Beyond Plastics Launches New Policy Resource Center to Advance Solutions to Plastic Pollution
For immediate release: January 5, 2023
Contacts:
Judith Enck, President, Beyond Plastics, JudithEnck@Bennington.edu, (518) 605-1770
Jenny Gitlitz, Director of Solutions to Plastic Pollution, JennyGitlitz@Bennington.edu, (413) 822-0115
Beyond Plastics has launched a resource center to aid U.S. policymakers and advocates working on policy solutions to the plastic pollution crisis.
Jenny Gitlitz is serving as the new center’s Director of Solutions to Plastic Pollution. Gitlitz has spent more than 30 years developing programs and conducting research, analysis, and legislative advocacy around recycling and green building.
“Plastic wasting absolutely dwarfs plastic recycling, in the United States and worldwide.” Gitlitz said. “Plastics are not designed to be recycled, and recycling cannot keep pace with the rapid growth of plastic sales. The environmental and health impacts from this waste are proliferating.” For example:
● Environmental justice: Chemicals from plastics production, use, and disposal disproportionately impact people of color, low-income communities, and women.[i]
● Climate change: Global greenhouse gas emissions from plastics production and disposal are slated to more than double over the next 40 years: from 1.8 billion tons of CO2 equivalent in 2019 to 4.3 billion in 2060.[ii]
● Marine pollution: An estimated 14 million of tons of plastic waste enters the oceans each year, harming marine life up and down the food chain.[iii]
● Human health: At every stage of plastics’ lifecycle–manufacturing, use, and disposal– chemicals in plastics adversely affect the human body: including but not limited to the cardiovascular, neurological, reproductive, immune, and endocrine systems.[iv]
Gitlitz said the new policy resource center will focus on supporting policymakers and advocates in adopting the following three policies:
✔ Extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging programs that reduce plastic waste and prohibit chemical recycling.
✔ Beverage container deposit laws (a.k.a. “bottle bills”) - both new and modernized - with recycling targets and minimum requirements for reusable containers.
✔ Bans on single-use plastic products that are environmentally damaging, such as plastic bags, straws, utensils, and polystyrene, with reusable and refillable products promoted as alternatives.
Gitlitz said that these policies will not only lessen the impact of plastic waste on the environment and on human health, but will save tax dollars, especially at the local level.
“For decades, local taxpayers have been saddled with the growing financial burden of managing hundreds of millions of tons of plastic waste,” Gitlitz said. “Bottle bills and other producer responsibility laws put this responsibility where it belongs: on the companies that make and sell wasteful products.”
“We need to reduce our reliance on plastic by 50% over the next decade, and we have the policy solutions to do that at our fingertips,” said Judith Enck, former EPA Regional Administrator and President of Beyond Plastics. “We are launching this resource center to provide policymakers and advocates for the tools they need to take action to reduce the production, use, and disposal of plastics. The resource center will provide model policies, research, and technical support.
To date, four U.S. states have adopted Extended Producer Responsibility laws for packaging: California, Colorado, Maine, and Oregon. Under these laws, packaging producers pay into a fund that reimburses municipalities for the cost of operating recycling programs, but none of these programs require reduction of plastics at the scale commensurate with the problem. Companies will pay more for hard-to-recycle materials (such as polystyrene or multi-material packaging) and are incentivized to design packaging to be more readily recycled, but they must go further in requiring a reduction in the amount of packaging produced, as well a reduction in the toxicity of the packaging.
With this in mind, Beyond Plastics teamed up with partner organization Just Zero to craft a model packaging policy that does more than pay lip service to waste reduction and contains additional important features.
The model “Packaging Reduction and Recycling Act” requires companies to achieve high recycling rates for all packaging materials (70% within 12 years), and to implement waste reduction measures such as refillable bottles or reusable dishware and washing equipment. The model policy sets a goal of 50% waste reduction by weight within a ten-year period and has strong enforcement provisions. It also prohibits the sale of packaging made from polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, or polycarbonate, and packaging containing any of 14 highly toxic compounds. The bill requires additional toxic compounds to be added to the list every three years.
The entire model bill, a summary memo of its features, and a flow chart explaining how the process works can be found on Beyond Plastics’ website: https://www.beyondplastics.org/epr.
“This resource center can jump start anyone who wants to get a local or state law adopted to reduce plastic waste,” Gitlitz said. “There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. We have the model language, and we have a toolkit with grassroots organizing tips and resources. We can provide you with technical support, and we can help you identify and educate policy champions and build a coalition.”
The new policy resource center was made possible by a generous grant from the Minderoo Foundation.
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[i] “Neglected–Environmental Justice Impacts of Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution.” United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Feb. 2017.
[ii] “Plastic leakage and greenhouse gas emissions are increasing.” Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Accessed 1/3/23.
[iii] “Marine plastic pollution.” International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Accessed 1/3/23.
[iv] “Plastic & health: the hidden costs of a plastic planet.” Center for International Environmental Law, Feb. 2019.
