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Washington, DC –On Friday, Representative Larry Bucshon (R-IN) and Representative Don Davis (D-NC) introduced legislation that gives the plastics industry a free pass to pollute our air and water under the guise of so-called “advanced recycling.” The bill (HR 9676), which Moms Clean Air Force Co-Founder Dominique Browning has nicknamed “The Free Pass for Plastic Polluters Act,” promotes advanced recycling as a solution to our plastics pollution crisis. But this process is neither advanced nor recycling. Most advanced recycling facilities involve a process called pyrolysis, which burns the plastic trash and turns it into harmful air pollution, chemical wastes, and heavily contaminated industrial fuels. Despite multiple references to “innovation” in The Free Pass for Plastic Polluters Act, this is not a new technology. These incinerators have been around for decades.
“As Climate Week NYC begins with an international gathering of scientists and lawmakers, it is outrageous to see the introduction of this cynical and distorting bill, which was designed to evade pollution controls on the burning of plastics and appears to carry out the wishes of the industry,” said Moms Director & Co-Founder Dominique Browning. “We call this The Free Pass for Plastic Polluters Act. Shame on the petrochemical and plastics industry.”
“The real purpose of this act is anything but benign: to exempt the incineration of plastic from the clean air laws, clean water laws, and solid waste laws that safeguard the health of our families,” said Moms Clean Air Force’s Senior Analyst for Petrochemicals Cynthia Palmer. “It seeks to advance the plastics industry’s agenda by greenwashing plastic waste incineration with eco-friendly terminology and deceptive calculations; promoting misleading analyses; vastly expanding subsidies for plastics incineration infrastructure; and elevating plastics burning as a green technology in the international sphere. This won’t solve our plastics problem, but it will create new ones.”
“The Free Pass for Plastic Polluters Act reads like a gift to the plastics industry,” said Moms Clean Air Force’s Senior Legislative and Regulatory Policy Manager Melody Reis. “It perpetuates the plastics industry’s false narratives, starting with its title, “the Accelerating a Circular Economy for Plastics and Recycling Innovation Act of 2024.’ Burning plastic doesn’t make the plastics supply chain circular – it turns plastic waste into air pollution. By greenwashing plastic incineration as ‘recycling’ and ‘manufacturing,’ and exempting it from air pollution controls, the plastics lobby is creating a false solution to the plastic waste crisis and sacrificing our children’s health in the process.”
Contact DKC News at [email protected] to set up an interview with Dominique, Melody or Cynthia.