New legislation in the United States: plastic packaging contains at least 30% recycled materials
The US Congress has introduced a bipartisan bill, the Accelerating Plastics Circular Economy and Recycling Innovation Act of 2024, which aims to drive plastic recycling improvements across the US to increase the use of recycled materials in packaging.
A draft of the bill before its formal introduction says chemical recycling is necessary to meet 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 rather than a solid waste disposal facility under federal, state or local law. Under the Act, the incineration or burning of plastics is not considered chemical recycling. The bill also proposes to establish a third-party certification system for the quality balance of chemical recycled plastic raw materials.
The bill also requires the content of recycled materials in plastic packaging to reach at least 30% by 2030. This standard will significantly boost the recycling rate of plastic packaging in the United States and incentivise the use of packaging designed for recycling, which is currently only about 13%. The bill is expected to more than double that proportion by 2030, laying a solid foundation for even higher levels of recycling in the coming years.
The bill directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop national plastic recycling standards, and establishes an advisory committee made up of plastic packaging designers, consumer brands, plastic manufacturers, recyclers, chemical recyclers, and solid waste businesses to increase national recycling rates. Currently, there are more than 9,000 recycling jurisdictions in the United States, with diverse recycling practices and a lack of uniform standards.