Washington weighs stronger role in plastic ocean pollution

Washington — Worries over plastic waste and ocean pollution had a rare day in Congress Sept. 26, with calls at a Senate committee for Washington to take a much bigger role in managing plastic, even if there was no clear consensus on what exactly that means.

Cal Dooley, CEO of the American Chemistry Council, pushed for a larger role for pyrolysis and waste-to-energy. He wanted new laws to put those technologies on the same regulatory playing field as recycling and manufacturing — and not label them as hazardous materials as they sometimes are today — so that they can attract more investment.

But others, like Jonathan Baillie, chief scientist of National Geographic, pushed for plastic bag fees and financial incentives like deposits to boost bottle recycling, noting that Norway recycles 97 percent of its plastic bottles. The U.S. recycles about 30 percent.

Baillie urged senators on the Environment and Public Works Committee to have Washington set broad parameters for plastics use, which would mark a new step for the federal government in a policy area traditionally left to states and cities.

"Perhaps the time has come to examine the feasibility of a federal regulatory approach that would provide minimum standards on plastic use and recycling," Baillie said. "The approach could provide incentives and mandates — carrots and sticks — for states to adopt the right recycling protocols and provide national standards for plastic import, ​ manufacturing and use."

Several senators said they were looking for input for future legislation and noted that ocean waste is a bipartisan issue of concern to both Republicans and Democrats. It was not clear what direction that legislation could take.

There was consensus on the need to encourage more innovation in technology and collection of recyclable materials. The hearing came the same week as both the Senate and House passed a small piece of legislation, the Save Our Seas Act, to bolster federal marine debris programs.

At the hearing, speakers from ACC, National Geographic and Coca-Cola Co., along with senators, all said there was a strong role for business and the public sector to develop new technology and approaches to material collection and recycled content use.

Some senators suggested the United States should look to other countries.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., noted that Rwanda had outlawed plastic bags as a step toward beautifying the country. He said he'd been to all 54 countries in Africa and called Rwanda a "clean, pristine country" because of President Paul Kagame's efforts.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting this ... but the first thing [Kagame] did was outlaw plastic bags," Inhofe said. "I think we ought to really sit down and look and see some of things he has done successfully and emulate those."

Inhofe also noted the Sept. 19-21 meeting of the G7 economic bloc in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and its plastics charter to develop "innovative social and technological solutions for more sustainable management of plastics throughout their lifecycle." Inhofe urged U.S. policymakers to study it.

"A lot of heavyweights were involved in those decisions and discussions in Nova Scotia," he said. "They have excellent suggestions."

Committee Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., noted research that shows that 80 percent of plastic waste in the ocean comes from Asia, and said plastic makes up the vast majority of marine debris.

"We want to know what private industry, what local and state governments, what the federal government and what international institutions should do to address this crisis," Barrasso said.

Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, the ranking Democrat on the committee, noted there is bipartisan interest in finding solutions, even if "figuring out how to implement them will not be easy."

He noted concern over microplastics increasingly showing up in food and drinking water, and he said he recognized market challenges like China's ban on recycled plastic imports taking away the end market for 30 percent of U.S. plastic waste.

"We, as a nation, will need to invest in better waste management and recycling infrastructure to address challenges like this," Carper said. "We will also need to find a creative way to finance these investments. Further, we may want to consider proposals to incentivize the use of recycled plastics for manufacturing purposes."

Carper also asked what the panel saw as the "root cause" of the plastic ocean waste problem.

Dooley said it's a lack of waste management infrastructure in developing economies.

"In those developing economies, they have a host of public needs — some of it is nutrition, some is education, some of it is health care, and some of it also is waste management systems," Dooley said. "When they prioritize them, oftentimes the waste management investments come very low on the list."

Dooley said the plastics industry needs to do more to support collection of plastics both in the United States and globally.

"The industry, the resin producers and the plastics producers, have to do a better job of investing in the technology that facilitates the recovery of this material so that it can go more easily into that recycled content," Dooley said.

But others on the panel, including scientist Kara Lavender Law with the Sea Education Association, urged a shift away from disposable plastics and toward generating less waste.

Baillie said that plastics use has grown several hundredfold in the last 70 years, but waste management has lagged woefully behind.

"There is nothing inherently bad about plastics. But in 1950, we were producing 2.3 million tons [of plastic] and now it's 500 million tons," Baillie said. "That's a massive increase, and we haven't moved to that closed-loop economy."