Stop the Plastic Industry’s Toxic Federal Bills

Surfrider strongly opposes a set of harmful federal bills currently in the House of Representatives. Together, they would promote plastic incineration, increase consumer deception, undermine states’ rights, and weaken the Clean Air Act — putting community health and environmental protections at risk.

Surfrider has worked tirelessly to help pass strong statewide plastic reduction laws. These bills not only erode that progress but would increase environmental and human health risks through pollution.

The three bills are:

• Packaging and Claims Knowledge Act (PACK Act; HR 6832): This bill would undercut state efforts to create and enforce strong standards around recyclability and compostability claims. In place of effective state oversight, it proposes a weak, voluntary federal framework lacking meaningful enforcement—opening the door to widespread greenwashing.

• Recycled Materials Attribution Act (HR 7502): This legislation would legitimize deceptive accounting and marketing practices for plastic recycled content claims (ex. creating a system that allows for virgin plastic to be marketed as recycled plastic). It also preempts states from taking stronger actions to protect against such deceptive practices, and allows harmful chemical recycling technologies that turn plastic into fuel to be counted as “recycling”.

• Recycling Technology Innovation Act (HR 6566): This bill would gut the Clean Air Act by classifying advanced/chemical recycling as manufacturing rather than solid waste incineration. This would lead to more hazardous air pollution directly in communities, including known human carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and heavy metals.

Altogether, these bills would remove key safeguards for human health and the environment by weakening existing plastic pollution reduction laws and blocking future ones from passing.