The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) joined the call to end the labor dispute causing a slowdown at West Coast ports, the trade group said Thursday. Dockworker demonstrations stemming from the discord between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshoreman Warehouse Union are leading to significant, weeks-long loading and shipping delays at West Coast ports. NWRA—which represents the private waste and recycling industry in the U.S.—underscored the delays’ harmful impact on recycling companies’ ability to export recyclables to overseas end markets.
“The dockworkers’ dispute inhibits the recycling industry’s ability to manage and process recyclables. Our member companies’ reputations as reliable business partners—through no fault of their own—are compromised by these delays,” said David Biderman, NWRA’s vice president of government affairs. “This dispute places undue stress on U.S. industry supply chains and on American communities and companies that depend on revenue from valuable commodities that are sold to Asian markets and not worthlessly stockpiled at our own ports.”
NWRA, having previously expressed its position in a letter in December to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, reiterated its support as several congressional representatives, including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California), held a press conference Thursday afternoon at the U.S. Capitol, calling for a bipartisan resolution.
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