On July 19, 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration released its first comprehensive government strategy: to phase out single-use plastics from federally procured food service operations, events, and packaging by 2027, and to eliminate single-use plastic purchases by 2035 from all federal operations.
The document, titled “Mobilizing Federal Action on Plastic Pollution: Progress, Principles, and Priorities,” builds on previous President Biden executive orders to catalyze clean energy, industry, and jobs through federal sustainability and the President's Federal Sustainability Initiative, with the goal of guiding the federal government toward net-zero purchasing, including the removal of single-use plastic products, by 2050.
Achieve a whole new set of goals by choosing reusable, compostable, and highly recyclable products to replace single-use plastic products in the food service sector, elevating the presidential decree obligations incumbent on the agency.
However, this strategy is not implemented by law and, therefore, may be changed by future governments. It is, however, the first government-wide strategy to reduce primary plastic pollution and recognizes that the plastic pollution crisis is encompassed throughout the entire life cycle, starting with the use of fossil feedstocks for the production of plastics and ending with microplastic pellets.
The U.S. federal government is the largest purchaser of consumer products in the world, spending $600 billion annually. The strategy reads, “Because of the enormous purchasing power, the federal government has the potential to dramatically impact the supply of these products through purchasing changes that reduce the demand for primary plastic products.”
Communities in the United States and around the world are facing a plastic pollution crisis. Plastic production and waste has doubled in the last 20 years, littering the air, polluting the air in communities near manufacturing plants, and threatening public health. The Biden-Harris Administration recognizes that pollution can occur at every stage of a plastic's life cycle, affecting communities concerned about environmental justice in varying proportions, leading to biodiversity loss, and exacerbating the effects of climate change.
President Biden is committed to taking ambitious action to end plastic pollution and is working with the international community.2024 On July 19, the Biden-Harris Administration released the first comprehensive government strategy designed to address plastic pollution during production, processing, use, and disposal. Mobilizing Federal Action to Address Plastic Pollution: Progress, Principles, and Priorities, a document outlining existing and new federal actions to reduce the pollution impacts of plastics throughout the plastic life cycle and calling for sustained, coordinated collaboration with state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, local communities, the private sector, and other stakeholders to address the scale and breadth of the plastic pollution challenge.
Additionally, the Biden-Harris administration announced a brand new goal to phase out single-use plastics from federally procured food service operations, activities, and packaging by 2027, and to expand to all federal operations in 2035. This commitment builds on President Biden's previous executive orders, the Federal Executive Order on Sustainable Development for Clean Energy Industries and Jobs, and the President's Federal Sustainability Plan, which directs the federal government to achieve net-zero purchasing by 2050, including phasing out purchases of single-use plastic products. The new goal is to be achieved by choosing reusable, compostable, and highly recyclable products to replace single-use plastics in food service, elevating the agency's obligations under the Presidential Order.
Today's actions further leverage the purchasing power of the federal government to reduce emissions, protect public health, and stimulate new markets for sustainable products. They also strengthen domestic initiatives and reinforce U.S. leadership in the ongoing international effort to develop a strong agreement to address the global plastic pollution crisis.
Mobilizing Federal Government Action on Plastic Pollution: Progress, Principles and Priorities
In Mobilizing Federal Action on Plastic Pollution: Progress, Principles, and Priorities, the federal government formally acknowledges for the first time the severity of the plastic pollution crisis and the scale of response needed to effectively address it. Developed by the Biden-Harris Administration's Interdepartmental Policy Committee on Plastic Pollution and the Circular Economy, the report outlines key principles for reducing plastic pollution, areas of focus for federal agencies, and opportunities for further action:
Assessing and Reducing Pollution from Plastic Production: More than 90 percent of plastic comes from fossil fuels. Under President Biden's leadership, federal agencies are taking steps to reduce pollution from fossil fuel extraction and plastic production. This includes chemicals of concern as well as a range of harmful air pollutants and volatile organic compounds, some of which are known carcinogens. Combining these measures with improved data collection is necessary to fully understand the environmental and human health risks of plastics production. This work is consistent with EPA's ongoing efforts to meet the goals of the Biden Cancer to the Moon program.
Innovative materials and product design: Agencies are moving forward in exploring alternative materials and processing methods. Innovations in materials and services can help ensure that products are compatible with waste management systems and have minimal impact on human health and the environment. Actions include participation in the development of standards to promote recyclability and reuse, innovations in materials management, and additional research and development on materials that will create a more circular economy.
Reducing Plastic Waste Generation: A key step in reducing the amount of plastic waste generated is to limit the initial use of materials that are unnecessary, difficult to manage, or may end up polluting the environment. Federal agencies are leading by example by targeting specific items or pollution pathways to reduce single-use plastics in their own day-to-day operations, such as by introducing more environmentally friendly systems, such as water refill stations, as alternatives to single-use plastic bottles.
Improving environmentally sound waste management: President Biden's “Invest in America” agenda is helping to improve environmentally sound waste management, especially in communities already overburdened by pollution. To ensure that plastic waste is handled properly, additional actions are needed to improve environmentally sound and worker-safe waste management practices and related infrastructure needs. These include optimizing plastic collection, enhancing plastic recycling and other measures to prevent plastic waste from entering the environment.
Notification and conduct of plastic pollution capture and removal: Several federal agencies are leading efforts to clean up existing plastic pollution and prevent additional plastic pollution from entering the environment, including the oceans. Additional actions are needed to improve the capture of plastics, including before they enter the waste management system, and to address and prevent their escape during the waste management process.
Biden Harris Administration Leadership Tackles Plastic Pollution
Today's announcement showcases the Biden-Harris Administration's efforts to address the full life cycle of plastic pollution. Examples of agency leadership include:
ADDRESSING CHEMICAL MANUFACTURING POLLUTION IN PLASTICS PRODUCTION AND ADVANCING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Under President Biden's leadership, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing critical health protections for the hundreds of thousands of people who live near factories that produce the chemicals used in plastics and other products, including finalizing a rule that, in order to reduce the emission of toxic air pollutants and hazardous pollutants that contribute to smog, is expanding the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) program , to increase public awareness of emissions associated with plastics production, and beginning a risk assessment under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for five chemicals used in the production of plastics, including vinyl chloride.EPA is also currently evaluating several flame retardant and phthalate chemicals used in plastics under the TSCA.
Reducing Single-Use Plastics on Public Lands and in Department of the Interior Facilities: Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland issued Ministerial Order 3407 to reduce the purchase, sale, and distribution of single-use plastic products and packaging throughout the department, with the goal of phasing out single-use plastic products within the Department of the Interior's administration by 2032. In support of this effort, the Department is working to provide more water bottle filling stations in public places, working with concessionaires to reduce the sale of single-use plastics within the Department's administration, and cleaning up plastic marine debris.
INVESTING INFRASTRUCTURE TO IMPROVE REUSE, RECYCLING AND COMPOSTING: As part of President Biden's Invest in America agenda, the EPA will invest $275 million in solid waste recycling infrastructure grants. The EPA has selected 140 grant projects ranging from recycling, composting and reuse infrastructure improvements to technical support for local waste managers. The grant program marks the first time funding of this magnitude has been dedicated to solid waste infrastructure improvements.
CLEAN UP EXISTING PLASTIC POLLUTION IN THE ENVIRONMENT: Under President Biden's leadership, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded nearly $70 million in federal funding for transformative, multi-year programs to remove large marine debris and capture marine debris using proven interception technologies in coastal, Great Lakes, territorial, and freely associated states across the U.S. NOAA also announced the awarding of $27 million for its first 29 Sea Grant projects, which support coalition-building and innovative research to address long-term marine debris prevention and removal, for $27 million.
