Kickstart: FDA gives a boost to reuse

New Food and Drug Administration guidelines will make it easier for the public to bring refillable and reusable containers to restaurants, bulk grocery stores and events.

The Center for Biological Diversity says an update to the federal food code — the first to address reusables since 2013 — is a big step because it codifies reuse rules at "the highest levels" and will make it easier for new businesses to enter the reuse market.

The new guidelines, which are frequently referenced by state governments and health departments, will also make it easier to scale up infrastructure like third-party washing companies that could help build reuse systems, CBD said.

"These updates will help us fight single-use waste by making it easier for restaurants, grocery stores and concerts to offer reusable containers and allowing customers to bring them from home," said Kelley Dennings, a senior campaigner at CBD.

The group said updating the FDA code was a "herculean task."

CBD pointed to a 2023 study from Zero Waste Europe that said reusable containers outperform single-use packaging in greenhouse gas emissions.

The plastics industry's Operation Clean Sweep pellet loss prevention program is expanding its auditing and verification program to include logistics facilities like trucking companies and distributors.

OCS, which is run by the Plastics Industry Association and the American Chemistry Council, announced its OCS Logistics Verification, a program that includes 25 management practices that companies have to follow to control pellet leakage into the environment.

It builds on the group's OCS Blue Verification inspection program for resin manufacturers started in 2023.

Logistics companies in the program will need to complete periodic inspections to verify their practices.

Quantix, a chemical industry logistics and transportation firm based in The Woodlands, Texas, said in an OCS news release that its customers in the resin industry have set aggressive sustainability goals and logistics firms need to meet those.

"Resin loss is a critical issue for our industry," said CEO John Labrie. "As we increase reliance on plastic and in turn, the production of resin, we need to focus on securing that product at every stage of the supply chain."

The new OCS effort seems none too soon, at least in Europe.

Pellet pollution on Spanish beaches around the petrochemical complex in Tarragona is attracting local concern.

A January story in Politico details the European Union's attempts to write better regulations to control pellet loss, examining the problem through the lens of communities in the autonomous Spanish region of Catalonia.

It quotes one local mayor of a Tarragona beach town as saying that while new rules should not "be a frontal attack on a product such as plastic," they should also ensure that "we do not have contamination in environments where there should be no plastic."

The article, which said beachgoers can run their hands through the sand and pick up plastic pellets, notes frustrations that local prosecutors have had in assessing responsibility and liability for the pellet pollution.

Pellet pollution is a worldwide concern. The biggest financial liability for pellet pollution in the U.S. came from a federal court case in Texas, where Formosa Plastics agreed in 2019 to pay $50 million to settle a lawsuit accusing it of consistently polluting waters around its plant.

Negotiators in the plastics treaty are also considering what rules around pellet pollution should be in that agreement.