Advocacy

House Hearing on Community Recycling

The U.S. House of Representatives held a committee hearing on community recycling on February 5, 2020 on Capitol Hill. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies called five witnesses, including Peter Wright, the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Land and Emergency Management for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to discuss Strengthening Community Recycling Programs: Challenges and Opportunities.

The hearing began with testimony provided by Assistant Administrator Wright. This was followed by questions from the committee members in attendance, which included Chair Betty McCollum (D-MN), Ranking Member David Joyce (R-OH), Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT). Questions centered on the National Framework for Advancing the U.S. Recycling System and whether EPA had the resources available to respond to the issues facing recycling. While Wright was optimistic about the Framework and its implementation, he did reiterate to the committee several times that EPA does not have authority to regulate recycling.

The second panel heard by the committee included Elizabeth Biser, Vice President of Public Affairs for The Recycling Partnership; The Honorable Daniel Corona, Mayor of West Wendover, Nevada representing the National League of Cities; Michael Gajewski, Managing Director of Closed Loop Partners; and Adam Ortiz, the Director of the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection in Maryland representing the National Association of Counties. Both Ms. Biser and Mr. Ortiz are SWANA members. The witnesses' individual testimony and bios, along with a video of the hearing in full can be viewed here.

The event was covered by the industry trade publication Waste Dive and state and local government news publication Route Fifty, among other outlets. SWANA also issued a press release commending the U.S. House of Representatives for holding a “a timely and necessary exploration of the current state of recycling in the nation.”

Plastics Bill

Federal legislation was introduced on February 11 to address plastic waste titled the “Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act.” Among other goals it would mandate extended producer responsibility for most consumer packaging and create a national container deposit system.

This bill is the result of ongoing efforts by U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) and U.S. Representative Alan Lowenthal (D-CA) to “phase out unnecessary single-use plastic products, hold corporations accountable for wasteful products, reduce wasteful packaging, and reform our broken waste and recycling collection system.” They released an outline of the legislation in July of this past year and a draft version of the bill text in November requesting public comment. SWANA provided feedback in both instances based on comments from its Core Advocacy Group and Recycling Task Force.

The centerpiece of the bill is the requirement for product producers to design, manage, and finance programs to collect and process product waste through Producer Responsibility Organizations (PRO). Plastic beverage containers and other packaging producers will also have minimum recycled content requirements set that would escalate over time.

In addition to extended producer responsibility, the bill would also mandate a 10-cent national refund program for all beverage containers, regardless of material. States that already have an established program could keep theirs as long as it matches the federal requirements. Carryout bags would have a fee imposed on their use as well.

To address single-use plastics that cannot be easily recycled, prohibitions would be put in place. This includes items like polystyrene containers, plastic utensils, and plastic carryout bags. Straws would only be available upon request.

The bill also aims to create consistency in the recycling system by directing EPA to develop standardized recycling and composting labels for products and receptacles.

The bill is sponsored by Representatives Lowenthal and Katherine Clark (D-MA) in the House and Senators Udall and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) in the Senate. The bills have garnered numerous co-sponsors, but so far only within the Democratic party.

SWANA is in the process of reviewing the introduced bill and will continue to provide input to members of Congress and others about this legislation as appropriate.

EPA Budget

The White House released its proposed fiscal 2021 budget on February 10 calling for reductions within many federal agencies, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeing the largest cuts. Under the proposal, EPA would lose $2.4 billion from its budget, representing about 26 percent of its current funding level. In order to meet this lower amount, EPA would eliminate 50 programs and reduce research and development.  

Within the goal of Waste Minimization & Recycling, the proposal calls for refocusing “from efforts in Sustainable Materials Management to the priority areas of recycling and food waste and loss.” This would result in an overall reduction of the money and work hours devoted to the goal, but would authorize a needs assessment of the U.S. recycling industry and two new grant programs. One grant program would support recycling infrastructure and capacity and the other program would be to develop implement, and evaluate effective food waste reduction campaigns.

The drastic 2021 EPA budget reductions are consistent with those previously proposed by the administration, but Congress has not ultimately enacted them. Congress will now consider the budget requests and pass appropriations bills. The 2021 fiscal year begins on October 1, 2020.