Senator sees ‘reckoning' for US recycling

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.

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.

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.