Chair the subcommittee on environment and Climate Change will now come to order today. The subcommittee is holding a a hearing entitled no time to Waste Solutions for americas broken recycling system. Due to the covid19 Public Health emergency, todays hearing is being held remotely. All members and witnesses will be participating via video conferencing. As part of our hearing, microphones will be set on mute for the purpose of eliminating inadvertent background noise. Members and witnesses, you will need to unmute your microphone each time you wish to speak. Since members are participating from different locations at todays hearing, all recognition of members such as for questions will be in the order of subcommittee seniority. Documents for the record can be sent to kylie rogers at the email address weve provided to staff. All documents will be entered into the record at the conclusion of the hearing. The chair now recognizes himself for five minutes for an opening statement. To give our digital team some notice its important to share , with them that others comments will be accepted and will be entered into the record earlier this morning. The Supreme Court limited epas authority to protect Public Health and the environment in the face of congressional intent for a rule that is no longer on the books and never went into effect. Im completely dismayed by this decision and i do know in the days ahead, the subcommittee will study the decision and examine all options while urging epa to take renewed action , however possible, to reduce Greenhouse Gas pollution. But back to the topic of the hearing, today is an opportunity to examine four proposals to address our nations waste and recycling challenges. The American Public likes recycling. But many people have concerns that what they put out to the curb often does not end up being recycled. And these concerns are not unfounded. Far too many recyclable products end up in our landfills and Plastic Waste in particular is ending up in our environment and our oceans. This subcommittee held an oversight hearing in 2020 to better understand these issues. We learned that in recent years our nations recyclers have been under financial pressure. The closure of the chinese export market has had major impacts on the United States recycling system, causing municipalities to scale back once profitable programs, many of which are now actually costing local governments money. These changing Market Conditions, exposed deficiencies in domestic markets, education and infrastructure that had been long overlooked as long as china , was willing to accept our waste in order to get us back on track. In last years bipartisan infrastructure law, congress recognized the struggling conditions of municipal recycling systems and included a 275 Million Dollar appropriation for recycling and waste infrastructure grants and 75 million for education and outreach grants. I believe these investments will be complementary to the proposals that will be discussed today, which seek to address many of those challenges previously identified. Hr 8059, a bipartisan bill from representatives burchett and foster, seeks to improve recycling Data Collection, harmonization and reporting to allow us to better understand the state of our nations recycling and composting systems. Hr 8183, a bipartisan bill from Ranking Member mckinley and representative cheryl, would authorize a Pilot Program at epa to provide assistance to improve recycling accessibility, with the majority of funds going toward underserved communities. With the majority of funds going subtitles a through d of title 9 of the clean future act, propose a suite of policies to reduce waste and improve recycling. This includes grants for communityled zero waste initiatives, funding for Greater Consumer education and outreach requirements for manufacturers to design products to reduce environmental and Health Impacts, requirements for epa to standardize labeling guidelines and the establishment of a National BottleDeposit Program and a task force to recommend design criteria for a National Extended Producer Responsibility program. Similarly, hr 2238, the break free from plastic pollution act from representative lowenthal, offers a comprehensive set of policy solutions to reduce the production and use of Plastic Products. Today, the amount of Plastic Products actually being recycled is pitiful. And yet we are relying more and more on plastics for packaging and other singleuse products. Many of these products are used for only a few minutes before being sent to a landfill where, under the bestcase scenario, they will sit for many lifetimes, but all too often will find a way into our environment and even our food supply. Both the clean future act and the break free bill would move us in the direction of requiring the companies that produce this future waste to have greater responsibility for its proper recycling or disposal. Several states and Foreign Countries are establishing extended producer responsibility programs, and i believe it would be wise for us to do the same. But ultimately no single policy , or program will fix our recycling system. It is going to take many complementary efforts, examples of which well be discussing today. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about the most effective steps that congress and epa can take to improve our nations recycling and Waste Management systems. With that, i will now recognize representative mckinley, our Ranking Member of the subcommittee on environment and Climate Change, for five minutes for his opening statement, please. Rep. Mckinley thank you, mr chairman. And thank you for conducting this hearing, again. Its been two years since we had this hearing on recycling, so its good to get back to it. We know its a problem. But let me also thank our panelists that are participating here today. We have six panelists. Mr. Chairman, i think we have to all underscore, we know solid waste and and plastics are a problem. Weve known that for decades, whether its newspapers, automobile tires, plastics, batteries. I could go on and on and on. Theyre filling up our landfills and becoming a problem for us. So, its not new. None of this is new. If you remember, paul, you and i, back in the 1960s when the recycling really began under the governmentled program, we all had separate bins outside on our curb. We were to put our papers in one , our plastics in another, our glass in another and our garbage in another. They were trying, the government was trying to change Human Behavior. They were trying to impose a change. And quite frankly, i think you all know it didnt work out real well. In fact, after 60 years, 60 years of government intrusion, theyre trying to regulate and change Human Behavior. You just mentioned it, mr. Chairman, we only recycle in america about 23 , just over 20 of all the consumable products that we use. So, we know we have a problem. But once again, it looks like democrats just want Big Government to step in one more time with two of these four pieces of legislation. They want to ban plastics. For example, of these two of the four, they called for a moratorium on any environmental permits for plastics facilities. Thats just another another name for banning the product, ultimately so, mr. Chairman, why arent we letting the free market run its course on recyclables . We know its worked for paper, oil, gas, and even steel, where were recycling steel. Why are we, why is congress trying to treat plastics differently . Look, we also know, mr. Chairman, there are problems with recycling plastics, like the cost, the separation of plastics. You have to separate by different colors, and thats done by hand. You have to worry about the the chemistry because of the plastic polymers that are being used. Some dont mix well with that. Different temperatures are necessary with it. And then thirdly, another issue with recycling plastic is the lack of recyclable facilities in rural america. Two years ago when the committee had this hearing, a witness, i think they came from Colorado State if we go back over our notes, they were making some advancements on biodegradable plastics rather than recycling, things that would ultimately break down. So, i am hoping today that our witnesses will provide us with an update on these advancements and other innovations in recycling. That way, we could tackle this issue rather than banning a product that is such a part of our nature. Lets look at the big picture not everyone lives in los angeles, new york, chicago or for you, even albany. These are cities with robust recycling programs. What about small, Rural Communities like hazzard, kentucky, petersburg, indiana . These are small towns that dont have active recycling the 70s. And we will be forcing, under some of this legislation, increases in the costofliving. We already facing high inflation and high energy costs. Why are we trying to change their costofliving . I will just say in the time i have left, only in washington do we think he can legislate changes in Human Behavior. Recycling is certainly an issue we need to deal with. And its been around for 100 years or more. And try and do it. But the free market, using innovation will find another , solution that does not require banning plastics. That has been something that consumers wanted. Its cheap, its easy to use and its easy to manufacture. So, weve got to find another way to deal with it. Banning them is not the solution. So, thank you mr chairman, and i yield back the balance of my time. Chair tonko thank you. The gentleman yields back. The chair now recognizes representative pallone, chair of the full committee, whos been kept very busy over the last several weeks and months. So we recognize you, chairman pallone, for five minutes for your opening statement. Thank you. Chair pallone thank you, chairman tonko tanko. Today, the committee is continuing its work on important environmental and climate issues by discussing legislative solutions to our nations broken recycling system every day. Americans are doing their part by sorting their waste and tossing their used recyclable materials into a bin. But with the National Recycling and composting rate of only 32 , its clear that there are major gaps in our recycling infrastructure that we need to address. I am actually the cochair of the house recycling caucus, very proud of it, and this topic is especially important to me. Recycling is a critical tool in our toolbox to reduce pollution in our communities, boost our local economies, address Climate Change and strengthen domestic supply chain. But the system is not working as well as it should. And the system itself was upended in 2018, when china banned most Plastic Waste and mixed paper material imports. And this action prevented us from shipping recyclables overseas and it required American Communities to rely on other options. But this also begs the question where recyclable material goes. It should be recycled, not sent to landfills or incinerated. And i would like to know today whats being done to reduce the , amount of waste that actually goes to landfills or is incinerated . And i think all this requires more funding as well, and as with many programs, our recycling system is severely underfunded. Municipalities across the nation, especially small and rural towns. Especially small and rural towns, struggle to manage the recycling programs forcing scalebacks or complete cancelations of curbside pickups. And this is bad news for both recycling and the reuse side of the waist equation without adequate infrastructure to collect recyclable materials like metal, plastic, paper, cardboard, glass, our domestic manufacturers wont be able to reuse these materials in new products and will continue to look overseas for input materials. So fortunately, this congress made a significant down payment in this area by passing the bipartisan infrastructure law last november, which included 350 Million Dollars for recycling infrastructure and education and outreach grants. And this funding was a critical first step to addressing recycling infrastructure challenges and will improve recycling efforts across the nation. The congresss work must not end there. Today, the subcommittee will examine four bills which provide Different Solutions to our recycling challenges. One, hr 1512, the clean future act, which i introduced, rushes a comprehensive approach to combating the Climate Crisis and includes the title on waste reduction. The clean future act includes measures to reduce the generation of waste, including a temporary pause on permitting of new and expanded plastic production facilities. It modernizes our nations recycling system by establishing post consumer Recycled Content standards, implementing a National BottleDeposit Program and standardizing labeling and collection of recyclable goods. The clean future act also establishes Grant Programs to invest in Community Level zero waste initiatives produced the zerowaste initiatives, reduced the amount of Landfill Waste and improved education and outreach. And many of these provisions aligned with the objectives outlined in the president s National Recycling strategy, which was released last november. Then we have hr 2238. , the break free from plastic pollution act includes a variety of recycling and waste reduction policies to address the pollution from increased plastic production and disposal. This pollution is often concentrated in Environmental Justice communities. And i think representative lowenthal for introducing this bill. And we have hr 8059, the bipartisan recycling and compost accountability act led by representatives brochette and foster. And this works to address data gaps on recycling and composting practices across the u. S. This data will be critical to informing policy decisions to improve Material Recovery and boost circularity. And we have hr 8183, the recycling infrastructure and sensibility act. Again, a bipartisan bill led by our Ranking Member mckinley and representative sherell. And i want to thank you, mr. Mckinley. For working across the aisle on this issue. This bill establishes a Pilot Program to increase access to recycling services in underserved communities struggling to keep up with increasing Waste Management demands. So, we have a lot of bills to look at. But i just want to say i heard what mr mckinley said, look, this is a problem in many in many ways, right. In other words, its the towns that dont have the money. They want to get more people to recycle. Its a problem because we have no place to ship stuff. But ultimately, what id like to see and i keep stressing it, we have to get a situation where we put less in landfills, we incinerate less and we actually recycle more. And im afraid that were getting away from that. And so, i am hoping we can get some answers to that part of the equation today, and i thank you again, chairman. Time for the gentleman yields back. The chair now recognizes representative rogers, our Ranking Member of the full committee. Representative rogers, youre recognized for five minutes for your opening statement, please. Representative rogers thank you. Good morning, everyone. I want to highlight the Supreme Court decision that confirmed epa has been acting outside its Statutory Authority when issuing overreaching rules on the power sector. This decision is a victory for article one legislative authority on behalf of the people and of representative government. It is congresss clear Constitutional Authority to debate and make the law and public policy, not direct rats in the executive branch who often abused power by issuing regulations that burden our economy and peoples livelihoods. I am pleased to see this decision. We are facing an inflation an Energy Crisis with gas prices at highs, groceries busting the budgets of american families. For example, a fourthgeneration wheat grower told us at a recent forum that rising gas, diesel and Natural Gas Resources are crippling farmers from the mint in their fertilizer. Instead of working with republicans who are calling for the Biden Administration to flip the switch in American Energy production, lower the cost of food and consumer goods and help farmers, we see democrats turning to a radical climate agenda. We can and should join in better conservation policies to promote recycling. I share the germans goal to reduce the amoun