biden proclaims america recycles day: acknowledges disproportionate suffering from impacts of burned and buried waste

Today President Biden issued a Proclamation on America Recycles Day, 2023. The President’s Proclamation notably highlights the impact of landfilling and burning waste has had: “Many people, especially people of color and low-income Americans, have suffered disproportionately from the damaging effects of pollution, including landfilled, dumped, or incinerated waste.”

The President’s Proclamation details the past federal investments made to advance recycling and “calls upon all Americans to learn what is recyclable in their cities and towns, sort waste into the appropriate bins, embrace reusable containers, engage in food composting, and reduce the use of non-recyclable materials, such as many single-use plastic.”

It’s good to see the President acknowledging the harms of landfilling and burning waste. And, there there are proven, cost-effective practices and technologies that would significantly mitigate methane emissions from landfills that the Biden Administration could be championing. These solutions are missing from the federal air emissions requirements currently in place for certain landfills, known as the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and Emissions Guidelines (EG) for municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills. In fact, about 40% of active public landfills have no methane gas capture system. We hope the President will work with the EPA to quickly open a rulemaking process to better control landfill methane emissions which could help the U.S. meet commitments at the global climate conference COP28.