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52 Env't L. Rep. 10018 (2022)
The U.S. Plastics Problem: The Road to Circularity

handle is hein.journals/elrna52 and id is 20 raw text is: Copyright © 2022 Environmental Law Institute, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELRO, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120. A R T I C L E S THE U.S. PLASTICS PROBLEM: THE ROAD TO CIRCULARITY by Ruth Jebe Ruth Jebe is an Associate Professor of Legal Studies at the Boise State University College of Business and Economics. SUMMARY Plastics pollution has been an issue in the United States since discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch catapulted it to the forefront of news reporting. Regulatory and academic activity around plastics has had a common feature: it focused almost exclusively on one stage in plastics' linear model and framed the problem as a waste problem. Challenges have come in two forms: the shift from the linear production model of take- make-waste to a sustainability paradigm represented by the concept of circular production, and disruption of the global plastics waste supply chain occasioned by changes in China's waste import policies. These shifts are forcing countries to reassess their approach to plastics. This Article argues for an expanded view of the U.S. plastics problem, one that reframes the problem around sustainability and plastics' full life cycle, rather than a focus on waste alone. It proposes regulatory interventions and ideas for a future research agenda to move the study and regulation of plastics from linear to circular. In the spring of 2020, at the beginning of the coronavi- rus pandemic, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York all delayed enforcement of their new restrictions on single-use plastic (SUP) carryout bags.' The bans were intended to reduce plastics waste, but concerns about the possibility that reusable bags might transmit the corona- virus derailed their implementation.2 As the pandemic deepened, attention focused on human health, not on Author's note: Development of this Article was generously supported by the Boise State University College of Busi- ness and Economics summer research grant program. Many thanks to Boise State University M.B.A. student Va- sudha Bhandare for her invaluable research assistance. 1. Ariela Lovett, Governor Lifts Suspension of Plastic Bag Bans, Restrictions on Reusables, MASS. MUN. AsS'N (July 16, 2020), https://www.mma.org/gov- ernor-lifts-suspension-of-plastic-bag-bans-restrictions-on-reusables/ (noting that Massachusetts had suspended SUP bag restrictions beginning in March 2020); Press Release, State of Connecticut Department of Revenue Services, Single-Use Plastic Bag Fee Suspension Set to Expire June 30th (June 26, 2020), https://portal.ct.gov/DRS/Press-Room/Press-Releases/2020/Single- Use-Plastic-Bag-Fee-Suspension-Set-to-Expire-June-30 (notifying retailers of expiration of the March 26, 2020, suspension of bag restrictions). 2. Eliza Fawcett, The Pandemic Continues, but Connecticut's Single-Use Plas- tic Bag Fee Will Return Wednesday, HARTFORD COURANT (June 30, 2020), https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-plastic-bag-tax-re turns-20300630-xyixfuxfhzdyzf2ieeqm6bncgq-story-html (reporting that the state's SUP-bag restrictions were suspended in response to concerns raised by retail employees about the potential for reusable bags to spread the coronavirus). environmental impacts of public health issues and not on plastics waste. Plastics waste had been a topic of interest since the 1997 discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.3 Between 1950 and 2015, plastics production increased rapidly, with much of that growth coming in recent years: half of all the plastics produced since 1950 were produced between 2004 and 2017.4 Plastics demand and production have doubled since 2000,5 and estimates are that they will double in the next 20 years and perhaps triple by 2050.6 Plastics produc- 3. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. National Geographic, Great Pacific Garbage Patch, https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage- patch/ (last visited Nov. 6, 2021). The patch was discovered by yachtsman Charles Moore. Laura Parker, The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Isn't What You Think It Is, NAT'L GEOGRAPHIC (July 3, 2019), https://www.nationalgeo- graphic.org/article/great-pacific-garbage-patch-isnt-what-you-think. 4. Roland Geyer et al., Production, Use, and Fate of All Plastics Ever Made, 3 SCI. ADVANCES e1700782 (2017), https://advances.sciencemag.org/ content/3/7/e1700782. 5. INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY (IEA), THE FUTURE OF PETROCHEMICALS 1 (2018), https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/bee4ef3a-8876-4566- 98cf-7a130c013805/The_FutureofPetrochemicals.pdf. 6. ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION ET AL., THE NEW PLASTICS ECONOMY- RETHINKING THE FUTURE OF PLASTICS 24 (2016), https://emf.thirdlight. com/link/faarmdpz93ds-5vmvdf/@/preview/1?o; Peter Lacy et al., Plastic Is a Global Problem. Its Also a Global Opportunity, WORLD ECON. F. (Jan. 25, 2019), https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/plastic-might-just- be-the-solution-to-its-own-problem/. 2015 global plastics production, for example, reached 407 million tons and is projected to reach 1,600 million tons per year in 2050. IMPROVING PLASTICS MANAGEMENT: TRENDS, POLICY ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 52 ELR 10018 1-2022

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