A coalition of more than 500 environmental groups issued a call to action Tuesday to members of President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team, according to an article on wbur. org. The group has come up with eight steps they say the incoming president can take to reduce plastic pollution without congressional approval.
Americans produce more plastic waste then any other people on the planet — per capita, more than 230 pounds a year. Globally, three-quarters is dumped in landfills where it can take five centuries to decompose, and only a small fraction is actually recycled. The rest ends up in the ocean and inside our bodies.
The Biden administration can play a direct role in decreasing plastic pollution by simply purchasing less plastic, says Judith Enck, a former regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency and president of the advocacy group Beyond Plastics.
“The federal government is the single-largest purchaser of goods and services in the country. We spend $450 billion on products and services every year,” she says. “So we’re looking for the federal government to use its immense purchasing power to drive down plastic pollution.”The environmental coalition is also recommending restrictions on permits for new or expanded plastic production facilities connected to fracking sites, which are often located in low-income communities of color. There are about 300 planned projects for new or expanded plastic production sites across the country, Enck says.
Plastics, which were historically made from oil and toxic chemicals, are now created from ethane — a byproduct of fracking — and chemicals, she says. In turn, this has sparked an “enormous increase” in using fracking byproducts to create cheaper plastics.
Enck says it’s going to take innovative ideas from state and local governments to motivate businesses to shift away from cheap, single-use plastics. For example, New York State recently imposed a strict ban on polystyrene foam in food packaging. “I think the solution is local and state laws that prohibit the use of some of the worst offenders,” she says. “We need to see a real shift to a reuse economy that ultimately will save businesses money because they won’t have to purchase all of the single-use plastic packaging over and over again.”
