Calling plastic pollution one of the world’s most pressing environmental problems, the Biden administration on Friday said that the federal government, the biggest buyer of consumer goods in the world, would phase out purchases of single-use plastics.
The administration also said it planned tougher regulations on plastic manufacturing, which releases planet-warming greenhouse gases and other dangerous pollutants.
The efforts, which the White House called the first comprehensive strategy to tackle plastic use nationwide, aim to reduce demand for disposable plastic items while also helping to create a market for substitutes that are reusable, compostable or more easily recyclable.
Brenda Mallory, who heads the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement that the changes would “require unprecedented action at every stage of the plastic life cycle.” Because of its purchasing power, the White House added, “the federal government has the potential to significantly impact the supply of these products.”
The emphasis on curbing plastic use mirrors a growing recognition that the world can’t recycle or manage its way out of a deluge of plastic waste. Global plastic production rose nearly 230-fold between 1950 and 2019, to more than 400 million tons a year, and is expected to quadruple from current levels by 2050. An estimated 40 percent of that is single-use plastic, which makes up the bulk of the world’s plastic waste.
Around the world, the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic enters the ocean every minute, experts estimate. And as those materials break down in the environment, microplastics are turning up in the stomachs of fish, birds and other animals, as well as in human blood and tissue.
Negotiators trying to hammer out a global plastic-waste treaty have also tried to include measures that would curb plastic demand and production, though that approach has faced pushback from producers of oil and gas, because petroleum makes up the building blocks of plastic.
Some environmental groups say that the United States still lags in tackling plastic waste, especially compared to nations in Africa like Rwanda and Kenya, which have adopted national bans on single-use plastic bags, and have led the global push to curb plastic. Within the United States, 12 states have adopted plastic bag bans, including California, Colorado, New Jersey and New York.
The cornerstone of the federal government’s plan is to phase out purchases of single-use plastics for food, events and packaging by 2027. By 2035, it will banish single-use plastics from all government operations.
Overcoming some of these changes will be no easy feat.
The White House said some steps would be as mundane as switching to refillable printer cartridges and cleaning supplies and eliminating single-use plastic bottles, instead installing water-refill stations at government facilities. The Defense Commissary Agency is phasing out plastic bags in checkout lanes at U.S. military bases worldwide, while the Navy is reining in plastic waste generated aboard submarines and surface ships.
Other reductions could be more difficult to achieve, particularly if they involve single-use plastics for, say, emergency medical use or for materials designed for combat settings, where speed and efficiency are important considerations.
The United States generates more plastic waste than any other country. The average American generates almost 500 pounds of plastic waste a year. Only about 9 percent of plastic collected through municipal solid-waste collection programs is recycled, while the rest ends up in landfills or else incinerated, shipped overseas or dumped into the environment.
Stronger federal regulations on plastics manufacturing are also in the works.
The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to regulate harmful per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or “forever chemicals,” created during the manufacture of plastic containers. That came after a federal court this year blocked an attempt by the E.P.A. to ban a major container manufacturer from producing PFAS.
The Biden plans come with a big political asterisk. If former President Donald J. Trump retakes the White House in the November presidential election, his administration would be widely expected to roll back environmental and climate rules.
Still, if the effort sticks, it will “have a global impact,” said Christy Leavitt, plastics campaign director at Oceana, an international advocacy organization dedicated to ocean conservation. “The U.S. has been a laggard on national action to address plastic pollution,” she added. Today’s commitment, at least, “puts the federal government in the driver’s seat to tackle its own plastic use.”
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