Advocacy

PFAS Liability Protections Under CERCLA for Solid Waste Industry Introduced in Congress

US Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) has introduced five bills to ensure passive receivers and municipalities are not subject to liability claims if the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designates per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) compounds as hazardous substances. This includes a bill that explicitly addresses solid waste management and compost facilities, the Resource Management PFAS Liability Protection Act of 2023.

The Resource Management PFAS Liability Protection Act of 2023 provides an exemption for owners and operators of certain resource management facilities from CERCLA liability for releases of PFAS. This includes solid waste management facilities (as defined in section 1004 of the Solid Waste Disposal Act 42 USC. 6903) and facilities that process compost for sale or distribution to the public. The language explicitly excludes protection for facilities that acted with “gross negligence or willful misconduct” resulting in the release of PFAS. Ensuring Congress acts to provide limited liability protection for passive receivers of PFAS has been a primary advocacy objective for SWANA. The introduction of this bill is a major step forward in those efforts; however, additional Congressional support is necessary for passage.

In April, SWANA and 31 other regional and national organizations signed onto a letter to the leadership of the US Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works urging them to provide narrow liability protection. This letter included representatives of drinking water, wastewater treatment, stormwater management, and water recycling facilities, municipal solid waste landfills, and composting facilities.

SWANA Supports Recycling Legislation to Expand Access, Collect More Data

Two recycling-related bills have been re-introduced in the US Senate, the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act of 2023 (RIAA) and the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act (RCAA). The SWANA Core Advocacy Group has reviewed the legislation and SWANA will support the passage of both. These bills were previously introduced in 2022 and were passed out of the Senate but did not move forward in the House of Representatives.

The Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act would establish a pilot recycling program at the EPA to award grants, on a competitive basis, to eligible entities for improving recycling accessibility in a community or communities within the same geographic area. The goal of the program is to fund eligible projects that would significantly improve access to recycling systems in underserved communities using a hub-and-spoke model for recycling infrastructure development.

The Recycling and Composting Accountability Act would improve data collection on our nation’s recycling systems and explore the potential of a national composting strategy. The legislation would require EPA to collect and publish data on recycling and composting rates across the country to provide an accurate reflection of performance both nationwide and at the state level. This information is critical to improving existing recycling and composting programs and evaluating future recycling policies.

In 2022, the SWANA Core Advocacy Group made the decision to remain neutral on Recycling and Composting Accountability Act because of concerns that it duplicated work in EPA’s National Recycling Strategy and would take away resources from other activities, such as the new grant programs.

The 2023 version of the RCAA attempts to address some of these issues by extending reporting deadlines from one to two years in many cases and by explicitly stating that work done for the National Recycling Strategy and the Model Recycling Toolkit could fulfill some of the bill requirements.

SWANA will be submitting letters of support for both bills to the Congressional record and will educate members of the US House of Representatives and Senate about the benefits passage would provide to communities.

SWANA Responds to Canadian Proposed Regulatory Framework to Reduce Landfill Methane Emissions

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) is developing new federal regulations to reduce methane emissions from municipal solid waste landfills and has issued a proposed regulatory framework to solicit public feedback. SWANA and the SWANA Ontario Chapter both submitted comments on the document that outlines key requirements that may be included in the regulations. Development of the new federal regulations is part of the Government of Canada’s Strengthened Climate Plan — A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy, which prescribes increasing the number of landfills that recover and flare or utilize landfill gas. In early 2022, ECCC released a discussion paper that proposed a number of objectives for consideration that would guide the development of the new regulation, which was followed by a “What We Heard” report to summarize the feedback received from interested parties. In September 2022, a Technical Working Group (TWG) was formed to support in-depth discussions on potential elements of federal regulations in which SWANA participated. The next step in the process is the publication of the proposed regulations sometime in 2024 for a 60-day public comment period, with the final regulations expected the same year.

EPA Introduces Draft Plastics Pollution Strategy

EPA has released a Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution, part of EPA’s Series on Building a Circular Economy for All, for public comment. The strategy provides voluntary actions that can be implemented in the United States to eliminate the release of plastic waste from land-based sources into the environment by 2040.

The strategy builds upon EPA’s National Recycling Strategy and focuses on actions to reduce, reuse, collect, and capture plastic waste. With input from organizations, EPA identified three key objectives for the strategy:

• Objective A: Reduce pollution during plastic production.
• Objective B: Improve post-use materials management.
• Objective C: Prevent trash and microplastics from entering waterways and remove escaped trash from the environment.

EPA is requesting comment on the proposed actions in this strategy June 16, 2023.

New Interactive Recycling Market Map Tool Launched

EPA has developed an interactive map that highlights existing infrastructure, per capita generation and recycling of post-consumer material, and other relevant market factors. The agency is currently soliciting public comments on the map and encourages users to provide their feedback and recommendations through June 26, 2023.

The Recycling Infrastructure and Market Opportunities Map Version 1.0 is meant to help develop and strengthen primary and secondary end markets for materials, support cleaner communities by reducing the amount of plastic and other waste entering landfills, and provide opportunities to address climate change by diverting more materials from landfill. This tool visually presents data estimates from all phases of the recycling process, including generation, collection, sortation, and end use.

The map provides locations of 15 different types of recycling and other municipal solid waste infrastructure, including:

• Material recovery facilities
• Anaerobic digesters
• Composting facilities
• Electronics recyclers
• Glass recycling facilities
• Glass secondary processors
• Municipal solid waste landfills
• Metals recycling facilities
• Paper recycling facilities
• Plastic recycling facilities
• Textile recycling facilities
• Tire recycling facilities
• Transfer stations
• Wood recycling facilities
• Wood secondary processors

The data provide facility name, facility address, county, phone, email, website, North American Industry Classification System code, infrastructure type, and feedstock for each facility where available. The map also includes estimated tons of generated and recycled material by ZIP code and material type.

There are 16 types of recyclable material included in this version of the map:

• Aluminum
• Cardboard
• Electronics
• Food Waste
• Glass
• High-density polyethylene Bottles #2
• Polyethylene terephthalate Bottles #1
• Polyethylene terephthalate Other Rigid #1
• Polypropylene Containers #5
• Rigid Plastics #3 to #7
• Steel Cans
• Tires
• Paper
• Textiles
• Yard trimmings
• Wood

The map provides estimated US recycling quantities, infrastructure, materials markets, and supporting market factors using the best available data at the time the map was developed (2021–2022). While data sources range from 2011 to 2021, most data are from 2018-2021 and are not updated in real time.