ICYMI: Biden-Harris administration announced a huge plan for tackling single-use plastics

ICYMI: Biden-Harris administration announced a huge plan for tackling single-use plastics

Yes, you read that right! And you might be thinking, “why haven’t I heard anything about this yet if it’s so huge?” Well, July was a WILD month for the news cycle— only two days after the White House made this announcement, President Biden decided to step down from the 2024 bid for re-election. All of the media attention shifted immediately towards his announcement and left little space to talk about an issue that’s always on the top of our minds at Greenpeace: plastics. 

On July 19th, 2024, The Biden-Harris administration’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released a plan to phase out single-use plastics from federal operations. This is the first time that the President has acknowledged the severity of the plastics pollution crisis and the scale of what is needed to tackle it. While the plan isn’t perfect, it is still a milestone worth celebrating. Greenpeace supporters and the Break Free From Plastic movement have been calling on the White House to do more on plastics for years – and they have finally heard us. 

So, what is actually outlined in the plan?

 

Things worth celebrating:

• An acknowledgement that plastic particles (microplastics) and chemical additives used in its production could pose a risk to human health, specifically recognizing that exposure to these chemicals is “particularly dangerous during vulnerable stages of life, including pregnancy, infancy, and childhood.”
• An acknowledgement that plastics are harmful at every stage of their lifecycle and “will require unprecedented action” to confront these harms at every level
• An acknowledgement that plastics are contributing to climate change and that the projected growth of plastic production is therefore unsustainable
• A commitment to addressing the plastic pollution crisis through “coordinated action from all levels of government”
• An acknowledgement that communities living near petrochemical facilities and refineries are subjected to higher levels of pollution and adverse health impacts, and that tackling plastic pollution will require “reining in the pollution from petrochemical production that is poisoning communities and driving climate change”
• A goal was set to phase out federal procurement of single-use plastics from food service operations, events, and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035
• The report supports the development of an “international agreement” – aka the Global Plastics Treaty – that is “commensurate to the scale and breadth of the plastics problem.” 
• In the report, the Biden-Harris Administration recognizes that advancing environmental justice is part of addressing the plastic pollution crisis. Furthermore, it specifically calls for respecting the sovereignty of Tribal Nations and incorporating Indigenous knowledge in decision-making and research, as they are “on the front lines of the plastic pollution crisis.”

Things we’d like the administration to improve on:

• More emphasis on the need to shift to systems on refill and reuse (mentioned 29 times) and less emphasis on recycling (mentioned 117 times) as a solution. On average, only 5-6% of plastics are being recycled in the US, so we know that this isn’t a real solution for tackling the plastic pollution crisis.
• The report maintains the position that the U.S. cannot support measures requiring states to go beyond existing federal law, which is insufficient both domestically and abroad as this would risk severely undermining the strength of a Global Plastics Treaty needed to meet the scale of the plastic pollution crisis.
• Though it acknowledges the full supply chain must be addressed, the report fails to lay out any concrete upstream actions that would do this effectively.
• It fails to make any mention of the need for corporate accountability as a key solution to address plastic pollution.
• By calling to “reduce pollution from plastic production” rather than “reduce plastic production,” the report misses a key opportunity to align with both peer-reviewed science and global public opinion, which overwhelmingly support plastic production reduction.
  Instead, the report reinforces the industry-friendly narrative framing plastic pollution as primarily a downstream pollution problem. As a result, it proposes insufficient, off-target downstream solutions such as funding new recycling infrastructure, instead of tackling plastic pollution at the source by capping plastic production.
• The plan and recommendations proposed in the report are neither clear commitments nor are they legally binding. Furthermore, we have yet to see the CEQ’s perspectives outlined in this report align with other government agencies in a consistent manner. 

The final scheduled round of negotiations for the Global Plastics Treaty are taking place in Busan, South Korea this November. We will still be urging the US to lead by advocating for a strong international agreement that cuts plastic production by at least 75% by 2040, ends single-use plastic, and ensures a just transition for impacted communities. The Biden-Harris Administration has an opportunity to secure a strong legacy on environmental protection by taking decisive action on plastic pollution that meets their commitment to ambitious actions that address the full lifecycle of plastic. 

Is there still more work to be done? Of course! But this is a great step in the right direction and we couldn’t have done it without your support. Thank you to those of you who made calls to the White House and to the 137,000 of you who have signed our petition asking the Biden-Harris administration to support a strong Global Plastics Treaty.