The Biden administration has announced a plan to target plastic pollution, with a particular focus on “phasing out” single-use plastics such as kitchen cutlery, cups and straws across federal departments and agencies.
President Biden issued an order in July targeting the “climate crisis,” calling for an “all-out response” from all federal agencies.
“The President has committed to taking ambitious action to end plastic pollution and calls on the international community to do the same, with the goal of reducing the global production and consumption of virgin plastics.” The White House.
As part of this plan, the White House For disposable plastics, “Plastic and polystyrene food and drink containers, bottles, straws, cups, cutlery and single-use plastic bags.”
“[T]The Biden-Harris Administration has announced new goals to phase out federal procurement of single-use plastics from food service operations, events and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035. The White House“Achieving the new targets will further strengthen the agency’s obligations. [previous] “Presidential Order”
Biden’s previous executive order aimed to reduce the sale of single-use plastic products on public lands.
Some Republican lawmakers responded to the proposal, slamming the Biden administration’s “ludicrous” and “absurd” priorities.
“The world is on fire and he’s worried about plastic forks,” said Republican Sen. Mike Rounds. He told the Daily Mail.
“This is a high-sentence, absurd and a direct blow to the entire industry,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. “And it’s clear that not everyone cares. It seems unrelated to the deficit issue because it’s going to raise costs for a lot of people.”
Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah said he expected the bill to affect “government workplaces” and “military bases.”
He suggested that instead of cutting back on plastics, we should scale back the size of the federal government’s giant machinery.
“If government wants to reduce its role as a consumer, it should downsize. The reason government is the biggest consumer is because it employs so many people and does so many things it probably never intended to do,” he said.
The Biden administration added that some agency activities may be exempt from the executive order in “national security” cases.
“Agency heads may exempt specific agency activities, and related personnel, resources, and facilities, from the provisions of this order where necessary in the national security interest, to protect intelligence sources or instruments from unauthorized disclosure, or to protect undercover operations from unauthorized disclosure,” the White House said.
