Kent City Councilman Brenda Fincher joined two state legislators and others at the Seattle Aquarium to help launch new legislation to eliminate unnecessary packaging and improve recycling.
Sen. Christine Rolfes (D-Bainbridge Island) and Liz Berry (D-Seattle) will introduce legislation in the 2023 Congress beginning Jan. 9 to increase recycling rates in Washington and give businesses a package. We plan to encourage you to cut back and replace the rest. Packaging into reusable, compostable, or recyclable alternatives.
“For too long, companies have made individuals and communities responsible for recycling and disposing of paper, plastic and other packaging,” said Fincher, part of the Jan. 4 launch event. said. “The WRAP Act will help expand and improve recycling services for Washington citizens by ensuring businesses work with communities for a cleaner, greener Washington.”
About 400 million tonnes of plastic waste is generated worldwide every year. Nearly half of the plastic produced is designed for one-time use and disposal. According to the Environment Washington news release, Washingtonians are experiencing this problem first-hand with all the single-use packaging that fills landfills, littering neighborhoods, coastlines and parks, and harming wildlife.
“Washington has taken some great steps to reduce waste and improve recycling, but there is still work to be done,” Berry said. “The WRAP Act is a comprehensive plan to limit the amount of recyclable materials sent to landfills and help extend recycling services to more homes. I am particularly excited to create a Beverage Deposit System to significantly increase capacity.I am proud to be a House supporter of a truly groundbreaking bill for our state.”
The WRAP Act will use two complementary mechanisms to improve recycling and reduce waste, according to a news release from Environment Washington.
• Establish a producer responsibility system to ensure that the companies that actually make the packaging decisions are financially responsible for managing the end-of-life products of these materials, not for the cost to Washington residents. request. This model has proven successful around the world, with similar programs recently being established by the state legislatures of California, Oregon, Colorado and Maine.
• Create a bottle deposit program that has been shown to recycle beverage containers at a very high rate.
The WRAP Act also requires a standardized list of what can be recycled in roadside bins statewide, eliminating a confusing web of local governments accepting a wide variety of materials.
In 2018, Fincher attended an event at the Seattle Aquarium to announce a state bill banning plastic bags in grocery stores and retail stores. Congress has approved a ban on single-use plastic bags in 2020 and a ban on plastic carry-on bags from 2021.
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