Fifteen AGs Sent Comments Urging EPA to Strengthen Significant New Use Rules for Substances Manufactured by Chemical “Recycling” Facilities

AUGUST 18, 2023

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, and District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb led a coalition of 15 attorneys general in submitting comments responding to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Significant New Use Rules for 18 chemical substances under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The AGs urged EPA to strengthen the rules to better ensure that these chemical substances—manufactured from a process called “advanced recycling” which breaks plastic waste down to the molecular level—do not contain impurities or other substances that are hazardous to human health. The AGs urged EPA to study and evaluate the hazards posed by both the process and the final products of “advanced recycling.” They explained that the agency should “ensure that novel solutions to this problem [of widespread plastic pollution] do not further risk the health and safety of workers, consumers, and already overburdened communities.”