{"id":157,"date":"2021-11-22T09:39:35","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T13:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/?p=157"},"modified":"2021-11-22T09:39:35","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T13:39:35","slug":"esg-epa-announces-national-recycling-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/2021\/11\/22\/esg-epa-announces-national-recycling-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"ESG – EPA Announces National Recycling Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)<\/strong> released its National Recycling Strategy<\/strong>.\u00a0 Interestingly, as they have not always been aligned on issues in the past, the American Chemistry Council\u2019s (ACC) Plastics Division<\/strong> issued the following statement …\u201cAmerica\u2019s Plastic Makers\u00ae today welcomed EPA\u2019s National Recycling Strategy<\/strong>, which will help the U.S. achieve its goal of recycling 50% of post-use materials by 2030<\/strong>. EPA\u2019s Strategy also recognizes the potential of advanced (chemical) recycling technology to transform plastic recycling rates<\/strong> in the United States. Advanced recycling is critical for achieving a more circular economy for plastics. Since 2017, 65 advanced recycling projects have been announced that have the potential to divert more than 5 million metric tons of waste annually from landfills.\u201d

\u201cThere is significant alignment in what America\u2019s Plastic Makers are calling for in our 5 Actions for Sustainable Change<\/strong> and what EPA has laid out in its National Recycling Strategy. This is particularly evident in the Strategy\u2019s support of increasing domestic markets for recycled material, creating national recycling standards to reduce contamination and measure results more effectively, and enhancing recycling infrastructure<\/strong>.

Further to this end, the ACC called on Congress to further help the EPA implement its strategy and achieve its recycling goals by enacting policies such as a national standard requiring plastic packaging<\/strong> to contain 30% recycled plastic by 2030 and an American-designed producer responsibility system to improve recycling access and collection of all materials.\u00a0 While some might view this as enlightened self-interest given the 70% no- recycled plastic, this author prefers to focus on the positive attribute of having a 30% recycled content requirement and the positive progress this will represent on this front.

Per the ACC, \u201cconsumers want packaging with more recycled plastics material, more than 400 brands have committed to increasing the amount of recycled material<\/strong> in their packaging, and America\u2019s Plastic Makers have set a goal to have 100% of plastic packaging<\/strong> to be reused, recycled, or recovered in the U.S. by 2040<\/strong>. EPA\u2019s Strategy lays the groundwork to make much of this possible.”

Triple Bottom Line<\/strong> – While it is sometimes easy to be cynical about alliances and partnerships in the ESG and sustainability space, in this instance it is nice to see the alignment of the EPA and the ACC regarding increasing recycled content and setting industry wide standards with the ultimate goal to create a 100% goal for recycled, reused or recovered for particular materials.\u00a0 N

Duane Morris<\/strong> has an active ESG and Sustainability Team<\/strong> to help organizations and individuals plan, respond to, and execute on Sustainability and ESG planning and initiatives within their own space. We would be happy to discussion your proposed project with you. For more information, or if you have any questions about this post, please contact Brad A. Molotsky, Nanette Heide, Jolie-Anne S. Ansley, David Amerikaner,\u00a0 Seth Cooley, Vijay Bange, Stephen Nichol<\/strong>, or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its National Recycling Strategy.\u00a0 Interestingly, as they have not always been aligned on issues in the past, the American Chemistry Council\u2019s (ACC) Plastics Division issued the following statement …\u201cAmerica\u2019s Plastic Makers\u00ae today welcomed EPA\u2019s National Recycling Strategy, which will help the U.S. achieve its goal of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “ESG – EPA Announces National Recycling Strategy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":285,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[248,254,247,251,253,250,252,22,52,249,225,71,49,155,134],"ppma_author":[7],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-100-plastic-recycling","tag-254","tag-247","tag-5-actions-for-sustainable-change","tag-50-post-use-material","tag-acc","tag-american-chemistry-council","tag-brad-a-molotsky","tag-david-amerikaner","tag-epa","tag-jolie-anne-s-ansley","tag-nanette-heide","tag-seth-cooley","tag-steve-nichol","tag-vijay-bange"],"authors":[{"term_id":7,"user_id":285,"is_guest":0,"slug":"bamolotsky","display_name":"Brad A. Molotsky","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2021\/02\/molotskybrad-100x100.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/285"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}