Press Releases

In response to a request for information made September 2018 by Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), alongside Reps. McCollum, Stevens, and Takano, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) today issued a report on how to build on existing federal efforts to address the nation’s recycling challenges, which increased as a result of China’s National Sword policy banning foreign waste imports. The full GAO report can be found here.

“The U.S. generates over 268 million tons of household and commercial trash each year, but recycling rates for common recyclables remains low. And after China’s ban on recycling imports in 2018, Maine municipalities had to spend approximately $16 million to dispose of their recyclable waste,” said Pingree. “When China banned the import of certain recyclables, it meant that those items ended up in American landfills, worsening the climate crisis and leaving our cities and towns struggling to determine the future of their municipal recycling programs. This GAO report emphasizes the need for Congressional action to reform our recycling system and support municipalities as they confront this challenge.”

“In Maine’s residents, we are fortunate to have an engaged community, invested in the success of our recycling programs,” said ecomaine CEO Kevin Roche. “We know that recycling is the single-most effective waste diversion strategy over the last 30 years – and strong, sound leadership in policymaking at the federal level is critical to moving these systems toward even greater success.”

The report reviews the challenges affecting recycling in the U.S and federal efforts to advance recycling in the United States. GAO’s report found that only about 25 percent of municipal waste is collected for recycling, leaving an estimated 201 tons (or 52 percent) of municipal waste sent to landfills, 13 percent to be incinerated, and 10 percent to be composted. The report recommends that Congress pass legislation to require the Secretary of Commerce to develop domestic markets for recyclables to address reduced international demand for recyclables, and recommends that EPA work to develop and implement a national recycling strategy to assist in making future resource and policy decisions related to recycling. 

Community recycling programs are facing challenges across the country. For decades, the U.S. recycling industry has relied on selling recyclables in international markets to manage municipal waste. However, in 2018, the Chinese government banned imports of various plastics and mixed papers, enacting barriers for U.S. recycled waste. Recycling programs have increasingly suffered since then, causing some communities to limit or stop public recycling programs. 

While local governments have the primary role in operating recycling programs, the federal government is an important stakeholder and contributes to these efforts in a variety of ways. This report was requested to learn about efforts currently underway at federal agencies to encourage recycling, to what extent those efforts have changed in recent years, and what additional actions can be taken at the federal level to increase recycling in the U.S.

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Kiara Tringali

Communications Coordinator, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (ME-01)

Kiara.Tringali@mail.house.gov | 207-509-5904 | she/hers