Organizations team to promote sustainable materials management for plastics
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) Plastics Division (https://plastics.americanchemistry.com/default.aspx) is partnering with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promote sustainable materials management (SMM) for plastics. SMM offers a systematic approach to more efficiently use and reuse materials throughout their life cycles to reduce environmental impacts and waste.
Through the partnership, EPA and ACC will work together to decrease disposal rates by tracking and lowering the overall amount of plastics disposed through activities that enable source reduction, reuse, recycling and prevention. The EPA and ACC will also aim to reduce environmental impacts — including greenhouse gas emissions, water and energy use — of plastics throughout their life cycles. In addition, the groups want to increase stakeholder capacity to implement SMM through technical assistance and raising the per-capita quantity of plastic recyclables recovered.
“We believe that there are great gains to be made for the environment, our society and our economy by working together with the ACC on this important issue,” said Barnes Johnson, director of EPA’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery.
Steve Russell, ACC’s vice president of plastics, said “sustainable materials management can help us make more informed choices that conserve resources and reduce overall environmental impacts.”
Through the SMM partnership, EPA joins the Wrap Recycling Action Program (WRAP) campaign (http://www.plasticfilmrecycling.org/wrap/wrap-1.html), a public-private partnership with the goal of increasing the volume of recycled plastic wraps and bags through public education and sharing tools and best practices.
More than 18,000 stores across the United States collect plastic film for recycling, but many consumers are not aware of this opportunity. WRAP seeks to educate consumers about the many types of everyday packaging that can be recycled at stores. Several additional states are expected to announce WRAP partnerships early next year. Retailers involved in regional WRAP campaigns include Safeway\Albertsons and Harris Teeter.
Plastic film is one of the fastest growing areas of recycling with collection growing 79 percent since 2005, according to the EPA. At least 1.17 billion pounds of postconsumer film was recovered in 2014, and the recycling rate grew to 17 percent.
“There is still a long way to go — only 9.5 percent of plastics, by weight, were recycled in 2014. It is an area that is ripe for growth,” Johnson said.