The Recycling Partnership: EPA's Recycling Needs Assessment an "Important First Step"The Recycling Partnership: EPA's Recycling Needs Assessment an "Important First Step"

The Recycling Partnership applauds the EPA's Recycling Needs Survey and Assessment, emphasizing the need for a $22-28 billion domestic investment to modernize the U.S. recycling system and unlock its economic and environmental benefits.

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The Recycling Partnership

The Recycling Partnership (The Partnership) applauds the release of the Environmental Protection Agency’s first-ever Recycling Needs Survey and Assessment and is calling on Congress to pass legislation that includes a recycling infrastructure investment tax credit which will help further unlock the economic and environmental benefits of recycling and a circular economy.

The Partnership collaborated with Congressional leadership to call for this report in the FY2021 appropriations process, delivering on our mission to build a better recycling system. To realize these economic benefits, The Partnership is advocating for the inclusion of a recycling infrastructure tax credit as Congress considers policy changes that will enable domestic manufacturing and resilient local economies.

To recycle the more than 40 million tons of packaging materials are landfilled or incinerated every year, the EPA estimates that $22-28 billion in domestic investment is needed. The report also highlights that leveraging a combination of public and private investment is critical to protecting natural resources, bolstering local economies, and ensuring that everyone who wants to recycle can recycle.

“The needs assessment demonstrates that investing in domestic recycling can pay dividends for local communities and the American economy,” said Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership. “Our mission is to build a better recycling system, one that delivers the economic and environmental benefits our communities and the hundreds of thousands of people who work throughout the recycling industry deserve. This new data from the EPA makes clear the challenges ahead but also the opportunity for collective action to transform the way we use, reuse, and recycle materials.”

The Recycling Needs Survey and Assessment serves as an important first step for Congress in strengthening the U.S. recycling system, helping to identify and prioritize investments and improvements to capture the full economic value of recycling.

Investments in the U.S. recycling system are investments in American manufacturing, local jobs, and resilient domestic supply chains. The Recycling Partnership’s 2021 Paying It Forward Report quantifies that access to recycling on par with trash service for everyone across the U.S. would provide $11 billion in new wages, $9.4 billion in landfill cost savings for municipalities and create approximately 200,000 new jobs. 

“As we partner with states to implement Extended Producer Responsibility, we continue to realize the tremendous opportunity we have to advance our domestic recycling system,” Kate Davenport, Chief Policy Officer at The Recycling Partnership. “This monumental data from EPA lays the framework for needed national investments, and we look forward to working with Congress and other key partners to continue to unlock the economic and environmental benefits of recycling and a circular economy.”

A recycling infrastructure investment tax credit can transform the way businesses and private investors contribute to the circular economy, giving them the financial surety needed to bring a new wave of financing to needed programs. The Recycling Partnership is calling on our fellow NGOs and our community and corporate partners to help advocate for effective policies that provide the needed investments required to fully unlock recycling’s economic and environmental benefits. 

About the Author

The Recycling Partnership

The Recycling Partnership is a purpose-driven organization committed to building a better recycling system, one that delivers the economic and environmental benefits our communities and the hundreds of thousands of people who work throughout the recycling industry deserve. The Recycling Partnership’s team of experts, practitioners, and thought leaders with real-world experience works with its partners to insist on meaningful change across the recycling system and assist communities, companies, and policymakers in enacting such change. The Recycling Partnership uses its one-of-a-kind National Recycling Database that encompasses more than 9,000 U.S. recycling programs and develops practical and innovative solutions to address critical gaps in the recycling system. Learn more at recyclingpartnership.org

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