New plastics legislation in California and what the EPA’s new Safer Choice rules say — and don’t say — about mass balance and chemical recycling were key topics in the September Plastics in Politics editorial livestream. Recording below.
Steve Toloken took an in-depth look at plastics bills that passed in the closing hours of California’s legislative session, including new rules for carpet recycling and a stricter plastic bag ban.
The carpet EPR bill initially included recycling targets for luxury vinyl tile too, but dropped it in part due to carpet industry pushback. However, it’s likely to come up again in a future session.
The idea of the bill is to encourage carpet makers to use old carpet as feedstock for new carpets, and not to use PET bottles. Could this be a sign of things to come, as brand owners jockey to use scarce recycled PET bottles to meet recycled-content mandates?
Another main topic was EPA rulemaking on Safer Choice, and whether it’s accurate to read that as skepticism about using chemical recycling and mass balance measurement methods when making recycled-content claims.
Finally, we gave an update on the United Nations global plastics treaty talks ahead of the next round of negotiations in South Korea.
In October, Toloken will host a special editorial livestream on the UN treaty talks. PN Live: How the UN treaty could change the global plastics industry, is scheduled for 10-11 am ET on Tuesday, Oct. 8. Click here to register in advance and watch for updates on our guests and topics.