End Plastics
Turning the Tide: 3 Types of Federal Bills Targeting The Menace of Plastic Pollution
July 31, 2025
Plastic pollution has escalated into a full-blown global crisis. It chokes and contaminates our oceans, infiltrates our food and our water supplies, threatens human health with toxic chemicals, indiscriminately kills wildlife, and places a heavy burden on future generations.
What is more, the United States produces more plastic waste than any other country on Earth. Which is why there is an urgent need for the U.S. to demonstrate true leadership on this serious issue by enacting comprehensive domestic laws, regulations, and policies that address the full lifecycle of plastics. This includes reducing, if not eliminating, our use of single-use plastics, holding plastic producers, many of them oil companies, truly accountable through extended producer responsibility, and investing in affordable and sustainable alternatives.
A significant majority of Americans also support measures to reduce plastic waste, with 85% agreeing that plastic pollution is a serious issue requiring immediate action.
But this urgency has not been reflected in current federal action.
Current Snapshot of Federal Environmental Policy
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin seems to be ignoring public opinion and instead, in March 2025, launched a sweeping deregulation effort that has reversed 31 environmental protections in what Zeldin has termed “the most consequential day of deregulation in American history”.
His actions include rescinding emissions limits on coal and gas power plants, weakening vehicle pollution standards, challenging the foundational 2009 “endangerment finding” that classifies greenhouse gases as threats, and altering Clean Water Act definitions. The latter is especially egregious as it narrows the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) and excludes many wetlands and streams from pollution protection, despite scientific evidence that these waters are crucial not just for the health of vital ecosystems but also for drinking water safety.
In February 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14208, ending the federal procurement and “forced use” of paper straws and reinstating the use of plastic straws across federal operations. That executive order also rescinded apolicy that aimed to phase out single-use plastics on federal lands by 2032.
Beyond straws, the administration has shifted to a pro-petrochemical stance for broader plastic policy. The EPA is easing regulations on chemical recycling to reduce oversight of pollution. This approach aligns with the plastics and oil industries, which increasingly support expanding production while relying on so-called downstream waste solutions.
Fortunately, across the United States, lawmakers are proposing a wave of bills designed to reduce plastic pollution and protect our health. But to turn these proposals into laws, they need more public support!
Here’s a breakdown of the key federal bills we support and how they work together to move us toward a plastic-free future. Let’s hope they all pass and are voted into law.
1. Tackling Single-Use Plastics
Single-use plastics are one of the biggest contributors to pollution, and several Bills aim to reduce or eliminate them. Almost two-thirds of plastic waste comes from plastics’ short lifetimes of plastics, and 40% of waste comes from packaging. Polystyrene (aka Styrofoam), Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), and black plastics are among the most toxic plastics.
The Farewell to Foam Act would ban the sale of harmful polystyrene foam in federal facilities, which would reduce non-recyclable waste. The Reducing Waste in National Parks Act would phase out single-use plastic products in our most cherished natural places. The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act (BFFPPA) is a comprehensive Bill to reduce single-use plastics and would establish nationwide waste reduction targets and require extended producer responsibility (EPR).
Extended Producer Responsibility is essentially a way to hold plastic producing manufacturers and companies accountable for the waste their products go onto create. By making producers responsible for the full lifecycle of their products, EPR aims to not only reduce pollution but also encourage better product design and, perhaps most importantly, shift the burden and cost of waste management away from the public and onto those who profit from the products. That means plastic producers would have to clean up the trash, and pay for it, not all of us.
2. Keeping Microplastics Out of Our Water!
Microfibers, microplastics, and nanoplastics are invisible threats polluting our water, entering our food chain, and even ending up in our bodies. These tiny plastic fragments are either intentionally produced, like microbeads in cosmetic products used to exfoliate, or are created when larger plastic materials break down and degrade over time.
A lot of plastic microfibers are shed from clothes and textiles made from synthetic materials like nylon and polyesters, both of which are types of plastics. 18 million microfibers may be released from a single load of laundry alone. The Fighting Fibers Act would tackle this wave of microfiber pollution by requiring a special filtration system to be used on all new washing machines that would capture these microfibers before they reach our waterways and oceans..
That’s not the only way plastic is getting into our water system. The basic building blocks used to make a lot of plastic products are small pellets called nurdles, and unfortunately they are often discharged into our rivers, wetlands and the ocean by the plastic industry.
The Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act bans the discharge of these pre-production plastic pellets or nurdles into all waterways and would go a long way to keeping our waters plastic free.
Finally, the WIPPES ACT would require clear “Do Not Flush” labeling on non-flushable wet wipes, with the aim of preventing costly sewage clogs. Utilities across the U.S. spend millions clearing sewers,for example, Vancouver, Washington spent over $1 million in just five years to replace pumps damaged by wipes, and Maryland’s WSSC Water removed 700 tons of wipes from a single facility in one year alone! Clear “Do Not Flush” labeling, as proposed in the WIPPES Act, will hopefully prevent these problems and protect both important infrastructure and the environment.
All of these policies address pollution at the source, before it reaches our ecosystems or gets into our bloodstreams.
3. Protecting Health and Frontline Communities
While the plastic public health crisis is only just starting to be fully understood and investigated, the evidence of harm is already overwhelming. The brunt of plastic pollution, and the knock on health issues connected with it, falls hardest on low-income and communities of color, as they are significantly more likely to live near plastic production and waste sites.
African-Americans for example are a staggering 75% more likely than other Americans to live in frontline communities—areas that face the most severe impacts from pollution, climate change, and environmental hazards. Which means that these communities are disproportionately exposed to health risks from toxic plastic industries and yet frequently excluded from the decision-making processes that impact their lives.
The Save Our Seas 2.0 Amendments Act strengthens environmental protections for communities living near plastic and petrochemical facilities. Specifically, it supports stronger partnerships across state, local, and tribal governments to prevent, reduce, and remove plastic pollution. It also increases funding and resources for projects that address the adverse impacts of plastic pollution on both the environment and public health and perhaps most importantly empowers the communities most affected by plastic to be part of the solution by inviting them into the decision-making process and cleanup efforts.
One piece of legislation that would make that a reality is the Protecting Communities from Plastics Act which calls for a moratorium on new or expanding plastic production facilities. It also requires comprehensive cumulative impact assessments and mandates community engagement, with public comment periods and meetings hard-wired into the system. Ensuring that residents have a greater voice and access to real-time data about local pollution and risks.
The Not So Good News We Should All Know
Unfortunately, while many bills are trying to solve all of the issues, there are others doing the opposite: federal bills that would do a lot of harm to the environment, and ultimately our health. We must defend the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to regulate toxic chemicals and water and air pollution. Regulatory agencies like the EPA must be empowered, not weakened, if we are to address the full scope of our plastic crisis.
Bills like the Accelerating a Circular Economy for Plastics Act is supported by the industry because it focuses on advanced recycling, which we know is not a solution the the plastic crisis but a way to deflect from our massive over production of plastics. It incentivizes the idea that old plastic can just be recycled over and over again in an imaginary circular economy by investing in ‘chemical’ recycling. This is not a reality.
Here’s why: chemical recycling, namely pyrolysis and gasification, are energy-intensive, inefficient, and often result in the plastic being burned, releasing toxic pollutants and greenhouse gases. Typically only 1% to 14% of plastic sent to these sorts of ‘chemical recycling’ plants is actually recycled into new products. Even at full capacity, existing chemical recycling facilities in the U.S. could handle less than 1.3% of the nation’s annual plastic trash.
The Clean Air Act CRA would overturn EPA rules limiting pollution from petrochemical facilities.The No IRIS Act threatens the EPAs scientific ability to assess chemical health risk under its Integrated Risk Information System.
Perhaps even more worryingly, as international negotiations advance toward a UN Global Plastics Treaty, the U.S. has stepped back from supporting binding caps on plastic production.. However, States and municipalities are increasingly stepping in as federal momentum stalls.
What Can We All Do To Push Back On Plastics?
Visit EARTHDAY.ORG to educate yourself on the impacts of plastic pollution, join grassroots movements, and take part in cleanups in your community. Together, we can push for a more sustainable future but you need to make sure our elected officials KNOW this issue is important to you.
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