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October 26, 2020 01:09 PM

Industries push EPA for plastic recycled content targets

Steve Toloken
Plastics News Staff
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    Environmental Protection Agency

    EPA Director Andrew Wheeler addresses marine litter reform at an event in Florida.

    As the Environmental Protection Agency moves ahead on developing a new national recycling strategy, there's a surprising push coming from industry groups: They're urging EPA to set targets for recycled content in plastic products.

    Companies in the waste and recycling industries are lining up behind recycled content for plastics, and the Plastics Industry Association is making public comments to EPA and in other forums supporting the idea. One plastics lobbyist is calling it a shift in industry thinking.

    Environmental groups have long pushed for laws mandating recycled content, but it's never been much of a policy priority in Washington. Now, with California and several state governments moving that way, some industry groups are asking EPA to get involved.

    The National Waste and Recycling Association took the most detailed position. It wants EPA to set a national goal of 30 percent recycled content for plastics by 2025 and 50 percent by 2030.

    NWRA, which represents private sector recycling and waste management companies, suggested that the federal government works to set recycled-content targets for all materials, not just plastics.

    But it singled out plastics by urging EPA to set the specific targets of 30 and 50 percent. For other materials, it only wants EPA to study the issue and work with impacted groups.

    "For too long, recycling has been focused on increasing supply with scant attention paid to demand," NWRA said. "One result has been wild fluctuations in commodity prices. By encouraging recycled content, demand will be established leading to greater market stability."

    There's also a shift within the plastics industry, executives say. The Plastics Industry Association told EPA in formal comments Oct. 1 that its member companies "welcome discussions about effective public policies that strive to encourage" use of recycled content.

    As well, its top lobbyist went further in comments Oct. 22 at the Global Plastics Summit, a virtual event sponsored by the association and IHS Markit, saying that industry thinking is shifting.

    "As an industry, [one policy area] we've moved closer to accepting and actually promoting is recycled-content requirements," said Matt Seaholm, vice president of government affairs for the Washington-based association. "On a number of fronts, there's an accepting number of companies and industries that can say, 'Alright, PCR [post-consumer recycled] requirements are a good place for us to focus, because if there's an end market, then the investment will follow.'"

    It's a policy approach getting studied in more state legislatures.

    In August, California passed a law requiring 50 percent post-consumer recycled content in plastic beverage bottles by 2030, which some are calling the toughest in the world. New Jersey state legislators are actively considering a bill and other states are studying it.

    "New Jersey is a good example where there's a PCR requirement bill moving through that legislature right now," Seaholm said, "Broad agreement, OK, this could be something that can be done, but let's make sure it's done at a rate that sustainable as well as attainable right now."

    He said industry is concerned about laws that would either set targets that are too aggressive and result in deselection of plastics, or that cannot be met because the recycled material is not available.

    A senior executive at Berry Global Group Inc., one of the largest plastic packaging makers in North America, also urged industry colleagues at the GPS event to consider the previously "taboo" topic of regulation as a way to overcome the economic hurdles recycling faces from the low cost of virgin plastic.

    "Obviously, the economics do create a hurdle, and that hurdle is real," said Rob Flores, vice president of sustainability at Berry. "I'll just go ahead and say there's opportunity for regulation. Perhaps that would have previously been taboo.

    "Quite frankly, I think there is an opportunity for regulation to … influence these economics," he said. "I think it's critical to use more PCR, we just have to figure out how to make that work and how to make those economics work."

    Berry is a prominent member of the plastics association. It did not comment directly to EPA's recycling strategy rulemaking.

    EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, left, and Rep. Mast, R-Fl., participate in a discussion on global marine litter.

    EPA recycling strategy

    The comments come as EPA is preparing to release a new U.S. recycling strategy. The agency plans to release some recycling goals at the America Recycles Summit on Nov. 17, with additional details on strategy after that.

    While any new EPA plan will only set targets and not be legally enforceable, having the federal agency sign on to recycled-content goals would be certain to elevate the issue.

    Some Democrats in Congress have introduced legislation that calls for 25 percent recycled content in plastic beverage containers by 2025 and 80 percent by 2040. It also directs federal agencies to study recycled-content requirements in other plastic products.

    Recycled content in plastics packaging has historically been low. A 2019 report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation said consumer product companies it was partnering with used an average of 4 percent in 2018 but their announced pledges would boost that to 22 percent by 2025.

    Waste Management Inc., one of the country's largest residential recycling program operators, also urged EPA to adopt specific goals for recycled content for paper, plastics and metals, in consultation with industry groups.

    The environmental group 5 Gyres urged both high recycled-content standards for plastics and better design for recyclability.

    "If the industries that make and use plastic are honest about promoting recycling, then policies like this are essential to real success," the group told EPA.

    The Center for Biological Diversity, while endorsing more use of recycled content, urged EPA to shift focus from recycling to waste prevention.

    "As a society we have focused too much on recycling, which has a feedback loop that creates a guilt-free consumption cycle allowing people to consume more and more as long as they think it can be recycled," the group said. "A goal of infinite consumption cannot be the path forward for planetary resilience."

    Other plastics companies and groups weighed in with other priorities.

    Brightmark Energy LLC said that advanced or chemical recycling technologies, which break plastics into monomers or convert them into fuels, should be a "prominent" part of any new strategy.

    The American Chemistry Council said EPA needs to come up with a new way of measuring recycled content from chemical recycling. It suggested adopting a mass balance method used in paper recycling and renewable energy.

    The federal government has been putting more emphasis on recycling. The Department of Energy in recent weeks released a new batch of plastics recycling research grant funding, and EPA announced Oct. 19 a federal strategy on marine litter that included previously announced programs aimed at reducing plastics in waterways.

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