Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
October 28, 2020 11:09 AM

Senator sees ‘reckoning' for US recycling

Steve Toloken
Assistant Managing Editor
Plastics News Staff
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Global Plastics Summit
    In a screenshot from the Global Plastics Summit, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, left, and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse speak in a virtual event.

    The lead U.S. senators pushing the Save Our Seas legislation aimed at global ocean plastic cleanup say they want Congress to bring more attention to challenges facing domestic recycling.

    In a joint appearance Oct. 22 at the online Global Plastics Summit, Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said they want the Senate next year to take a deeper look at problems with recycling in the U.S.

    "I think one of the things that we need to do is have some very good, strong hearings on recycling," Whitehouse said. "My take on it is that a lot of the recycling that is claimed to take place was actually phony, that stuff went into the blue recycling bin but then it ended up going across the ocean to an Asian country to be dumped and very likely ended up being washed into some river and from there into the sea."

    Whitehouse, who with Sullivan was a lead sponsor of both the first SOS law in 2018 and SOS 2.0 this year, said the country is having a "reckoning" around recycling.

    "I think we need to have a bit of a reckoning on what the recycling system looks like, how it really works, how Americans can count when they put something in the recycling bin to have it actually end up recycled," he said. "I think that's one of the important things we need to clean up and get right because recycling is going to be an important component of the solution."

    Sullivan echoed that in comments at the online summit, sponsored by the Plastics Industry Association and IHS Markit.

    "I agree fully with Sheldon about getting to the bottom what's really happening and holding hearings," he said.

    Both lawmakers said they plan Save Our Seas 3.0 legislation, assuming that SOS 2.0 is signed by President Donald Trump this year.

    The 2.0 version, which was widely supported by the plastics industry, has passed both the House and Senate and is undergoing technical revisions now.

    Industry officials expect that the president would sign the bill this year, likely in the lame duck congressional session after the Nov. 3 election.

    The first two SOS pieces of legislation have mostly had an international focus, with grants and smaller-scale work on domestic recycling.

    The current SOS bill in Congress includes language calling for the U.S. to take a stronger role in global agreements around plastic waste, a measure that was hailed by some House Democrats as some countries push for the U.N. Environment Assembly to begin talks on a global treaty on plastics next year.

    Domestically, the bill calls for spending at least $55 million a year for five years on grants to boost domestic recycling and on various studies, including on using plastic waste in infrastructure, health concerns over microplastics, eliminating barriers to collecting recyclables, spurring end-use markets for recycled plastics and minimizing the creation of new plastic waste.

    It also establishes the Marine Debris Foundation as a charitable organization, with up to $10 million a year in funding for four years. It would include up to $1 million a year for "genius" grants for innovation around reducing plastic waste.

     

    Bipartisan support touted

    Both senators said there has been broad bipartisan agreement around both versions of Save Our Seas, and they said they hoped to build on that in future bills.

    "The hearing that we had in this committee was really stunning, because this is usually the pit for partisan warfare on environmental issues," Whitehouse said. "But on this issue, every single member who came had something good to say and offered to be productive and to help."

    The SOS legislation breaks new ground — in Washington, at least — as the first to look specifically at marine plastic pollution. But both the 2018 and current versions have been relatively modest in their funding.

    Upgrading domestic recycling, for example, is at least a $9 billion problem, industry estimates say, compared with the $55 million a year SOS 2.0 puts in.

    Some environmental groups and lawmakers have argued instead for the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, which is backed by Democrats who see it as a more comprehensive solution.

    Some state governments, like California, have debated legislation that is much more demanding of industry — and much more sharply debated — than the SOS legislation.

    Environmental groups have been split on SOS 2.0, with some opposing it and some supporting it, and some Democrats in Congress back both the SOS and the Break Free legislation.

    Still, Whitehouse said the bipartisan interest goes beyond SOS 2.0.

    He said key Republican and Democratic senators on the House Committee on Appropriations have agreed to direct foreign aid spending to create an international ocean plastics fund, which supporters likened to previous global efforts to combat malaria and AIDS.

    The idea was introduced at a July hearing where both SOS authors pushed it, Whitehouse said.

    "We gained right at that hearing commitments from the Republican chairman and the Democratic ranking member that they were going to do a big ocean plastic fund," Whitehouse said. "We're working through the details of that right now, but that was a good commitment to get."

    Sullivan said he and Whitehouse have been working on other fronts, including meeting with foreign governments. He noted industry efforts like the $1.5 billion Alliance to End Plastic Waste, as well as SOS support from some environmental and conservation groups.

    "To me, keeping that alignment of the key stakeholders is going to be critical to ongoing success," Sullivan said.

     

    'Clean up your own mess'

    While there are certain to be sharp debates in Washington over future direction, Whitehouse said argued that the issue of plastic marine waste was "pretty much at zero" in Congress before the SOS bills.

    The Rhode Island senator also singled out Unilever plc in response to a question about what message the senators would bring to the plastics industry.

    He noted Unilever's 2019 announcement that it would collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells by 2025 and said it reflected the commitment "as a big company to clean up your own mess."

    "First of all, it's an amazing pledge. But second, it creates a market," Whitehouse said. "To the plastics industry, I'd say follow your leaders, and right now Unilever is the leader."

    Sullivan urged the industry to continue innovating, and he said he was interested in biodegradable plastics.

    "In many ways, the government can do a lot of things, but on innovation, which is so often the key to solving so many problems, environmental, economic, it's the private sector that's got to be driving it," Sullivan said. "To me, there's enormous opportunities to help clean up the oceans, and if companies can profit from that as well, then I think that's fine."

    Both said they would continue to work together on the issue, whatever the outcome of the elections.

    "I would say SOS was the beachhead bill, SOS 2.0 sort of consolidated our gains and gave us some stronger purpose. And we're going to continue to push forward irrespective of the November election, whoever wins, we're going to be together hounding the administration," Whitehouse said.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    SunMed buys Vyaire Medical consumables unit
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    PepsiCo on a ‘multiyear journey' toward bioplastics
    2
    Solar cell film producer investing $147M in Georgia
    3
    Michigan injection molder doubling space to support growth
    4
    Biden sets US goal to replace 90% of plastics with biomaterials
    5
    Plastics recycling must do better by consumers to succeed, professor says
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified