The Biden administration announced a plan to target plastic pollution, dedicating particular focus to “phase out” single-use plastics – such as kitchen cutlery, cups and straws – across federal departments.
President Biden announced the order taking aim at the “climate crisis” in July which would require an “all-hands-on-deck response” from every federal agency.
“The President is committed to taking ambitious actions… to end plastic pollution and is calling upon the global community to do the same, with the goal to reduce the global production and consumption of virgin plastics,” the White House said.
As part of this plan, the White House announced a phase out of single-use plastics, which includes “plastic and polystyrene food and beverage containers, bottles, straws, cups, cutlery and disposable plastic bags.”
“[T]he Biden-Harris Administration is announcing a new goal to phase out federal procurement of single-use plastics from food service operations, events, and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035,” the White House said. “Meeting the new goal… will further agencies’ obligations under the [previous] Executive Order.”
Biden’s prior executive order aimed to reduce the sale of single-use plastic products on public lands.
Some Republican lawmakers responded to the initiative, blasting the Biden admin for its “laughable” and “absurd” priorities.
“The world’s on fire and he’s worried about plastic forks,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told the Daily Mail.
“It’s more messaging and ridiculousness, and it’s a direct shot to that whole industry,’ Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said. “It’s also clearly not where everybody is. It’s going to raise costs for a lot of folks so it seems to be just irrelevant on deficit issues.”
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said he anticipated it would affect “government workplaces” and “military bases.”
He proposed that instead of reducing plastic, they should scale down on the federal behemoth.
“They should shrink the government if they want it to be less of a consumer. The reason it’s the largest consumer is because it’s it employs so many people, and it’s doing so many things it was probably never intended to do,” he said.
The Biden administration added that in cases of “national security,” some agencies can have some of their activities exempted from the executive order.
“The head of an agency may exempt particular agency activities and related personnel, resources, and facilities from the provisions of this order when it is in the interest of national security, to protect intelligence sources and methods from unauthorized disclosure, or where necessary to protect undercover law enforcement operations from unauthorized disclosure,” the White House said.