(AGENPARL) – gio 21 novembre 2024 Issued: Nov 21, 2024 (11:37am EST)
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Biden-Harris Administration Announces National Strategy to Prevent Plastic
Pollution
Strategy to spur domestic and international action to protect communities
affected by plastic from production to waste
WASHINGTON (November 21, 2024) – Today, the United States Environmental
Protection Agency released the “National Strategy to Prevent Plastic
Pollution,” outlining opportunities for action to protect communities from
the impacts of plastic production and waste and detailing how government
agencies, businesses, non-profits, and communities can take additional action
to prevent plastic pollution. This strategy also aligns with the United
States’ commitment to negotiating an ambitious international agreement with
the aim of protecting public health and the environment by reducing plastic
pollution around the world. The strategy is the third pillar of EPA’s
“Building a Circular Economy for All” effort, following national
strategies on recycling and reducing food loss and waste.
“EPA’s new strategy to prevent plastic pollution will have a profound
impact on public health and our environment, especially in overburdened
communities hit hardest,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “From
reducing cancer-causing pollution from plastic manufacturing facilities, to
increasing industry’s accountability to take back recycled plastic
packaging, to capturing waste before it ends up in our bodies and the
environment, this strategy lays out the path forward for EPA and our partners
to tackle this persistent challenge.”
“As a city that has been leading the way on reducing plastic pollution, we
are encouraged by the EPA’s efforts to eliminate plastic waste,” said
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey. “We are proud of our plastic bag ban that
unanimously passed in 2022. So many of these bags were used just once, rarely
recycled properly, littered our streets, sidewalks and rivers and negatively
impacted the health of our residents. We look forward to continuing to find
new and innovative strategies to ensure that Pittsburgh is clean and
pollution-free for generations to come.”
“Plastics have many uses but also create a huge impact on our
environment,” said Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management
Director Terry Gray. “’The National Strategy to Prevent Plastic
Pollution’ presents an excellent road map to prevent these types of
pollution by creating circular economies, returning these materials to supply
chains for recycling and reuse. We recognize and appreciate the leadership by
EPA in developing and finalizing this strategy, considering comments and
feedback from thousands of stakeholders. It will have big benefits to our
environment as we move forward to implementation.”
Example actions from the strategy include:  
Reducing the production and consumption of single-use plastic products and
increasing the U.S. capacity to reuse and refill products, including in the
federal government.
Measuring the environmental and human health impacts throughout the lifecycle
of single-use products.
Enhancing public policies and incentives to decrease plastic pollution,
including working with others to create a national extended producer
responsibility framework.
These actions are in addition to steps that are already underway to reduce
plastic waste:
EPA’s Trash Free Waters Program will strengthen its emphasis on preventing
trash from entering the environment, removing trash in and around waterways,
and disseminating research findings.
EPA set enforceable wastewater standards for industry and has developed
national water quality criteria recommendations for pollutants in surface
waters. In 2024, EPA finalized new requirements for facilities to develop and
submit response plans for worst-case discharges of hazardous substances under
the Clean Water Act, including many chemicals used in plastic manufacturing.
EPA finalized rules in 2024 to reduce emissions of toxic air pollutants
including ethylene oxide and chloroprene, which will result in significant
reductions in harmful air pollution in local communities near plastic
production facilities, including communities with environmental justice
concerns.
EPA’s Risk Management Program rule sets requirements to protect vulnerable
communities from chemical accidents, especially those living near facilities
in industry sectors with high accident rates, including certain plastic
manufacturing facilities. In the spring of 2024, EPA finalized the Safer
Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention rule.
EPA’s Environmental Justice Grants and Technical Assistance Program offers a
variety of funding opportunities for projects that focus on plastic pollution
reduction.
In addition, the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided EPA with funding
to support implementing this strategy through the Solid Waste Infrastructure
for Recycling and Recycling Education and Outreach grant programs. This
includes funding for improvements to reuse and recycling infrastructure, for
education and outreach, and for waste reduction plans.
EPA launched a new platform containing the initial actions EPA is taking to
implement our series of strategies on “Building a Circular Economy for
All.”
EPA is issuing this national strategy as the international community gathers
in Busan, South Korea, for the final meeting of the International Negotiating
Committee on Plastic Pollution,  to develop an international legally binding
instrument on plastic pollution. The strategy will help inform the
international community of the wide range of actions available and already
taken in the United States.
In the bipartisan Save Our Seas 2.0 Act of 2020, Congress charged EPA with
developing a strategy to reduce plastic waste and other post-consumer
materials in waterways and oceans. EPA published the draft strategy in April
of 2023 and received nearly 92,000 comments during the public comment period.
Today’s updated strategy incorporates that feedback and affirms EPA’s
commitment to eliminating the release of plastic waste into the environment by
2040. The opportunities for action in this strategy are designed to combat
climate change through greenhouse gas emission reductions associated with the
lifecycle of plastic products and to reduce public health impacts to
communities overburdened by pollution.
EPA, with input from industry and trade organizations, national and
community-based non-profit organizations, government agencies, Tribes, and
private individuals, identified objectives and actions to address
environmental and human health concerns by eliminating U.S. release of plastic
into the environment and reducing exposure to plastic pollution.
The “National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution” follows the
“National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling
Organics” and builds on EPA’s “National Recycling Strategy” by
identifying actions needed to reduce and recover plastic and other materials,
as well as prevent plastic pollution from harming human health and the
environment. These actions support a circular economy approach to the
management of plastic products—an approach that is regenerative by design,
ensuring resources retain value for as long as possible. It aligns with the
White House’s 2024 Report: Mobilizing Federal Action on Plastic Pollution:
Progress, Principles, and Priorities, which presents a plan for federal
action.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development projects that,
without interventions, global plastic use and waste will almost triple by
2060. Because most plastic products are not reused or recycled, many will end
up incinerated, disposed of in landfills, or “leaked” into the
environment, negatively impacting human health and ecosystems. Plastic
products also contribute to global greenhouse gas emissions, and there are
significant human health concerns associated with plastic pollution across the
lifecycle of plastic products. These concerns impact many fence line
communities, disproportionally low-income and communities of color, near
plastic, chemical and petrochemical processing facilities.
Micro- and nanoplastics have been found in many parts of the body. Studies
show micro- and nanoplastics negatively impact fertility and reproductive
health; potentially put people at a higher risk for heart attack, stroke, or
death; and that some micro- and nanoplastics may contribute to the progression
of colorectal cancer. In addition, some studies raise concerns about
endocrine-disrupting effects from chemicals that leach out of plastic
products, and whether some plastic polymers cross the blood-brain barrier.
There are growing concerns associated with potential threats to children’s
health from micro- and nanoplastics. Microplastics have been found in human
placentas after birth, even following a plastic-free birthing protocol.
Researchers have also found microplastics in human breastmilk.
Learn more about:
Reducing plastic waste
Specific EPA data on plastics
The Circular Economy
EPA’s Trash Free Waters program
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law initiatives
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