On July 28, 2022, The United States Senate unanimously passed the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act as well as the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act to increase accessibility to, and data collection about, recycling programs in the country. The two bills moved through the senate in five months, quick for national policy, but need to be passed in the House of Representatives before they can become law. Both have received support from the Consumer Brands Association, The National Waste & Recycling Association, and other industry and environmental groups.
The Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act empowers the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make small grants “to fund eligible projects that will significantly improve underserved communities’ accessibility to recycling systems.” The grants would be particularly focused on the installation and maintenance of infrastructure that uses a “hub-and-spoke” model. “This model consists of centralized processing centers (hubs) that receive recyclables from surrounding rural communities (spokes). This hub-and-spoke model reduces the cost for communities to transport recyclables and ensures sufficient material is processed at one hub to make recycling financially viable.”
The Recycling and Composting Accountability Act “aims to: identify the challenges facing America’s recycling and composting infrastructure; improve recycling and composting tactics and data collection; and determine best practices to enhance the recycling and composting of renewable materials.” The EPA would prepare a comprehensive report including the number of recycling programs, the materials accepted, contamination rates, and costs to local governments. Further, the report shall provide an overview of who has access and what are the barriers to accessing recycling facilities.
The national recycling rate is currently only 32%. In February 2021, Consumer Brands Association highlighted the lack of standardized, quantifiable data about the US recycling system as a major bottleneck to achieving the EPA’s 50% national recycling target (FPF reported). And in March 2021, Eunomia used publicly available data to create the “first state-by-state comparison of recycling rates for common container and packaging materials in the US” (FPF reported). The authors identify deposit return systems, curbside recycling, as well as extended producer responsibility schemes as important contributors to effective recycling systems.
References
117th Congress (July 28, 2022). “S.3743 – Recycling and Composting Accountability Act.” Congress.gov
Senator Thomas Carper (August 2, 2022). “Report: Recycling and composting accountability act.” GovInfo.gov (pdf)
117th Congress (July 28, 2022). “S.3742 – Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act of 2022.” Congress.gov
Senator Thomas Carper (August 2, 2022). “Report: Recycling infrastructure and accessibility act.” GovInfo.gov (pdf)
The National Waste & Recycling Association (July 29, 2022). “Senate adopts recycling legislation supported by WNRA.”
John Hewitt (June 30, 2022). “Federal momentum will push us closer to standards that can save American recycling.” The Hill
Office of Senator Shelley Moore Capito (March 24, 2022). “Overwhelming support continues for Capito, Carper, Boozman recycling bill.”
Read more
Katie Pyzyk (August 22, 2022). “Domestic destinations for recycled paper and plastic are growing. Is National Sword the reason?” Waste Dive
Elizabeth Crawford (August 8, 2022). “Legislation aims to ‘fix America’s broken recycling system’ with detailed 2-prong plan.” Food Navigator
Megan Quinn (August 1, 2022). “Senate passes bills for recycling data collection, rural infrastructure grants.” Waste Dive
Can Manufacturers Institute (July 12, 2022). “New Can Manufacturers Institute report shows how the can industry will meet its ambitious recycling rate targets.”
