1. United States
2. Vt.
3. Letter

I’m writing in opposition to a pair of recycling-related bills currently in Congress, the Packaging and Claims Knowledge (PACK) Act and the Recycled Materials Attribution Act. Both of these bills claim to bring transparency and consistency to recycling nation-wide, but in reality they entrench “greenwashing” into federal law, and prevent states from enacting stricter legislation that actually addresses systemic problems with the recycling industry. These bills have been pushed and supported by the petrochemicals industry — and for good reason, since they expand the use of mathematical trickery like “mass balance” accounting that the industry relies on to trick consumers into believing recycling is more impactful than its actual, marginal usefulness. From a scientific standpoint, the *only* solution to our plastic waste and environmental contamination problem is to produce and use (and re-use) significantly less plastic than we do now. Don’t support these bills as currently written. We absolutely need to do more to protect and preserve our natural environment — but these bills ain’t it.