President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled plans on Friday to phase out single-use plastics in all federal activities by 2035, as part of a larger push to tackle what it described as a growing worldwide catastrophe.
Because the US federal government is the world’s single largest buyer of goods and services, the move might have a huge impact on worldwide markets, encouraging industry to develop new products and lowering the climate-warming emissions linked with plastic production.
“Plastic production and waste have doubled over the past two decades, littering our ocean, poisoning the air of communities near production facilities, and threatening public health,” according to a statement issued by the administration.
The new target states that the federal government will “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 move follows the Biden-Harris administration’s 2022 decision to phase out single-use plastics in national parks and public lands.
According to the non-profit Oceana, around 33 billion pounds (15 million metric tonnes) of plastic enter the oceans each year, including single-use items such as bottles, packaging, takeaway containers and bags.
“We applaud the Biden administration for committing to phase out single-use plastics,” stated Christy Leavitt, Oceana’s plastics campaign director.
The government also announced a new policy, described in an 83-page paper, to combat plastic pollution at all phases of manufacture, processing, usage, and disposal.
The fifth and last round of discussions on a global pact to minimise plastic pollution is scheduled to take place in Busan, South Korea in November.
The World Wildlife Fund warns that unless governments negotiate an ambitious deal with legally binding limits, global plastic pollution will triple by 2040.