White House: Bioplastics goal part of ‘huge urgency' on climate

Washington — President Joe Biden's push to dramatically boost bioplastics manufacturing reflects a "huge urgency" in the administration to address global warming, food security and health equity, according to a White House official who worked on the policy.

The Biden administration on March 22 released a 64-page report outlining what it called a "bold" biomanufacturing agenda, including displacing 90 percent of petrochemical plastics with bio-based polymers over the next two decades.

But implementation strategies for those ambitious goals are still very much a work in progress.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, which released the report, plans to unveil a more detailed research and development agenda in June, said Dominique Carter, assistant director for agricultural sciences, innovation and workforce in the office.

She spoke March 29 to a Washington conference organized by the Plant Based Products Council.

In questions after her speech, Carter did not offer details related to reaching that 90 percent bioplastics goal but said it reflects the Biden administration's desire to address climate, food and health challenges.

"As has been stated with regards to several administration priorities, because of the challenges that we are facing both domestically and globally, there is a huge urgency behind the use of bio-based products, really as it relates to our climate goals," Carter told the conference in a virtual address. "Initially that was the focus but more importantly also, it's food security as well as health equity."

Carter said the 20-year proposed timeline for a bioplastics transition was set by agencies that worked on the plan. That section of the report noted it was drafted by the Department of Energy.

"That timeline was set by a federal agency based on current policies and programs related to that effort, as well as future policy and program areas that will be stood up pending appropriate funding for those agencies," she said.

The OSTP report pointed to the Energy Department's Strategy for Plastics Innovation, which targets reducing the climate impact of plastic manufacturing.

DOE said fossil-based plastics manufacturing accounts for 3.8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and said resin manufacturing specifically accounts for 61 percent of the total plastics GHG impact.

The report noted that using plastics reduces energy consumption by making cars lighter and more fuel efficient and by making packaging more energy efficient but it also pointed to opportunities to reduce the material's overall environmental impact.

Carter said the broad biomanufacturing strategy is designed to strengthen the U.S. economy in several areas, including in domestic manufacturing and supply chains. It has policy goals in many areas, including biofuels for aircraft and developing other low-carbon intensity chemicals from biomass.

It's an outgrowth of a September executive order and the related National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative from the administration.

"The executive order launched the NBBI … to ensure that beyond R&D, we have the domestic capacity to make, in the United States, all the bio-based products that we invent here," she said. "We are looking for this to create jobs and build stronger supply chains that contribute to our climate goals."

OSTP is interested in feedback on how it should implement the plan, she said. Often, such efforts are directed by the National Science and Technology Council, a cabinet level group advising the president, Carter said.

"Because we are still developing this and seeing how it can be the most impactful, we have not finalized what that will look like yet," she said. "We are looking to direct federal agencies to deliver on what was stated in the report in terms of the R&D goals."

Both Carter and bioindustry officials at the conference said they hope the administration's plan can help the United States play catch up globally in biomanufacturing.

The head of the Plant Based Products Council, Jessica Bowman, said Europe and Asia are ahead of the United States in bioplastics production because they have had more support for biomanufacturing.

Figures from the group European Bioplastics said that Asia and Europe accounted for 26 and 41 percent of global bioplastic capacity in 2022, compared with 19 percent in the United States.

Carter told the audience she hopes the policy can elevate U.S. industry in the next five years.

"Five years from now, I envision the U.S. no longer have a side or back seat when it comes to an American-made industry, biotech is an American-made industry," Carter said. "For a number of reasons over the last decade or so, or longer than that, we have kind of taken a back seat while other countries have advanced in this area."