On June 6, President Joe Biden's administration announced a new initiative to emphasize alternatives to single-use plastics in government procurement, the first major federal contracting regulation to target plastic waste. The regulation will go into effect on July 8, 2024.
Products without any single-use plastic packaging in the federal government's procurement system will soon be marked with a icon, according to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), which on June 6 finalized single-use plastic packaging rules for federal supply programs. The icon is intended to encourage federal agencies to consider this in their purchasing decisions and phase out the use of single-use plastics.
The regulations say this "will reduce government waste generation and potentially save industry partners money by reducing unnecessary packaging."
The Biden administration is touting a new rule as a means to reduce waste generation, but environmental advocates are quite disappointed, saying the administration squandered the opportunity to outlaw single-use plastics.
GSA is one of the largest agency purchasers in the world, which gives it significant status as a centralized purchasing and shared services provider for the federal government, managing a national real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million square feet, overseeing approximately $100 billion in annual contracts, and providing technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies.
U S. Government June 8, 2022, Secretary's Order 3407 (SO 3407) Reducing Single-Use Plastic Pollution
Single-use plastic products include plastic and polystyrene food and beverage containers, bottles, straws, cups, cutlery and single-use plastic bags that are discarded for single use or intended for single use.
