By: Lauren Willard
The United States is one of the few countries that has not enacted legislation to limit the amount of plastic pollution.[i] Consequently, the United States also is one of the largest contributors to plastic pollution in the world.[ii] In recent years, other countries have taken steps in an attempt to limit their contribution to plastic pollution.[iii] The United Nations Basal Convention, which controls the movement of hazardous waste and disposal among the countries who are parties to the agreement, added amendments in 2019 specifically aimed to decrease the amount of plastic traded among the 188 countries who adopted the new amendments.[iv] Despite the continuing issues regarding plastic pollution in the United States, the U.S. did not ratify the convention out of concern they would not realistically be able to implement the requirements in the new provisions.[v] The United States has continued to permit the use of single-use plastics notwithstanding the severe impact the pollution has on the environment and health.[vi] As a whole, Americans agree that the amount of plastic pollution in the country is an urgent problem, but the question remains as to how to best address such a grave issue.[vii]
One proposed solution is the Reducing Waste in National Parks Act.[viii] If this bill were passed it would allow the park’s directors to prohibit the sale of single-use plastic products in National Parks.[ix] The sale of single uses plastic bottles in National Parks inevitably results in plastic pollution throughout some of the country’s most notable and historic areas.[x] The parks must be taken care of so that future generations can enjoy their presence.[xi] With National Parks existing across the nation, including parks in hot climates, there is concern about visitors’ access to water.[xii] To address this issue the park’s directors would be given “discretion in how to implement” the act.[xiii] For many parks, the best solution would be to inform visitors in advance about the procedures regarding plastic use in the parks and encourage them to bring their own reusable water bottles to use at bottle filling stations that would be installed throughout the park.[xiv] The Reducing Waste in National Parks Act would create a unified effort across the country to reduce the amount of plastic pollution in some of the areas Americans are most proud of.[xv]
Plastic pollution is not specific to National Parks, it affects the entire nation, and the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act proposes a solution to that issue.[xvi] This Act takes an aggressive, yet necessary approach to the issue of plastic waste.[xvii] There are three key points The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act tackles, providing assistance to communities impacted by plastic pollution, improving and calling attention to the recycling system, and placing the financial burden of handling the plastic waste on those responsible for producing the plastic waste.[xviii] Plastic pollution disproportionately affects minority communities by infiltrating their neighborhoods with plastic that contaminates “air, water, and soil.”[xix] The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act will call for the implementation of more health and environmental precautions regarding the production of plastic and will incentivize the production of more reusable products in hopes of deterring the purchase of single-use plastic.[xx]
The Reducing Waste in National Park Act and Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act present solutions to the plastic waste problem in the United States, but they are not solutions that come without a cost.[xxi] Recycled plastic is at risk of contamination, and to alleviate that risk, there must be a cost imposed on plastic product manufacturers to implement testing procedures that can detect contamination.[xxii] Recycling itself also requires trucks, equipment, and facilities, which in many cases exceed the cost of new plastic production.[xxiii] While the costs of reducing plastic waste are not negligible they are not nearly as detrimental as the plastic waste problem if we continue to ignore it.[xxiv] Plastic waste is composed of toxic compounds that are not biodegradable and result in a threat to individual health and irreversible environmental harm.[xxv]
In 2016 the United States produced 46 million tons of plastic waste.[xxvi] This number has and will only continue to increase as the nation embraces more consumeristic practices.[xxvii] From water bottles and straws to plastic bags and packing materials, the amount of plastic disposed of by Americans is skyrocketing, and without tangible steps to enact limits on plastic waste, the number will continue to rise.[xxviii] The Reducing Waste in National Parks Act and The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act presents two workable solutions to the plastic problem that Americans should truly consider.[xxix]
[i] Hannah Seo, The US Falls Behind Most of the World in Plastic Pollution Legislation, Envtl Health News (Oct. 4, 2021), https://www.ehn.org/plastic-pollution-2655191194.html [https://perma.cc/4Q4B-HNHG].
[ii] Id.
[iii] Id.
[iv] Basal Convention on Hazardous Wastes, U.S. Dep’t St. Off. Envtl. Quality, https://www.state.gov/key-topics-office-of-environmental-quality-and-transboundary-issues/basel-convention-on-hazardous-wastes/ (last viewed March 4, 2022), [https://perma.cc/W3S7-9Q76].
[v] Id.
[vi] Hannah Seo, supra note i.
[vii] Brian Bienkowski, Americans Agree on Something: Get Single-Use Plastics Out of Our National Parks, Envtl. Health News (Jan. 14, 2022), https://www.ehn.org/plastic-pollution-in-national-parks-2656401490.html [https://perma.cc/4Q4B-HNHG].
[viii] Id.
[ix] Id.
[x] Press Release, Quigley Introduces the Reducing Waste in National Parks Act to Restore Obama-Era Guidelines on Water Bottle Sales, Congressman Mike Quigley Representing the 5th District of Illinois (Sept. 13, 2017), https://quigley.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/quigley-introduces-reducing-waste-national-parks-act-restore-obama-era [https://perma.cc/48LT-RT3L].
[xi] Id.
[xii] Id.
[xiii] Id.
[xiv] Id.
[xv] Bienkowski, supra note vii.
[xvi] Id.
[xvii] See Brett Nadrich, Comprehensive Federal Legislation Addresses the Plastic Pollution Crisis, Break Free From Plastic (March 25, 2021), https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/2021/03/25/comprehensive-federal-legislation-addresses-the-plastic-pollution-crisis/ [https://perma.cc/2Y4B-54SB].
[xviii] Id.
[xix] Id.
[xx] Id.
[xxi] Id., Bienkowski, supra note vii.; Jan Dell, Six Times More Plastic Waste is Burned in the U.S. than is Recycled, Plastic Pollution Coalition (Apr. 30, 2019), https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2019/4/29/six-times-more-plastic-waste-is-burned-in-us-than-is-recycled [https://perma.cc/JD7W-KMCR].
[xxii] Dell, supra note xxi.; Emergin Issues in Food Waste Management Plastic Contamination, U.S. Envtl. Protection Agency (Aug. 2021), https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2021-08/emerging-issues-in-food-waste-management-plastic-contamination.pdf [https://perma.cc/N5L2-ZTYA].
[xxiii] Dell, supra note xxi.
[xxiv] Id.
[xxv] Id.
[xxvi] Laura Parker, U.S. Generates More Plastic Trash Than Any Other Nation, Report Finds, Nat’l Geographic (Oct. 2020), https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/us-plastic-pollution [https://perma.cc/9FM9-JM2H].
[xxvii] Dell, supra note xxi.
[xxviii] Id.
[xxix] Bienkowski, supra note vii; Nadrich, supra xvii.