Environmental Groups Ask Biden to Tackle Plastic Pollution with 8 Executive Actions

A coalition of 550 environmental groups has released a Presidential Plastics Action Plan that includes 8 specific actions President-elect Joe Biden can take upon assuming office next month.

“President-elect Biden can begin solving the plastic Pollution crisis in his first days in office without any help from Congress,” said Julie Teel Simmonds, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity in a statement. “Implementing this historic plan would protect vulnerable frontline communities and marine life while addressing a key driver of Climate change. It’s time to rein in the fossil fuel industry’s insidious plans to keep fracking for plastic and polluting poor communities here and around the world.”

the 8 executive actions the organizations are calling on Biden to take are as follows:

1. Use the purchasing power of the Federal government to eliminate single-use plastics and replace them with reusable products.
2. Deny permits for new or expanded plastic production facilities associated with infrastructure projects.
3. Make corporate polluters pay and reject false solutions.
4. Advance Environmental justice in petrochemical corridors.
5. Update existing federal regulations to curtail Pollution from plastics facilities by using the best available science and technology.
6. Stop subsidizing plastic producers.
7. Join international efforts to address the global plastic Pollution crisis through new and strengthened multilateral agreements.
8. Reduce and mitigate the impacts of discarded and lost fishing gear.

Multiple politicians have endorsed the plan including U.S Senator Jeff Merkley, who was quoted in a press release announcing the plan.

“Nobody wants to go to the beach and see mountains of single-use plastic waste. And plastic production is a major driver of Pollution accelerating the climate crisis that has already claimed lives and livelihoods in every corner of our country. America was creative enough to invent a million uses for plastic, and now we have to use that creativity to clean up our act and design better alternatives. Our kids’ health and futures depend on America tackling this urgent problem,” Merkley said.

If you are looking for more ways to reduce the amount of plastic you use in your life, the “My Plastic Free Life” blog has listed 100 steps to take to live plastic-free.

Sign this petition to encourage world leaders to take action on plastic Pollution.

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