Bipartisanship is as rare in Washington these days as a lunar eclipse. But it is front and center in a powerful legislative push aimed at addressing weaknesses in our nation’s curbside recycling system, for the benefit of both our environment and our manufacturing supply chain.
A Senate panel recently unanimously approved two measures that would bolster rural recycling and also gather key data on household recycling from across the country in order to expand local collection programs.
The reason behind the Senate effort is the need to strengthen residential recycling by expanding the collection and delivery of greater volumes of high-quality recyclable commodities such as steel, aluminum, paper and plastics that underpin U.S. manufacturing.
According to non-profit The Recycling Partnership (TRP), only half of Americans have access to curbside recycling. And of the 37 million tons of curbside recyclable materials produced each year by single-family homes in the U.S., just 32 percent is being recycled or composted, according to TRP’s 2020 State of Curbside Recycling Report. Residential recycling accounts for well under 20 percent of the entire recycling stream, with the vast majority supplied from industrial and commercial sources.
Improving residential recycling has implications for the Biden administration’s larger environmental goals, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions. According to the TRP report, if all of the yearly single-family recyclables were returned to the manufacturing stream instead of disposed, it would reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 96 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. That’s the energy equivalent of 154 million barrels of oil or taking more than 20 million cars off the road.
Residential recycling is a local endeavor, so funding for it varies from locale to locale, as the Government Accountability Office has recently reported.
The lack of funding for recycling programs hits rural and underserved communities especially hard. As a Pew survey noted, about seven-in-ten people living in urban and suburban communities report having access to curbside recycling, compared with just four-in-ten rural residents.
The issue is being championed by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee. She stresses that rural areas suffer from “lack of funding and inadequate access to facilities. With more sparse populations over greater areas of land, rural communities struggle to sustain proper recycling programs.”
The good news is that a bipartisan initiative by Capito and other lawmakers has generated a groundswell of support for two important bills that are heading to a vote by the full Senate.
The Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act (RIAA) would be the first law dedicated to improving recycling systems in rural and underserved communities. It would establish a pilot recycling program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for awarding grants ranging from $1 million to $15 million to improve recycling accessibility in eligible communities. The program would be focused on promoting hub-and-spoke models, in which communities feed collected recyclables into centralized processing centers.
A companion piece of legislation is the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act (RCAA), which also passed the committee. The RCAA would require the EPA to collect and distribute data on recycling and composting rates across the country including materials recovery facilities and curbside collection programs.
Gathering this data will provide invaluable information on recycling efforts nationwide and at the state-level. As noted by the Senate committee, this information is vital for improving recycling programs. The law also, for the first time, would provide definitions for recycling, recyclable materials and other relevant terms. It’s a small point that will help the recycling system be more effective and efficient.
Surveys show that Americans love the idea of recycling. It is the one thing every concerned citizen can do to help the planet. Passage of these two laws will be a good first step in strengthening America’s recycling so that every household can do its part for the environment and the manufacturing supply chain.
Wiener is president of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association that serves as the voice of the recycling industry.
