Washington — The head of the American Chemistry Council says the plastics industry could be getting more favorable legislation in Congress that would be an “alternative framework” to the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act.
The Break Free Act, which was first introduced in 2020 by Democrats on Capitol Hill, includes some features that plastics groups have strongly opposed, like limits on permitting of new plastics plants while the government updates emissions rules.
But it’s also been the most — and in some ways only — comprehensive plastics legislation in Washington. Industry groups have generally lined up behind much more limited bills.
That now appears likely to change, ACC President and CEO Chris Jahn told a meeting with reporters Feb. 8 at the close of an ACC board meeting in Washington.
“We expect that there will be a bill introduced that will provide an alternative framework approach to the Break Free bill, and we expect that that will happen relatively soon,” Jahn said. “We’re having bipartisan conversations with multiple members of Congress.”
Jahn declined to discuss details of the legislation or which members of Congress may introduce it, but he pointed reporters to a five-point framework for national legislation that ACC unveiled in mid-2021.
That framework includes 30 percent recycled content in plastic packaging by 2030, national recycling standards, a regulatory system that allows for the “rapid scaling” of chemical recycling while growing mechanical recycling, and producer responsibility legislation for packaging.
“Members of Congress will decide what they want to do and where they want to go with it,” Jahn said. “We would expect an alternative vision to be introduced in the near term.”
One industry source said ACC’s five-point plan is “a starting point, not an end point” in talks around any potential bill.
That source, speaking on background, said the legislation could contain four of ACC’s framework points but may not include extended producer responsibility, since EPR generally applies to all packaging material types.
The Break Free Act includes EPR, as well as minimum recycled content standards for beverage containers, food service items and packaging, as well as bans on some single-use plastics that are not recyclable. It also includes a national container deposit program.
Regulation of chemical recycling, or advanced recycling as ACC and some industry groups call it, has been a hot button in Washington and in state governments.
Some Congressional Democrats have pushed for tighter rules and the Environmental Protection Agency opened a rulemaking in 2021 on how it should regulate the technology.
Environmental groups and others skeptical of the technology question how much plastic waste it can process economically as well as say its emissions pollute nearby communities.
At the same time, ACC and other industry groups have successfully passed advanced recycling legislation in 21 states. Industry groups have said standards would provide clear rules for investments in advanced recycling facilities.
Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions Co. and chair of ACC’s board, told reporters that laws should recognize advanced recycling as part of plastic waste solutions.
“There’s individuals that want to not recognize the tons that come from advanced recycling as being legitimately recycled,” McKee said. “We’re trying to solve a problem of unmanaged waste in the environment.
“All forms of recycling help us as a society to solve that problem, and therefore to start to pick winners and losers of this or that type of recycling is very frustrating for the industry because it is imperative that we get on with all available forms of recycling. I think that’s really critical,” she said.
The industry source said there’s been detailed discussion around legislative language on many topics.
“We’re talking about trying to put into law industry and transformational change, amid large debates happening at the state level and large debates happening internationally,” the source said. “There has been a ton of back and forth on legislative language.”
Recycling and waste management policy in the U.S. has historically been more of a local government concern, and the source said that Congressional committees and their staff sometimes appear reluctant to expand Washington’s role.
“Their initial skepticism is [that] industry is asking for Congress to take over the recycling system,” the source said. “We’re like, ‘No.'”
The industry’s other main trade association in Washington, the Plastics Industry Association, has recently signaled changes in its policy positions, telling a Senate committee in December it could support bottle bills and EPR fees on packaging to help fund recycling infrastructure, if they were “crafted correctly.”
The source pointed to international regulatory activity like the United Nation’s plastics treaty talks as one factor pushing change for the industry.
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