A bill that was introduced to create a plastic product stewardship program for Washington is now proposing to study the plastic impacts in the state and evaluate the role of a stewardship program. SB 5397 passed the Senate as a study bill. To read what this bill would have done, see our previous article.
Here’s what the substitute bill is proposing:
- The Department of Ecology (Ecology) must hire a consultant to evaluate and assess the amount and types of plastic packaging sold into the state, as well as its management and disposal.
- Ecology must submit the report to the Legislature by October 31, 2020.
- The report must evaluate the:
- Amount and types of plastic packaging coming into the state;
- Full cost of managing plastic packaging waste, including costs to ratepayers, businesses and others;
- Final disposition of all plastic packaging sold into the state;
- Costs and savings to all stakeholders in product stewardship programs implemented in other cities and solid waste companies;
- Needed infrastructure to manage plastic packaging;
- Contamination and sorting issues for the plastic packaging recycling stream; and
- Existing stewardship organizations and databases useful to develop a program in Washington.
- Near-term legislative options to meet plastic packaging reduction goals, which can be implemented by January 1, 2022.
- The report must include:
- Compilation of all the programs in the state currently managing plastic packaging, including end-of-life management and litter and contamination cleanup;
- Existing studies of the final disposition of plastic packaging and materials recovery facilities residual composition; and
- Review of industry efforts and any other domestic or international efforts and innovations to reduce, reuse, recycle, chemically recycle plastic packaging. Must include technologies such as pyrolysis and gasification processes.
- Recommendations to meet the goals of reducing plastic packaging through industry lead or product stewardship to:
- Achieve 100 percent recyclable, reusable, or compostable packaging in all goods sold in the state by January 1, 2025;
- Achieve at least 20 percent postconsumer recycled content in packaging by January 1, 2025; and
- Reduce plastic packaging when possible optimizing the use to meet the need.
AWC supports this approach as both a near-term, tangible solution to reducing plastic packaging and as an effective step towards creating a long-term solution—a product stewardship program for plastics. SB 5397 would create the informational foundation upon which a stewardship program could launch; and, when doing so, will reduce contamination in our recycling programs and create sustainable markets for every city and town in Washington into the future.