Kickstart: Electric cars, recycling and warm mittens

President Joe Biden is less than 24 hours into the job and already shaking up federal standards.

Even before Biden was sworn in, Bloomberg noted that he would spend time his first day in office asking agencies to "revisit fuel efficiency standards as well as rules governing emissions from airplanes, and appliance and building energy efficiency standards."

That will likely result in a greater emphasis on lightweighting in the auto industry, where the Donald Trump administration had rolled back fuel economy standards.

In addition, Bloomberg noted, "Biden has made boosting electric vehicles a top priority and pledged to spend billions of dollars to add 550,000 charging stations for such vehicles. He also supports new tax credits for purchases of electric vehicles and retrofitting factories for their production."

The flurry of activity from the White House on day one of the Biden administration stressed work on the government response to the coronavirus pandemic, but action is also on the way for an environmental agenda.

One of the first actions taken by Biden following the inauguration was to sign an executive order to rejoin the Paris climate agreement. The American Chemistry Council issued a statement in support of that move, noting that plastics and other chemical products can play a big role in addressing climate change.

“The American Chemistry Council (ACC) and its members welcome President Biden’s executive decision to rejoin the Paris agreement. America’s chemical and plastics manufacturers ... support meaningful efforts to reduce emissions for the health of our planet and future generations," ACC wrote.  “In order for the opportunities afforded by the Paris agreement to be fully realized the Administration, Congress and the private sector must work together to develop and implement a national, comprehensive, market-based system to drive emissions reductions."

Plastics and recycling groups have been working to shore up support for investment into recycling infrastructure. The Environmental Protection Agency already pledged to hit a recycling rate of 50 percent by 2030, but without specifics on how to do it. One effort that Steve Toloken is following (with a story to come for PN shortly) calls for financial support for secondary material recovery facilities that could capture more plastics.

“We believe the EPA could play an important role in funding development of these new technologies by demonstrating a workable supply chain, prompting subsequent private investment development,” the National Association for PET Container Resources told the EPA in formal comments in December. “This would involve government study and pilot development in a secondary ‘sorting/process facility’ designed to provide feedstock to enhanced recycling facilities or traditional mechanical reclaimers.”

And before we leave Washington, let's take a moment to honor a style icon. No, not just Michelle Obama or poet Amanda Gorman. Let's talk old school, with a recycling twist.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders prompted memes across the internet thanks to his very personal frumpy style, which meant attending the inauguration while wearing a very utilitarian winter coat and warm mittens — mittens made by a Vermont teacher with insulation made from recycled PET bottles.

Jen Ellis noted on Twitter (@vtawesomeness) that she'd given Sanders the mittens "a couple of years ago," and he's worn them frequently since then.

In addition to the recycled PET, the wool outer layer of Ellis' mittens are repurposed from old sweaters.

How big of a meme was Sander's look? You can already preorder a bobblehead celebrating it.