The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the 2021 national recycling strategy, hoping it can be used to tackle critical recycling challenges and create a stronger, more resilient and cost-effective municipal solid waste recycling system.
“Our nation’s recycling system is in need of critical improvements to better serve the American people. EPA’s national recycling strategy provides a roadmap to address system challenges and pave the way for the future of recycling,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a news release. “As we move forward with this strategy, EPA is committed to ensuring that historically underserved and overburdened communities share in the benefits that our work will deliver.
"Together with the historic investments in recycling from the bipartisan infrastructure deal, the strategy will help transform recycling and solid waste management across the country while creating jobs and strengthening our economy,” he added.
The 2021 strategy also marks the first time the government agency’s recycling strategy will address the climate impacts of producing, using and disposing of materials and focus on the human health and environmental impacts of waste and waste-related facilities in overburdened communities. This reflects the agency’s commitment to delivering environmental justice.
Much of the action came on National Recycling Day (Nov. 15) and is seen as moving toward the agency’s overall goal of achieving a 50% recycling rate by the end of the decade. Over the next few months, EPA officials said they plan to work collaboratively with stakeholders to develop a plan to implement this year’s strategy, which includes improving the collection of recyclables and recycling data and reducing contamination in the recycling stream.
The new plan puts primary focus on addressing the adverse effects of recycling on poor and minority communities that come from problem areas like incinerators and scrapyards.
Although the new initiative seems to still be a work in progress, it already points to several studies that the EPA plans to conduct. These include an assessment of the needs in the recycling infrastructure system and an analysis of policies that could make recycling easier.
The plan also commits the agency to creating a new goal for reducing the climate impacts of the production, consumption and disposal of waste items.
