Addressing Plastic Pollution: Key take-aways from “Policy Solutions for a Circular Texas” panel discussion at the CEC July Meeting
by Susie Hairston
As most of us know, plastics recycling has never really worked (globally, only 9% of plastics have been recycled, and in the US, only 5% of plastics are recycled). Discussions about a circular economy for plastics keep popping up, but is there really a circular solution for plastics that is sustainable? A panel of experts (Adrian Hernandez, Executive Director of State of Texas Recycling Alliance (STAR), Beth Martin, Houston City Hall Advocate for Environment Texas, and Amanda Hackney, owner of and GIS and research consultant for Black CAT GIS) discussed the problem of microplastic pollution in Texas and policy strategies for plastic reduction at the July CEC monthly meeting. Though residential curbside recycling has never and will never be the solution to plastic pollution, individuals do have a big role to play in reducing plastic waste.
The subject of the environmental and health problems of plastics is broad— plastics are polluting our land, air, and oceans, harming the health of humans and wildlife. Our expert panel discussed a few of the many issues: logistics of materials recovery, plastic nurdle pollution, and the lack of policy in Texas to support reduction and recycling, as well as a few of the myriad proposed solutions and how we can make an actual impact on reducing plastic waste and increasing recycling of plastics.
Nurdle Pollution:
As Environment Texas’s Beth Martin explained, nurdles are small (about the size of a lentil) pre-production plastic pellets that are used to make plastics of all kinds. In Texas, we have 36 nurdle producing facilities. These facilities release nurdles into the environment through leaks, spills, and illegal discharges, where they are very difficult to clean-up.
Logistical Problems with materials recovery
Adrian explained that there is actually a lot of recycling infrastructure available for sorting and processing recyclables in the state. The problem is recovering enough materials to make use of this infrastructure. He pointed out that it is really difficult to aggregate materials and get them to a sorting facility in places like West Texas where homes are miles apart.
Solutions:
Advocate at the local level:
All of the panelists agreed that working at the local level can have a big impact. Convincing your town to put in place a Universal Recycling Ordinance (URO) that requires businesses, office buildings, and multi-family residential buildings to provide convenient recycling and organic waste diversion to tenants, residents, and employees, for example, can have a large impact on your town, but also lead other cities to follow your town’s example.
Additionally, cities often have agreements with recreational sports leagues, allowing the leagues to use their fields and facilities. Cities can require that the leagues provide water dispensers and reusable bottles, ban single-use bottles, and require everyone involved in the league to sign a pledge saying they will not bring single-use bottles to the field/facility.
Rethink development rules:
Adrian pointed out that one of the reasons it is so hard to get recycling at multi-family dwellings is that cities have rules about the number of parking spaces, etc that a building with a given number of apartments must have. For new construction, space for recycling should be required. Older buildings are more challenging. It is almost impossible to add a recycling dumpster because it would entail eliminating one or two of the required parking spaces. In that case, the city could update the development code to grant exceptions for adding recycling.
Use data to inform policy solutions and convince stakeholders:
All of the panelists also agreed that data is critical both to develop solutions that will work and to convince people, businesses, government entities, and organizations to take action. Amanda of Black Cat GIS has created a form that people can use to log data from trash clean-ups that will then populate a map and generate pie charts and graphs that show where, what kind, and how much of each kind of trash was found during a clean-up. This data is available for use by all on the Texas Litter Database. This granular level of information on types and quantities of litter can enable targeted reduction and recycling campaigns and help shape policy going forward.
STAR received a grant from HEB that enabled them to build out a map of all the recycling centers in the state so that people who do not have curbside recycling programs can easily find a recycling center near them.
Improve collection strategies:
Adrian also advocated for moving away from the city-based recycling model. He pointed out that the Pearland Recycling facility is a 501c3 and therefore does not, like municipalities, require people to be a resident of Pearland in order to use it. Opening up recycling centers to use by anyone in the area, rather than just those who live in a particular town, results in more people having access to recycling, and thus, more recycling.
Get businesses involved:
Adrian pointed out that individuals/households are not really the big producers of waste. It is businesses and industry that produce the majority of the waste. Austin makes these entities recycle, not just households.
STAR is also starting a program where individuals can fill out a form about a store or cafe they really like, at which they would also like to see waste reduction and recycling practices improved upon. The individual would be asked how often they frequent the store, and what changes they would like to see made. Then, for example, STAR would reach out and say, “We’ve got a customer of yours who frequents your place and loves your coffee, but can you do a few small things? Please don’t give customers a straw by default; please have staff ask first if they want one. Or please stop using styrofoam as there are no facilities near you that recycle styrofoam.”
Adrian is also looking into adding another layer to his map where businesses that allow them to come in and audit the business’s waste practices and then make changes based on those audits will be identified on the map as a business who is working to reduce its waste footprint, a selling point for customers.
Businesses can write rules into their contract with suppliers that, for example, require that they do not use styrofoam in their packaging. Consumers can encourage businesses to exert this sort of pressure on their suppliers.
Put together coalitions from diverse interests:
Beth talked about the fact that anglers and hunters are part of the coalition working towards solutions for nurdle pollution, not just environmentalists.
Make the financial case for the solution:
If you can make a financial argument to a business or a municipality to reduce plastic use or increase recycling, do so. Money talks. For example, bottle bills (which require a deposit paid on bottles that is refunded when the bottle is returned) are highly successful at increasing recycling rates, but also place the onus for paying for the collection and recycling of bottles onto the companies that sell them rather than on taxpayers. By giving an empty bottle a monetary value, it reduces littering and saves taxpayers and municipalities money on clean-ups. Litter costs a lot of money to clean-up. “A 2009 Keep America Beautiful study estimated that public, private and nonprofit organizations across the U.S. spend over $11.5 billion each year cleaning up litter.” A global report found, for example, “In North Carolina, at least $56.3 million was spent in 2023 alone to clean up 14.6 million pounds of litter.”
Take state level action
Legislative actions are often hard to achieve in Texas, but it is possible. Texas has passed two EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) laws. These are laws that put the onus for paying for and/or personally dealing with recycling the products they produce at the end of their useful lives on the corporations that produce them. Not only do these laws take the burden of paying for recycling off of consumers, but also, since they make corporations pay for the waste their products leave in their wake, they can inspire companies to redesign products so they last longer, are less polluting and more easily recycled because doing so has a positive impact on the company’s bottom line. In Texas, the two EPR laws we have are a computer take-back program where all companies that make computers sold in the state of Texas are required to have some sort of convenient-to-use recycling program – either drop-off or mail-in to take back their non-working computers. A similar EPR law was put in place for TV manufacturers.
Things such as plastic bag bans have been effective in reducing single-use plastics in other states, but in Texas, the Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that plastic bag bans were against state law, forcing cities like Austin and El Paso to abandon their plastic bag bans.
Environment Texas is asking Governor Abbot to set up a microplastics task force of health and science experts to study the public health and environmental dangers of microplastics.
Avoid false solutions:
Beth pointed out that “advanced recycling” is a false solution which pollutes the communities in which it is located, and, as an audience member pointed out, requires the production of more virgin plastic as a new product can only contain 10% of the plastic made through the advanced recycling process. The rest is virgin plastic. This is in contrast to products made from mechanically recycled plastic, which can contain up to 100% recycled content.
What you can do:
- Get a group together for a clean-up and report your data to the Texas Litter Database so it can be used to guide policy formation.
- Cities sign contracts with Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs), the places that sort your city’s recycling; waste management companies; and/or landfills,. The terms of these contracts can run from 5 -15 years. When your town is putting out an RFP (Request for Proposals) when your old contract runs out, participate in the process and ask for a Universal Recycling Ordinance (URO ) to be put in place.
- When your town is putting out an RFP for vendors for city events, make sure one of the requirements is that the vendors use all compostable food and beverage containers and utensils, and do not use or distribute any single-use plastics at the event.
- Advocate for your town to require sports leagues that use your fields and facilities to practice more sustainable behavior such as requiring everyone to use reusable bottles and provide water dispensers.
- Get together a group of friends and neighbors to ask a local restaurant you frequent, for example, to refrain from giving out straws unless they are requested, or to stop using styrofoam drink and food containers for takeout (it is helpful, if you are making the second request to have information about comparably priced compostable ware available to share) — whatever applies. Ask your local grocery store or specialty shop not to use plastic bags.
- Reach out to your state and federal legislators to support bills that encourage reduction and recycling, such as the bottle bill that was introduced in the last session of the Texas Legislature and supported by Clean Water Action and Texans for Clean Water and will be re-introduced in the upcoming legislative session.
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