I 
118TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 9676 
To direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to 
establish National Plastics Recycling Standards, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 
Mr. BUCSHON (for himself and Mr. DAVIS of North Carolina) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection 
Agency to establish National Plastics Recycling Stand-
ards, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Accelerating a Circular Economy for Plastics and Recy-
cling Innovation Act of 2024’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings; purpose. 
Sec. 3. Definitions. 
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TITLE I—NATIONAL PLASTICS RECYCLING STANDARDS 
Sec. 101. National Plastics Recycling Standards Advisory Committee. 
Sec. 102. National plastic recycling standards. 
Sec. 103. Comparative study on carbon impact of raw materials. 
TITLE II—MINIMUM MANDATE FOR RECYCLED PLASTIC 
Sec. 201. Definitions. 
Sec. 202. Minimum mandate for recycled plastic in plastics packaging portfolio. 
Sec. 203. Labeling compliance and enforcement. 
Sec. 204. General provisions. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Environmental Protection Agency has 
recognized that reusing and recycling materials con-
serves natural resources, reduces waste sent to land-
fills and incinerators, prevents pollution, conserves 
natural resources, reduces greenhouse gases contrib-
uting to climate change, and helps create jobs and 
tax revenue. 
(2) Given these benefits, the Environmental 
Protection Agency set a National Recycling Goal in 
2020 to increase the national recycling rate for all 
materials to 50 percent by 2030. 
(3) As a parallel effort, the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency developed a ‘‘National Recycling 
Strategy’’ that identifies objectives and actions to 
create a stronger, more resilient recycling system. 
(4) Collectively, these efforts intend to increase 
the amount of materials that can be recycled, make 
the processing system more efficient, ensure the in-
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dustry can keep pace with today’s diverse and 
changing waste system, and strengthen the economic 
markets for recycling materials. 
(5) These measures are also intended to help 
manufacturers make more products using recycled 
materials, increase competition, and encourage de-
mand for more products made using recycled mate-
rials. 
(6) There is an unprecedented public and pri-
vate momentum and investment to innovate, im-
prove, and expand the existing recycling system to 
develop a circular economy for plastics. 
(7) A circular economy for plastic products and 
materials, whether derived from oil, gas, or organics, 
benefits businesses, society, and the environment. 
(8) To meet the National Recycling Goal and 
support domestic interests and competitiveness with-
in international markets, it will be necessary for the 
recycling market in the United States to expand its 
deployment of advanced recycling technologies. 
(9) These innovative manufacturing processes 
fundamentally transform the chemical structure of 
post-use polymer products, many of which are tradi-
tionally hard to recycle by mechanical recycling tech-
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niques, back to their basic chemical or molecular 
components. 
(b) PURPOSE.—The purposes of this Act are to— 
(1) grow the circular economy for plastics prod-
ucts and materials to— 
(A) meet the National Recycling Goal; 
(B) protect the global environment; 
(C) reduce plastic waste; 
(D) support the standardization of the re-
cycling infrastructure capacity in the United 
States; and 
(E) bolster competition, technological inno-
vation, and robust global and national markets 
around circular products; 
(2) create national plastics recycling standards 
to encourage the modernization of the recycling in-
frastructure of the United States; 
(3) foster competition and consistency in mar-
keting recycled plastics in plastics packaging; 
(4) recognize advanced recycling technologies as 
a critical component of the international market for 
recycled products and the National Recycling Strat-
egy; 
(5) recognize advanced recycling as a manufac-
turing process to be regulated under applicable Fed-
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eral, State, and local environmental statutes, rules, 
and regulations, including the Clean Air Act (42 
U.S.C. 7401 et seq.); and 
(6) promote international movement towards 
the use of advanced recycling technologies and the 
utilization of recycled plastics in the manufacturing 
of plastics packaging to support the global economy. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-
trator’’ means the Administrator of the Environ-
mental Protection Agency. 
(2) ADVANCED
RECYCLING; ADVANCED
PLAS-
TICS RECYCLING.—The term ‘‘advanced recycling’’ 
or ‘‘advanced plastics recycling’’ means a manufac-
turing process for the conversion of post-use poly-
mers and recovered feedstocks into recycled products 
that include basic raw materials, feedstocks, chemi-
cals, and other products through processes that in-
clude pyrolysis, gasification, depolymerization, cata-
lytic cracking, solvolysis, chemolysis, and other simi-
lar technologies. The recycled products produced at 
advanced recycling or advanced plastics recycling fa-
cilities include, but are not limited to, monomers, 
oligomers, plastics, plastic and chemical feedstocks, 
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ing annual mandates for recycled plastics 
in plastics packaging. 
(vii) Any additional authorities or fi-
nancial resources necessary for the Admin-
istrator to improve data collection and the 
standardization of reporting with regard to 
the total supply of plastic packaging to en-
able the analysis of reuse and recycling 
performance and trends. 
(viii) The potential incorporation of 
advanced recycling and advanced recycling 
products into the National Recycling Strat-
egy. 
(ix) Ways that the National Recycling 
Strategy and other national recycling ef-
forts may be better harmonized with multi-
national, international, State, and local 
regulations, programs, and certification 
programs. 
(x) The potential expansion of the Na-
tional Recycling Strategy to— 
(I) improve and standardize col-
lection and metrics; 
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