reps. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) and Don Davis (D-N.C.), would require EPA to create the first-ever enforceable federal plastics recycling standards, establish minimum recycled content requirements for plastic packaging, and loosen regulations on plastic waste and recycling.
The plan relies on quickly scaling up “chemical” or “advanced” recycling infrastructure, which has drawn the ire of critics over high costs, lower-than-projected capacity, feasibility doubts and unknown toxic pollutant releases.
“Advanced” recycling, an umbrella term for different technologies that supposedly turn hard-to-recycle plastics back into their chemical building blocks for future reuse, has for years been hailed as the solution for increasing the nation’s current plastic recycling rate of 9 percent to 50 percent by 2030, an EPA goal set during the Trump administration.
