Plastic pollution will only become a much bigger issue in the United States since millions of tons are being generated every year. State governments, along with major companies, have stepped up their efforts to contain plastic waste by banning, promoting recycling programs, and promoting alternative uses. However, the hurdle before plastic pollution is huge, as the systems recycle at such a slow pace and the public becomes aware of the issue, which cannot even hide the millions of tons of waste produced.
State by State Bans and Restrictions
Over the last two decades, single-state initiatives banned singe use plastic, plastic bag, straws, and plastic utensils; California initiated plastic bag state, and subsequently further regulations, and New York State, Hawaii and Oregon are put in addition ban on using single-use plastics specifically plastic straw; and increasing promotion of its non-replaceable counterpart.
With these acts, individual state governments have developed new Acts facilitating recycling and outlawing plastic wastes. The states have enacted EPR: policy through which manufactures must provide avenues for collecting or disposing of plastics that they produce. EPR puts the burden directly on the shoulders of tax-revenue generating government, so it would be only proper that one firm takes up responsibility for its commodities’ results in the environmental surroundings.
In spite of several state-level plastic bans, these have not been effective thus far. Plastic waste in customers’ packaged and prepared goods and in their food continues unabated with hardly any indication that this trend has started to behave itself. Bans really cannot touch the root issues which account for such a huge proportion of plastic waste. Much has to be done in recycling infrastructure and consumer education.
Corporate Initiatives and CSR.
With new legislation at the state level, many companies operating in the US have initiated measures that effectively reduce the use of plastics. The largest consumer brands such as Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and Unilever have come forward with declarations to reduce their usage of single-use plastic packaging and develop products that were easier to recycle. It is said that Coca-Cola promised to collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle or can it sells by 2030 and Nestle’ is working towards making all of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.
That is far beyond the corporate efforts to discover a substitute for plastic that will eventually turn out nonpolluting. Many firms have an interest in the biodegradable product and plant-based packaging as an alternative to the traditional plastic used. They also partner with recycling companies such that their recyclable products end up more recycled with less plastic winding up in a landfill or in the ocean.
Corporate responsibility is another right step toward the solution to plastic pollution, though critics argue most corporations are still not doing enough. Some of these corporations rely more or less on plastic packaging the same way they did before and have come under scrutiny with respect to lack of transparency and accountability about their sustainability commitments. This cannot be good enough to enable long-term reduction of plastic wastes. Most firms still prefer cheap, single-use plastics as inexpensive substitutes and are relatively more attractive than other green products available.
Problems and Weaknesses Experienced with Recycling
The biggest challenge in the United States, and indeed in the rest of the world, in addressing plastic pollution is a failed recycling system. Plastic recycling has increased over the past years, but the rate of recycling of plastics remains at a very low level. The Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that no more than less than 9% of plastics waste in the US is recycled. This would be explained as a result of contamination of the recyclable material, insufficient infrastructures for recycling, and less financial incentives among consumers to recycle.
Plastic has also proven to be pretty tricky in quite a number of aspects. The products made from plastics vary in material compositions. This means that plastic products are not that easy to recycle. Multilayer or coated packaging is unlikely to be recycled. Plastics such as polystyrene have very few applications when recycled. Recycling plastics is costly; the market prices for recycled plastics are very low.
The improvement that accompanies recycling involves instructing the procedure to recycle so that people may be rewarded on a much more effective way for recycling. There is the program of bottle deposit return system where this system is charging a deposit on beverage containers with a customer, and having brought the container to the process of recycling will be allowed retrieving that money. It has caused a rise in recycling in these states through increasing the collection of more beverage containers but only relating to the beverage containers.
For all this, recycling plastics is still a huge problem. The experts still argue that the only method of testing plastic pollution is through a strong recycling structure and by getting public participation in this activity of recycling. Strategies like reducing plastic production and consumption cannot be excluded from solving this problem; recycling alone will not be enough.
Approach to Be Full-bodied
Though such regulations, corporate accountability, and individual recycling practices considerably help reduce the problem, much is yet to be done, experts say. Therefore, remedies towards plastic pollution are from the responsibility of governments, business enterprise, and individuals who reduce the usage of plastics and set up better recyclable systems or invest in environment-friendly alternatives.
The same movement has pushed the federal thought process into acts towards reduction in the form of national policies, such as by the Biden regime in 2021, by his administration released a plastic waste plan outlining measures suggested and proposed for possible consideration of introducing a national programme of waste reduction alongside ocean-focus efforts on reduction plastics-related pollution. So far, such work remains behind in the course of developing effectual national policies.
But anyway, it cannot forget consumers. This is where consumers’ choice towards reusing items rather than those plastic-use-based and force businesses to produce environmental-friendly products must come. Some behavior changes along with raising the consciousness among individuals regarding damage from plastic pollution towards nature will result in decreased consumption of plastic items.
Conclusion
The plastic issue remains one of the main ecological challenges the United States still cannot tackle. Although this practice had been forbidden in states, no such other projects at the level of the corporations with recycling will be able to do justice to the demand. This shall come to be so when the usage of plastic shall be reduced and proper mechanisms for recycling have already been established there and further alternatives for effective uses are available as well. Only by working together can the US hope to overcome the plastic pollution crisis and hand a better environment over to future generations.
Source: Environmental Protection Agency, State Government Reports, Corporate Sustainability Reports