Beyond Plastics calls on US EPA to standardize and restrict plastic industry legislation

25 Jul 2023 --- Beyond Plastics has released a comment to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution, recommending adjustments for packaging, emissions and waste management.

The organization, based in Bennington College, US, asserted its main points for the draft are to create standardized legal definitions for recycling, regulate reduction targets for packaging producers with clear timelines and remove known toxic chemicals from packaging. 

Furthermore, methods to keep diversion streams clean should be established, and new national enforcement and compliance initiatives to prohibit false solutions, particularly chemical recycling, should be initiated.

In the comment, Beyond Plastics says reducing the use, generation and disposal of plastics is “glaringly” missing from the proposed EPA policy “in any meaningful way.” It notes the tonnage of global plastic waste is expected to triple by 2050 in the US, saying the “single most important priority of a federal policy on plastics must be to promote policies and practices that reduce the generation of plastics.”

Beyond Plastics reports that plastic production will double in the US over the following 20 years. Currently, the country’s plastics recycling does not achieve a double-digit recycling rate. The grassroots advocates call this “an abysmal failure.”

The US EPA tells Packaging Insights, “EPA is taking significant steps to reduce pollution and build a circular economy for all. The Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastics Pollution includes ambitious actions to eliminate the release of plastic and other waste from land-based sources into the environment by 2040. Objective A aims to reduce pollution during plastic production. We are currently soliciting public comment on the draft strategy through July 31, 2023.”

EPA receives criticism for its Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution from Beyond Plastics. Reduction targets
The organization calls the global plastic crisis a producer, not consumer, problem, stating that voluntary goals for companies to reduce their waste are ineffective. 

The comment demands the EPA to set reduction targets for single-use plastics, reporting packaging makes up 40% of single-use plastic waste. It continues that the assessment by Pew Charitable Trusts supports a 50% reduction in packaging over ten years. 

Six applications of plastic that could account for 86% of the total reduction possible for waste by 2040 include multilayer and multi-material flexibles, business-to-business packaging, films, bottles, carrier bags and food service disposables.

Regarding emissions, Beyond Plastics calls on the EPA to address the “harmful national deregulation of the petrochemical industry that resulted in the allowance of exemptions via affirmative defense provisions within state implementation plans.”

A recent Texas Sunset Advisory Commission report found that in 2021, over 86% of excessive emission events were granted affirmative defense. “These facilities are largely involved in the plastics business,” claims Beyond Plastics.

The environmental organization wants the EPA to conduct a full environmental impact assessment using agency air monitor data to track the frequency and duration of business pollution with cooperation from civilian monitoring. 

Civilian health is a key point addressed in the letter. “The allowance of exemptions for petrochemical facilities as detailed above has had profound and prolonged negative impacts on human health in marginalized communities,” it writes. 

Implementing reuseBeyond Plastics wants the US to remove the recycling logo from plastic packaging to reduce curbside recycling confusion. 
The letter says the packaging industry can shift away from plastics by implementing reuse strategies. It calls supporting reuse programs in environmental justice communities “a central focus” to reduce the life cycle harms of plastics for those with the least financial resources. 

Focusing on how lower-income companies can establish reusable packaging, Beyond Plastics says funding for small businesses to invest in reuse options is needed.

As part of Beyond Plastics’ call for regulated definitions, it says reuse in its strategy should be defined as “the return of packaging back into the economic stream for use in the same kind of application intended for the original packaging, without effectuating a change in the original composition of the package, the identity of the product or the components thereof.”

It continues that reuse mechanisms – including deposit systems, curbside collection, collection kiosks, refill stations, and dishwashing facilities – should be funded and widely accessible. 

Clear communication
Beyond Plastics says the EPA’s draft must update the definition of recyclable “as a material that can be sorted by entities that process post-consumer materials generated in each state, that has a consistent regional market for purchase by end users in the production of new products, and which can be recycled with minimal losses of material during processing and manufacturing.”

The letter writes that materials used for packaging should be required to be genuinely recyclable, with a target of 75% reached over 12 years using the updated definition of “recyclable.” 

Beyond Plastics discourages the packaging industry from using bioplastics.Additionally, label recommendations are included in the comment. The organization says the internationally recognized symbol for recycling, the chasing arrows, should be removed from all plastic resin codes. 

“Since consumers equate the ‘recycle’ word and symbol with what is accepted in curbside recycling bins, the ‘recycle’ word and symbol must be reserved for materials which are accepted in curbside bins and do not cause contamination,” says Beyond Plastics.

Avoiding chemical recycling
The letter asks for “chemical recycling” to be excluded as a valid recycling method. 

Beyond Plastic explains that plastic-to-plastic or plastic-to-polymer technologies remain unproven at scale and create pollution, continuing to perpetuate plastic pollution. 

The organization’s preliminary research suggests that nine of ten operating facilities in the US are not making monomers to be used as feedstocks for new plastics but are creating fuels, oils and waxes that are later burned. 

Bioplastics are also added to the organization’s avoid list. It asserts bioplastics can be made from an unknown percentage of petroleum-based plastic and has been found to degrade at a similar rate to traditional plastic.

Beyond Plastics says an effective plan must include deadlines and detail how the deadlines will be achieved. “We don’t have the luxury of long-term aspirational goals.”

By Sabine Waldeck