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Twenty-seven organizations have called for urgent government action to help deal with the global plastic problem. The Recycle More Bags coalition proposes using legislative action and procurement policy to drive demand for a minimum of 20 percent postconsumer recycled content in some types of plastic bags by 2025.
The United States and Canada have been largely dependent on foreign markets for recycling plastic bags and similar plastic products, such as plastic wrap. Foreign demand for these products has decreased in recent years, primarily as a result of China's National Sword policy, which banned the import of many recyclables.
North America’s recycling industry is now more dependent on the health of domestic plastic film recycling end markets. However, these domestic markets have long been impeded by the continued expansion of domestic oil and gas activity and the low-cost virgin plastic resins that are produced as co-products, the coalition says.
The number of bags and wrap collected through store recycling programs has grown, but that growth is expected to slow or reverse if the dynamics in the marketplace continue, says More Recycling, a Sonoma, California-based company that tracks plastic recycling in the U.S. and Canada. There is a need to recognize the value of using recycled resin in new products to mitigate plastic pollution and to encourage the expansion of the North American circular economy.
The Recycle More Bags coalition consists of stakeholders involved in the plastic recycling industry: industry associations, material recovery facility (MRF) operators, plastic reclaimers, municipalities, environmental nonprofits, recycling consultants and a film plastic stewardship organization. The coalition's signatories, which are situated at various steps along the circular economy supply chain, see a need for government to mandate an increased use of recycled resin in plastic bags. The coalition says it believes government intervention is essential to encourage continued uptake of recycled resins by the plastic film industry, which has been slowed by low pricing of virgin plastics.
The coalition’s call to action proposes a timeline to increase the use of postconsumer recycled content in garbage bags and grocery bags. The vast majority of these two types of plastic bags are made from 100 percent virgin plastic resin. Incentivizing and, where needed, requiring a minimum level of recycled content in these two applications will replace large amounts of virgin material and support the dual goals of increasing plastic recycling rates while ensuring plastic bags are managed in an environmentally responsible manner, the Recycle More Bags coalition says.
Increased demand for recycled plastic resin will in turn create greater incentive for effective and efficient recycling of plastic products, expediting the shift to a circular economy and improved environmental outcomes, the coalition says. For example, if all plastic bags sold in the U.S. and Canada included 20 percent recycled content, it would result in carbon emissions savings of more than 352,700 tons per year.
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An elevated cab is one of several features improving operational efficiency at the Macon County Solid Waste Management agency in North Carolina. When it comes to waste management, efficiency, safety and reliability are priorities driving decisions from day one, according to staff members of the Macon County Solid Waste Management Department in western North Carolina. The agency operates a recycling plant in a facility originally designed to bale incoming materials. More recently, the building has undergone significant transformations centered around one machine: a SENNEBOGEN telehandler (telescopic handler).
"By creating incentives for minimum recycled content, we can both increase plastic recycling rates and help ensure plastic bags are managed in an environmentally responsible manner,” says Robin Wiener, president of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Washington.
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