releases: https://pingree.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3573
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
This data as json
| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://pingree.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3573 | Responding to Congresswoman Pingree’s Request, GAO Releases Report on Nation’s Recycling Challenges Exacerbated by China’s National Sword Policy | 2020-12-18 | 2020 | 2020-12 | Democrat | House | ME | Chellie Pingree | P000597 | pingree.house.gov | legacy | In response to a request for informationmadeSeptember 2018by Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), alongside Reps. McCollum, Stevens, and Takano, theU.S.Government Accountability Office (GAO) today issued a report on how tobuild on existing federal efforts to addressthe nation's recycling challenges, which increased as a result of China's National Sword policy banning foreign waste imports. Thefull GAO report can be found here. The U.S. generates over268 million tons of household and commercial trash each year, but recycling rates for common recyclables remains low. And after China's banon recycling imports in 2018, Maine municipalities had to spend approximately $16 million todisposeof their recyclable waste,said Pingree.When China banned the import of certain recyclables, it meant that those items ended up in American landfills, worsening the climate crisis and leaving our cities and towns struggling to determine the future of their municipal recycling programs. This GAO report emphasizes the need for Congressional action to reform our recycling system and support municipalities as they confront this challenge. In Maine's residents, we are fortunate to have an engaged community, invested in the success of our recycling programs,said ecomaine CEO Kevin Roche.We know that recycling is the single-most effective waste diversion strategy over the last 30 years and strong, sound leadership in policymaking at the federal level is critical to moving these systems toward even greater success. The report reviewsthe challenges affecting recycling in the U.Sandfederal effortstoadvance recycling in the United States. GAO's report found that only about 25 percent of municipal waste is collected for recycling, leaving an estimated 201 tons (or 52 percent) of municipal waste sent to landfills,13 percent to be incinerated,and 10 percentto becomposted. The report recommends that Congress pass legislation to require the Secretary of Commerce to develop domestic markets for recyclablesto address reduced international demand for recyclables, and recommends that EPA work to developand implementa national recycling strategyto assist in making future resource and policy decisions related to recycling. Community recycling programs are facing challenges across the country. For decades, the U.S. recycling industry has relied on selling recyclables in international markets to manage municipal waste. However, in 2018, the Chinese government banned imports of various plastics and mixed papers, enacting barriers for U.S. recycled waste. Recycling programs haveincreasinglysuffered since then, causing some communities to limit or stop public recycling programs. While local governments have the primary role in operating recycling programs, the federal government is an important stakeholder and contributes to these efforts in a variety of ways. This report was requested to learn about efforts currently underway at federal agencies to encourage recycling, to what extent those efforts have changed in recent years, and what additional actions can be taken at the federal level to increase recycling in the U.S. ### -- Kiara Tringali Communications Coordinator, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (ME-01) Kiara.Tringali@mail.house.gov | 207-509-5904 | she/hers | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |