A North Carolina congressman has introduced a bill meant to tackle plastic pollution and improve the sustainability of plastic packaging materials.
Congressman Don Davis said millions of recyclable products end up in landfills every day, including plastics used in agriculture and packaging for fruits and vegetables grown in the state’s agricultural communities, and the current recycling infrastructure is outdated and lacks the necessary resources and investments to address recycling needs, especially in rural communities.
The Accelerating a Circular Economy for Plastics and Recycling Innovation Act will create a single national plastic recycling standard to help increase recycling rates, set a minimum recycled content standard for plastic packaging, and study the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from product materials.
According to the Recycling Partnership, 25% of North Carolina households do not have access to recycling, and those households are primarily concentrated in rural areas.
