US Congress promotes use of recycled materials in packaging

        A bipartisan bill, the Accelerating Plastics Circular Economy and Recycling Innovation Act of 2024, has been introduced in the U.S. Congress to promote improvements in plastic recycling across the country to increase the use of recycled materials in packaging.

       A draft of the bill before its formal submission stated that chemical recycling is necessary to achieve the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's national recycling goals and contains regulatory measures favored by the plastics industry, including treating chemical recycling as a manufacturing process under federal, state or local law, rather than a solid waste treatment facility. Under the bill, the incineration or burning of plastics is not considered chemical recycling. The bill also proposes a third-party certification system for the mass balance of chemically recycled plastic feedstock

       The bill also requires that by 2030, the content of recycled materials in plastic packaging must reach at least 30%. This standard will significantly boost the recycling rate of plastic packaging in the United States, which is currently only about 13%, and incentivize the use of packaging designed for recycling. The bill is expected to more than double this proportion by 2030, laying a solid foundation for achieving higher recycling levels in the coming years.

       The bill requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop national plastic recycling standards and establish an advisory committee composed of plastic packaging designers, consumer brands, plastic manufacturers, recyclers, chemical recyclers and solid waste companies to increase national recycling rates. Currently, there are more than 9,000 recycling jurisdictions in the United States, and recycling practices vary and lack uniform standards.