Senate lawmakers have reintroduced two pieces of bipartisan legislation focused on improving the nation’s recycling and composting systems, said Recyclingtoday.
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) have reintroduced The Recycling and Composting Accountability Act as well as the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act.
Both bills were introduced last year, and they had support from several industry groups, including the National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA), the Plastics Industry Association (Plastics) and the Solid Waste Association of North America. Senate lawmakers passed these bills in August 2022; however, the companion legislation introduced in the House of Representatives did not proceed past a hearing in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change.
According to a news release from the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which is chaired by Sen. Carper, the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act would improve data collection on the nation’s recycling systems and explore the potential of a national composting strategy. The legislation would require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to collect and publish data on recycling and composting rates across the country to provide an accurate reflection of performance both nationwide and at the state level.
The Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act would establish a pilot recycling program at the EPA, which would award grants on a competitive basis to eligible entities for improving recycling accessibility in communities. According to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, the goal of this program is to fund eligible projects that would significantly improve access to recycling systems in underserved communities through the use of a hub-and-spoke model for recycling infrastructure development.
We remind, more than 120 European packaging industry associations issued a joint letter urging co-legislators to preserve the internal market legal basis of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation in its entirety, as the best way to achieve the environmental and economic objectives of the proposal. The internal market legal basis addresses the differences among the various national rules on the management of packaging and packaging waste and resulting internal market barriers, while providing a high level of environmental protection.
mrchub.com