Author: Megan Quinn

Some of the U.S. EPA’s regulatory programs meant to reduce pollution from hazardous waste sites and prevent trash in waterways are falling short, according to a report from the agency’s Office of Inspector General. The independent office within the EPA makes recommendations for agency improvements and releases a progress report every two years. This year’s report calls for the EPA to work more closely with municipalities to prevent plastic pollution in waterways. It also calls on the EPA to better prioritize inspections of hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities (TSDFs), saying infrequently performing inspections increases the risk of pollution and health issues.

Author: Tom Wilfer

Waste illegally imported from abroad has once again been discovered in Poland. According to the authorities, it is said to be large amounts of shredded plastic waste. Waste imported contrary to legal requirements was discovered at the beginning of last week in the district of Nysa, not far from the border with the Czech Republic, according to the Environmental Protection Inspectorate of the Opole District. Further inspections were carried out in the region and the public prosecutor's office was informed of possible criminal offenses. However, the authority initially did not provide any information on the specific quantity or origin.

Author: Aria Bendix

Firefighters in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have contained a gigantic plastics fire that prompted a health alert about hazardous air pollution. But authorities say the debris could still smolder for days. Responders were dispatched on Sunday afternoon to a facility that manufactures and recycles plastic pipes. By then, flames had ignited a storage yard filled with at least an acre of material — old and new pipes, semi-trailers and ground-up material ready to be recycled. A thick cloud of black smoke quickly filled the sky, the result of burning high-density polyethylene, authorities said.

Author: Chang Che

Gary Anderson was a 23-year-old architecture student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles in 1970, when he entered a design contest sponsored by a box manufacturer for a logo to promote the recycling of paper. He won, spawning a symbol that became international shorthand for repurposing waste materials. His design: three folded-over arrow strips, chasing each other in an endless triangle.

Author: Marissa Heffernan

The U.S. EPA asked for input on its draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution, and recycling industry stakeholders have answered.  Many of the nearly 92,000 comments on the draft strategy called for federal deposit return systems and extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs. Industry voices also pushed for a greater focus on marine pollution and for the EPA to enforce plastic reduction targets.

Author: Kyle Davidson

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Thursday announced she was joining a coalition with 13 other attorneys general urging the Biden administration to bolster its strategy to combat plastic pollution.  In the letter, Nessel and attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Vermont called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to implement a broader and more robust plan to improve plastic waste management, and to reduce the production of plastic materials and decrease reliance on them.

Author: Karen Wirsig

There’s a disturbing push for so-called “compostable” plastic to replace single-use plastic items banned by the federal government. That’s a terrible idea and here’s why: “Compostable” plastic isn’t all that compostable. You can make it from oil and gas, or things like corn or sugar cane, but it’s all plastic when it ends up in the environment.

Author: Christine Zhu

A national plastics strategy by the Biden administration has drawn concern over its scope and consistency with existing laws, according to comments on the proposal that closed earlier this week. The Environmental Protection Agency’s draft national strategy to prevent plastic pollution aims to reduce use and build a circular economy—a system where materials are recycled or recovered instead of thrown away. Released in May, the EPA outlined three objectives for the strategy: reducing pollution during plastic production, improving post-use materials management, and removing trash from the environment.

Author: Guia Baggi, Laura Carrer, Rahma Behi, Virginia Kirst

In 2020, 282 containers full of mixed waste bales sailed from Salerno, Italy, to Sousse, Tunisia, in four shipments. Italian customs did not raise any flags. Customs classified them as CA, or automated control (controllo automatizzato in the local language), simply meaning no control. Back then, the COVID-19 pandemic was kicking, and officials relaxed scrutiny of goods between countries. But even outside global emergencies, only a tiny portion of outbound containers undergo some control. In Italy, it’s roughly 2%.

Author: Deanna Toto

American Circular Textiles (ACT), a New York City-based coalition of organizations working to drive circularity in the U.S. fashion sector, submitted a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) July 31, urging the agency to include textiles in its efforts to prevent plastic pollution. The letter, submitted by Rachel Kibbe, executive director of ACT, during the comment period for EPA’s draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution, outlines the pressing challenges of textile waste and proposes solutions to combat the environmental and social impacts caused by the industry.

Author: Recycling Product News Staff

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) has submitted comments in response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) request for public comment on its Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution. "Plastics are an extremely diverse, resourceful group of materials used in our daily lives," says ISRI President Robin Wiener. "Given the complexity of the recycling system and plastics in particular, there simply is no one single answer to the challenges facing plastics materials management in the United States. We applaud EPA for a proposed strategy that recognizes there are many solutions that, taken together, can make a significant difference in keeping plastic out of the environment and instead, circulate these valuable material resources into the manufacturing supply chain. We welcome the opportunity to further collaborate with the Agency and others to advance this proposed strategy."

Author: Clark Mindock

Aug 1 (Reuters) - A group of 14 attorneys general have urged the Biden administration to adopt a more comprehensive strategy to reduce plastic pollution, which they say should include reducing new plastic production and addressing fast-fashion waste. In a letter submitted on Monday to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the attorneys general of California, New York, the District Columbia and others called the plastic pollution crisis “one of the most pervasive challenges of our time.”

Author: Sarah DeWeerdt

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” goes the familiar sustainability slogan. But a new study suggests that people don’t really know what the slogan means or why it goes that way. In an online survey, nearly half of 473 participants were unable to put the 3Rs in the correct order from the most to least sustainable action. Members of the public tend to prioritize recycling, the study reveals, to the detriment of reducing and reusing.

Author: Celia Ford

At the start of his third year of graduate school, Kazi Albab Hussain became a father. As a new dad and a PhD student studying environmental nanotechnology, plastic was on his mind. The year before, scientists had discovered that plastic baby bottles shed millions of particles into formula, which infants end up swallowing (while also sucking on plastic bottle nipples). “At that time,” Hussain says, “I was purchasing many baby foods, and I was seeing that, even in baby foods, there are a lot of plastics.”

Author: Emily Chan

You might not know it, but you’re probably wearing some form of plastic right now. In fact, nearly two-thirds of our garments are made from synthetics such as polyester, nylon, acrylic and elastane – all materials that are derived from fossil fuels, release microplastics into the environment, and don’t biodegrade, taking hundreds of years to break down. Given that so many of us have made a concerted effort to cut back on single-use plastic, it may come as a surprise that there’s so much plastic in our wardrobes. Consider the fact that over 100 billion garments are created every year, and that 70 per cent of our clothes currently end up in landfill, and it’s clear that it’s a huge problem that needs to be addressed.