U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, joined the Subcommittee on Chemical Safety, Environmental Justice, and Regulatory Oversight, for a hearing to examine solutions for reducing single-use waste.
On the need to explain reuse and refill to improve circularity and reduce waste:
Chairman Carper:
“I believe that achieving circularity in our economy hinges upon our taking an all-of-the-above approach to addressing our consumption and waste management practices, and I am inspired by the role that reuse and refill infrastructure can play in that transition … Why is it important to consider policy options beyond just recycling as we work to create circularity within our economy?”
Dacie Meng, Policy and Institutions Senior Manager (North America), Ellen MacArthur Foundation:
“We see that recycling isn’t adequate, both in practice and in theory. There is not enough that we can do with recycling due to products that are not easy to recycle, like flexible packaging. And actual systems that are in place that aren’t meeting our needs on recycling. So we have to look beyond recycling for solutions … When we think about looking upstream we see the great opportunity that is there. So we see that if you replace 20 percent of plastic packaging with reusable packaging, that’s a $10 billion opportunity. If you replace 10 percent of the plastic packaging on the market, you can keep 50 percent of plastics out of the ocean annually. So there is a huge opportunity here both economically and environmentally, and we need to be aware of what all of our options are when we think about tackling those challenges.”
On improving reuse and refill infrastructure in federal buildings:
Chairman Carper:
“I believe that reuse and refill infrastructure present a promising alternative to single-use plastics. In the Environmental Protection Agency’s Draft Strategy to Address Plastic Pollution, the agency describes how the federal government should use its power of acquisition and procurement to promote sustainable supply chains for materials that are used in federal buildings. Ms. Meng, do you believe that the federal government could successfully implement reuse and refill infrastructure in some of our federal buildings? What are the best examples of single-use products that could be replaced by reuse and refill infrastructure?”
Dacie Meng, Policy and Institutions Senior Manager (North America), Ellen MacArthur Foundation:
“I will point you first off to the GSA, who has an advisory committee that published a roadmap exactly on this topic for different pilots that can be conducted, both by procurement officers and facility-specific pilots. But when we think about what are some of the actions that the federal government can take and what products can be transitioned to reuse, the obvious ideas are … building the infrastructure for reusable water bottles. And then we can look to the food service areas.”