Plastics Industry Bill Threatens People's Health

A newly introduced House bill, H.R. 9676 by U.S. Reps. Larry Bucshon and Don Davis, would, in effect, carve out dangerous exemptions to existing federal law so that plastics incinerators can operate without meeting vital protections for people's health and the environment. Environmental Defense Fund strongly opposes this legislation, which was developed with the American Chemistry Council and other plastics industry lobbyists.

“For the last few years, industry lobbyists have touted an unproven potential solution to the plastics crisis. So-called ‘advanced recycling,’ a name often used for the burning of waste plastic, proposes essentially to produce an oil that would then be used to create more plastics. Burning plastics, however, does not produce new plastics. So, it’s not actually advanced—or recycling. It is incineration by another name.  To weaken federal protections in favor of so-called “advanced recycling” is to threaten our health and environment. What we need are real solutions grounded in science, not greenwashing.”