One of the leading U.S. senators on plastic pollution issues, Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley, is drafting legislation calling for national standards around how to label packages for recyclability. Industry groups are backing the idea — with an important caveat.
They want any national standards to override state legislation, like California's 3-year-old SB 343 law that significantly tightens environmental claims on plastics packaging sold in the Golden State.
Merkley has been circulating draft legislation to create national labeling standards for recyclability, compostability and reusability for beverage containers, food service products and packaging, according to a June 14 letter from the packaging trade group Ameripen.
The Ameripen letter was first reported June 25 by E&E News, which is owned by Politico, but Plastics News was able to independently verify the letter.
Ameripen, which includes plastics industry groups like the American Chemistry Council and the Plastics Industry Association in its membership, said it supports federal legislation to create uniform national standards for environmental claims on consumer packaging.
But the group, which is material neutral and represents glass, metal, paper and plastic packaging companies, conditioned its support on national standards preempting state laws.
"For Ameripen to support any federal labeling legislation imposing national labeling standards for packaging recyclability, compostability and reusability, we feel very strong that it must expressly preempt any state from establishing, enforcing or continuing in effect any legal requirement unless it is identical with any requirement imposed under the federal legislation," Ameripen said.
Ameripen's letter said the draft bill, the Truth in Labeling Act of 2024, does not have any express preemption over state laws, and would let states enforce the federal law.
Groups involved in the discussions said they are in early stages, and Merkley's office has been circulating language and getting input for several months. The Ameripen letter said it was commenting on a second draft of legislation.
Merkley's office declined to comment but told E&E News that "there is clearly bipartisan appetite in Congress to provide consumers with clear and accurate labeling" and said the legislation aims to increase packaging recycling.
The environmental group Ocean Conservancy, which has also been providing input to Merkley, said the bill could set a floor rather than a ceiling for labeling standards.
Anja Brandon, associate director of U.S. plastics policy for the group, said the legislation could be looking for criteria to lay out at the national level "without being overly prescriptive."
Consumers are clamoring for clearer guidelines on what can be recycled, she said.
"It's exciting to see folks talking about this at the federal level," Brandon said. "We know this is a challenge and that folks turn over their yogurt tubs to figure out what they can recycle. You absolutely should not need a Ph.D. to figure that out and right now, for so many products in so many places, it seems like you do need it."
Merkley's legislation would also propose specific changes to the resin identification code, according to the Ameripen letter.
That code, consisting of the numbers 1 through 7 to identify resin type, is put on plastic packaging and sometimes surrounded by the chasing arrows recycling symbol or a triangle.
The latest draft of the legislation would require that all plastic packaging sold in the U.S. be labeled with a resin code that is not placed inside a chasing arrows symbol, Ameripen said.
Ameripen said it opposed that, and instead said that provision should only apply to plastics packaging that is not recyclable. It said that such packaging should still be allowed to use a resin code surrounded by a triangle, consistent with ASTM standard D7611.
The Ameripen letter also says that the draft calls for the Environmental Protection Agency to have primary jurisdiction to regulate claims but said the Federal Trade Commission would also play a role.