In the day-to-day, it can be easy to overlook the impact human actions have on the environment. America Recycles Day, annually observed on November 15th, is a good time to consider one of the most pressing human impacts on the environment in America today: plastic pollution. Addressing this issue calls for informed choices to create a more sustainable future. The National Academies has produced a number of reports looking at questions of plastic pollution over the past few years and building upon this work introduced a Plastics Roundtable that will serve as an important forum for discussion.

The United States is a major producer of plastic and plastic pollution, resulting in an influx of almost 8 million metric tons of plastic waste entering our oceans per year (the equivalent of dumping one garbage truck full of plastic waste into the ocean every minute). To help guide solutions for the ocean plastic problem, the National Academies released a report, Reckoning with the U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste, in 2022. The report calls for a multi-pronged effort to reduce plastic waste, starting with reducing our reliance on plastics and implementing more effective waste management strategies.

While plastic pollution that reaches our oceans rightfully demands attention, plastic also poses a problem for land disposal. In the U.S., most plastic waste ends its journey in landfills with less than 10 percent of waste being recycled. A 2023 report, Recycled Plastics in Infrastructure: Current Practices, Understanding, and Opportunities, looks at the potential of using recycled plastics in infrastructure, for example, different types of plastic pipes or railroad ties.  The report concludes that, although some viable applications exist, using waste plastics in infrastructure at a scale that would make a difference is heavily dependent on improved recycling technologies, policy, and economics.

The new Roundtable on Plastics will act as a forum for collaboration among federal agencies and experts in academia, industry, and non-governmental organizations, addressing the complexities of the plastics issue holistically and discussing priorities aimed at slowing the flood of plastics into our environment. Activities for this initiative will focus on key intervention areas, including plastics design, manufacturing, and waste management, the environmental and health impacts of plastic, and the realms of management, modeling, and tracking plastic waste sources and sinks. Keep an eye out for future events from this Roundtable!

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Related Resources

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• Review of Fate, Exposure, and Effects of Sunscreens in Aquatic Environments and Implications for Sunscreen Usage and Human Health (Interactive, 2022)

• A Research Strategy for Ocean-Based Carbon Dioxide Removal and Sequestration (Interactive, 2022)

• Transforming EPA Science to Meet Today’s and Tomorrow’s Challenges (2023)

• Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States (Interactive, 2023)

• Roundtable on Plastics