TSCA New Chemical Coalition Comments Included in Bloomberg Article “Plastic Waste Chemicals Rule Spurs Criticism of EPA by All Sides”

Comments submitted by The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) New Chemicals Coalition (NCC) regarding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed regulations to control health risks from chemicals made with waste plastic were featured by Bloomberg in a August 23, 2023 article. 

[o]ther trade groups told the EPA its rules “would hinder development of advanced recycling projects and progress towards a more circular plastics economy.”

The heat generated through the molecular recycling “will likely destroy the contaminants” or allow them to easily be separated, wrote Kelly N. Garson, an associate with Bergeson & Campbell PC.

The EPA failed to sufficiently examine how the production process would affect contaminants and therefore failed to provide data needed to justify the regulation, she wrote on behalf of a coalition of companies that produce new chemicals.

The significant new use rules (SNURs) that the EPA proposed are used to control possible risks from new chemicals.

If EPA insists on excluding those contaminants from waste plastic that will be heated, the agency must regulate those contaminants using a different regulatory authority, Garson said.

She referred to a process the EPA uses to analyze chemicals in commerce, determine if they’re too risky, and then regulate them to reduce identified health and environmental concerns.

See – https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/plastic-waste-chemicals-rule-spurs-criticism-of-epa-by-all-sides (subscription required)