National Recycling and Compost Bills passed in US Senate

Canada's Recycling categorization

In February 2022 a congressional committee discussed a National Recycling and Compost effort.

On 07/28/2022  bill S.3743 - Recycling and Composting Accountability Act passed the US Senate unanimously.  

Both republicans and democrats were excited to hear about the ideas from the testimonies from the sustainable waste industry leaders.

The bill's goal of assessing the current recycling infrastructure from collection to processing of all different materials while also finding problems and addressing access to roadside pickup of recycling in rural areas.

They discussed aluminum recycling as being a success story because 75 percent of all aluminum is still in circulation still.

Where in contrast plastic looks more like a sham with only 2-10% actually recycled.

It is cheaper to recycle aluminum than mine new raw ore where it is cheaper to create new plastic which makes recycled plastic less valuable. Companies choose to ship the recycling out of countries where it still ends up in open air dumps and the plastic can blow into the ocean. 

This is a bipartisan initiative where rural communities will now have access to recycling by establishing multi recycling facilities drop-off centers where recycling is consolidated(MRFs), and compost centers.

They discussed supply chains and recycling systems throughout the United States noting that some countries such as Sweden have actually achieved zero landfill.

Some zero-waste industry leaders advocated for the constant reuse of each recycled material in a closed-loop system locally to benefit the community in which it was collected. City compost would then become the mulch the city would then later normally purchase. They discussed anaerobic digesters which turn compost gasses captured into electricity. 

(This is 2 hours long and is a good hearing/meeting.)