In April 2020, as COVID-19 ravaged ER’s and ICU’s, the federal response was dismal and deadly. The national stockpile was under-stocked and international supply chains were broken, leaving states scrambling for supplies, often bidding against each other for PPE and ventilators. The White House’s misinformation fueled confusion and skepticism. We were living a dystopian nightmare. Failed leadership gave credence to why a federal, informed, and equitable strategy is mission critical to tackling a national and global crisis. As we approach the 51st anniversary of Earth Day, here are pandemic lessons for recycling.
A Federal Approach
Last year many bills were sidelined due to the pandemic. But like many 2021 do-overs, recycling is now well represented on the Hill. Recently, five new bills have been introduced, or reintroduced to tackle various aspects of recycling. According to Megan Quinn and Cole Rosengren in an article published in Waste Dive, “the anticipated bills could dramatically change the way the U.S. handles recycling in the next few years, whether it’s through infrastructure investments, education, product bans, or bottle bills and extended producer responsibility initiatives.” https://www.wastedive.com/news/tracking-the-future-of-us-recycling-policy-in-congress/570778/
Act Before the Crisis Metastasizes
The five bills: Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, the Clean Future Act, the Plastic Waste Reduction and Recycling Act, (expected to be reintroduced in 2021), the Recover Act, and the Recycle Act, are generating enthusiasm from a pro-environmental White House and new leadership in Congress. Pandemics and environmental crises share a similar Achilles’ heel. They are dismissed, because the prognostication is hard to fathom – until it plays out in real time – which is too late. Scientists acknowledge if the lockdown had occurred even a week earlier and distancing measures had been put into place, 36,000 lives could have been saved in the US. A 2016 report by the Ellen McArthur Foundation estimates, that without a serious course correction, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment is that 100% of plastic packaging will be reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025.
Equitable Access
During the pandemic, a tapestry of social injustice, rooted in access, was exposed in underserved communities. Access to recycling is an issue as well. According to the 2020 State of Curbside Recycling Report authored by The Recycling Partnership, the nation’s leading recycling think tank, “there is not equal access to recycling as there is to trash, and an estimated $9.8 billion in investment is needed to create a truly robust system” The Recover Act offers up to $500 million in matching federal grants for improvements to curbside collection and other related activities. Hopefully, the upcoming infrastructure bill could address the shortfall.
International “Mars-like” Ambitions
International cooperation from researchers, scientists, national health organizations, universities, and governments was unprecedented, and produced efficacious vaccines in record time. Replicating the urgency, funding, and scientific/technological razzle dazzle to create multiple eco-friendly materials as durable and inexpensive as plastic and other packaging materials, in 12-18 months, would be a worthy encore. The breath of human imagination is unlimited, as we were reminded today with the flight of Ingenuity on Mars.
Smokey The Bear Clarity
The divergent messaging between the science-based guidance provided by Drs. Fauci and Birx against the cacophony of untruths, mistruths and half-truths from the administration and its echo-chambers, divided rather than unified the nation, and hamstrung efforts to battle the virus. We needed a Covid version of Smokey The Bear; iconic, apolitical, science-based, transparent, memorable, and coordinated from hyper local to national – harnessing all media/pr/social resources. Recycling will need its own Smokey The Bear. Three of the five pieces of legislation specifically set aside money for education. There may be as much confusion around recycling as there is around Covid – a result of the disparate approaches taken by cities, towns, and states. Systemic change offers an opportunity to reimagine and rebrand recycling post pandemic.
A New Normal
We are not returning to normal. We are taking this moment to reinvent a new normal across our society. The Recycling Partnership has laid the path forward with Recycling 2.0 and the Bridge To Circularity. As Keefe Harrison, Founder, and CEO of TRP explains, “Recycling is and has been the gateway for a circular economy worldview to take hold in our society.” In the circular economy, materials are intentionally designed to create something new, taking pollution and waste out of the equation. Harrison explains, “the shift to the circular economy is underway, and should be amplified. The public is calling for public-private solutions to address the climate crisis and a critical component of that work is overhauling the way we manufacture goods. It’s an economic shift that could pay back environmental dividends for generations to come. It is also doable. We can commit to this better way of doing things.”