The Energy Department is launching a program to partner with the private sector in developing technologies to recycle plastic and keep waste out of rivers, oceans, and landfills.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced the “Plastics Innovation Challenge” Thursday as one of his final initiatives before leaving his post on Dec. 1, having resigned amid the House impeachment investigation focused on Ukraine.
“Solving this growing challenge of plastic waste facing our world today, as well tomorrow, will require innovative, groundbreaking technologies,” Perry said in a statement. “Through the Plastics Innovation Challenge, we will harness the Department’s extensive resources and expertise to position the U.S. as a world leader in advanced plastic recycling technologies.”
The Energy Department is framing the project as an extension of the Trump administration’s approach to energy policy, in which it looks to incentivize private sector innovation, as opposed to regulations or mandates to drive solutions.
Seeking to court swing voters ahead of President Trump’s reelection campaign, the administration is looking to promote aspects of its environmental record related to traditional agenda items, such as cleaning up toxic waste sites, combating lead in drinking water, and now, cleaning up oceans.
“We see this as an example of American environmental leadership under the Trump administration,” a senior Energy Department official told the Washington Examiner. “Just as you have some folks who want to ban all fossil fuels, you have people who also want to entirely ban plastic. This administration has taken a dramatically different approach to both of those issues. We believe the answer to our energy and environment challenges is innovation.”
Although the plastics initiative is not directly related to energy, critics have said the Trump administration’s innovation-focused approach is insufficient to tackle global problems like climate change, and it is making the problem worse with its deregulation agenda.
The Energy Department official characterized plastic pollution as a similar global challenge to climate change, given much of the pollution that enters U.S. waterways comes from Asian countries, such as China, originating in rivers that connect with the Pacific Ocean. China had once imported millions of tons of recyclable waste from overseas, turning it into raw materials, but a growing recycling burden at home prompted the government last year to stop buying trash from other countries.
“While this is a problem largely not of America’s creation, we believe American leadership can play a big role in the solution,” the official said.
Most of the plastic used by people today is not recycled but instead turns up in landfills or leaks into the environment.
To address the problem, the Energy Department plans to announce a series of funding opportunities in the coming months for the industry, national labs, and universities to develop technologies that stop plastic from entering the ocean — or collect plastic more easily once it has entered waterways.
It also seeks to encourage the production of new plastics that are recyclable by design and to foster the development of technologies that upcycle waste chemicals from plastic into other commercial products. For example, the Energy Department official cited the possibility of reclaiming material contained in the plastic of a water bottle and selling that to an automaker for use in building a vehicle.
The Energy Department targets the year 2030 to develop these technologies.
