Japanese Waste Reduction: As we look for best practices to reduce waste we can find inspiration domestically and abroad. There was a great strategy proposed in Japan that would reduce their plastic waste stream by over 50%. In 2018, Japan generated 8.91 million tons of plastic waste, and almost 5 million tons were from the corporate sector. In the next Japanese parliamentary session a bill will be introduced to mandate plastic recycling for all large companies in the country. These companies would be responsible for sorting their plastic waste before collection. This proposal has been endorsed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry and the Environment Ministry. The US does not have a national recycling mandate, we are left with a series of local and state laws without federal guidance to ensure all localitities are recycling. Read more about Japan’s initiatives here!

(Trash bags ripped open in Fairfax County. Photo Credit Clean Fairfax)

Vermont’s Single Use Plastic Ban: When we’re looking for best practices to reduce waste, we don’t need to fly across the Pacific Ocean, we can take a drive up 95. Beginning on July 1, 2020 Vermont banned several single use plastic products. All plastic bags provided free of charge to customers are banned, this includes compostable bags and alll paper bags now come with a $0.10 (cent) fee. Restaurants are no longer allowed to automatically provide plastic straws, they are only available upon request. “Compostable” plastic straws are not an acceptable substitute under Vermont’s law. Food service establishments are not allowed to provide their customers with plastic stirrer sticks. Expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) is not allowed to be used for food or beverage service, the items included in this ban are plates and cups, trays, egg cartons, and take-out containers. Here is all the information about what Vermont is doing to fight the plastic crisis!

If you want to read about the problems around “compostable” plastic and why it is a good thing Vermont clarified their regulations to include compostable plastics in their ban, you can read our past blog on the subject here.

Recycling Evolution: We may sound like a broken record at times, but it is important to continually repeat the fact that WE CAN NOT RECYCLE OUR WAY OUT OF THE PLASTIC CRISIS! For the last 40 years the bulk of the plastic waste we’ve generated has been sent to China. Because of China’s National Sword Policy, only plastic that is 99.5% pure is entering the country. This led to bales of plastic left sitting in material recovery facilities (MRFs) around the US. To meet the demands of the changing global recycling markets, localities around the US have begun to build dozens of MRFs. If there are 36 MRFs being built, the construction costs alone will cost a minimum of $700 million. This construction is funded by taxpayer dollars. We are spending hundreds of millions of dollars without addressing the problem, we can not recycle all of the waste that is being generated even with more MRFs. The most direct solution is forcing these multibillion corporations to play an active financial role in cleaning up the mess they have created. Our communities have supported these businesses for decades while these corporations have only been extracting profits. Read more about how the recycling industry must evolve to meet the future demands of plastic production here.

(Bottles in a Fairfax County Creek. Photo Credit Clean Fairfax)

Fossil Fuel Plans for the Future: Prices for crude oil and natural gas remain extremely low and the fossil fuel industry is looking for strategies to keep their polluting products at the center of our economy. The fossil fuel industry is planning to invest $400 billion to build new petrochemical facilities to manufacture plastics. For every one ton of plastic produced there is a cost of $1000 imposed on society through CO2 emissions, air pollution, and collection of plastic waste. These costs from plastic production are estimated to $350 billion every year. In the next twenty years plastic production is projected to increase by more than 25% which would account for about 45% of all global oil demand which would drastically increase the cost imposed on society. This is why we need legislation like the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act that will slow the production of plastics and place the onus for cleanup and recycling  funding on the corporations who are causing the problem! Read about the fossil fuel gamble on expanding petrochemical facilities and how we can stop their expansion here!