Congress should establish a national strategy to reduce plastic pollution

Every summer the Alliance for the Great Lakes’ Adopt-a-Beach program mobilizes thousands of volunteers across eight states to collect trash from the Great Lakes shorelines. To date our volunteers have collected over half a million pounds of trash, of which 85 percent is plastic. The problem with plastic pollution, aside from its volume, is that it doesn’t really go away. It breaks down into much smaller pieces—microplastics—which have been found in our drinking water, our fish and even in human tissue. Our concerns over the health effects of microplastics is one reason why the Alliance observes “Plastic Free July,” which is a worldwide effort to reduce the use of single-use plastics and to develop alternatives to reduce plastic waste.   

Earlier this year the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution, which we were happy to see. The draft strategy, for which the public may provide comments until the end of this month, contains a host of recommendations to reduce, reuse, collect and capture plastic pollution in order to reduce the use of single-use plastics and create a circular lifecycle for plastics currently in use. One of the strategy’s primary goals is to eliminate plastic pollution in the environment by 2040. While EPA’s draft strategy is a good start, the EPA will need to strengthen its accountability measures if they want to actually limit plastic pollution and the harm it causes.

Given that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that plastics pollution will triple worldwide by 2060, and with only about 9 percent of plastics currently recycled, the need for action is long overdue.

The EPA’s draft strategy is ambitious but, critically, entirely voluntary, and not sufficiently focused on producer responsibility to reduce plastic at its source. The EPA currently expects that businesses, citizens and other stakeholders will work together to achieve a plastics-free environment by 2040 just because it’s the right thing to do. This voluntary approach is naïve and likely to be unsuccessful in ridding the environment of plastics.

The Plastics Industry Association has already vigorously opposed federal legislation to ensure that plastic pellets are not released into our waterways. With that opposition still in recent memory, it is hard to believe that the plastics industry would get behind voluntary efforts outlined in EPA’s strategy to do the same.

Instead, federal legislation is needed to establish a strong national strategy to hold plastic producers responsible for reducing their plastic footprint. This legislation should include specific targets for source reduction of single-use plastic; establish uniform standards and approaches to dealing with the challenges posed by single-use plastics and plastic waste; and adopt standardized drinking water monitoring programs.

Presently there is no consensus in Congress on dealing with plastic pollution, although recent hearings on plastic pollution in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee are encouraging. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) recently reintroduced the Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act which will significantly benefit the Great Lakes and other states by requiring the EPA to prohibit the discharge of plastic pellets and other pre-production plastics into waterways. This legislation is a good start to rid our waterways from the threats posed by microplastics.

In addition, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is likely to reintroduce his Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, which would also aim to reduce plastic pollution in our environment and encourage reuse and recycling efforts.

As the Alliance continues our work to protect the Great Lakes and ensure access to clean drinking water for over 40 million Americans, we encourage everyone to urge the EPA to establish a strong and accountable strategy for keeping our waterways free of plastic-associated pollution. Congress also needs to follow through on EPA’s strategy with effective federal legislation to establish a strong national strategy to reduce plastic pollution at its source. If we can do that, hopefully during next year’s Plastic Free July we’ll be marveling at just how far we’ve come.

As the director of federal relations in Washington, D.C., Don Jodrey represents the Alliance and its federal priorities while building upon and maintaining its relationships with members of Congress, their staff, and federal agencies.