    [Senate Hearing 117-233]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                                                           S. Hrg. 117-233

                    LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS TO IMPROVE DOMESTIC
                     RECYCLING AND COMPOSTING PROGRAMS

    =======================================================================

                                     HEARING

                                   BEFORE THE

                                  COMMITTEE ON
                          ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS

                              UNITED STATES SENATE

                        ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 SECOND SESSION

                                   __________

                                FEBRUARY 2, 2022

                                   __________

      Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works

    [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

            Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov

                                   __________

                        U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
    47-294 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2022

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                   COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS

                        ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 SECOND SESSION

                      THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware, Chairman
    BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland         SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West
    BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont                 Virginia,
    SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island         Ranking Member
    JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon                 JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma
    EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts      KEVIN CRAMER, North Dakota
    TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois            CYNTHIA M. LUMMIS, Wyoming
    DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan            RICHARD SHELBY, Alabama
    MARK KELLY, Arizona                  JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
    ALEX PADILLA, California             ROGER WICKER, Mississippi
                                         DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska
                                         JONI ERNST, Iowa
                                         LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina

                 Mary Frances Repko, Democratic Staff Director
                   Adam Tomlinson, Republican Staff Director

                               C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------
                                                                       Page

                                FEBRUARY 2, 2022
                               OPENING STATEMENTS

    Carper, Hon. Thomas R., U.S. Senator from the State of Delaware..     1
    Capito, Hon. Shelley Moore, U.S. Senator from the State of West
      Virginia.......................................................     4
    Boozman, Hon. John, U.S. Senator from the State of Arkansas......     6

                                   WITNESSES

    Yepsen, Rhodes, Executive Director, Biodegradable Products
      Institute......................................................     7
        Prepared statement...........................................    10
        Response to an additional question from Senator Whitehouse...   137
    Murray, Pashon, Founder, Detroit Dirt............................   139
        Prepared statement...........................................   141
        Response to an additional question from Senator Whitehouse...   152
    Harvey, Benjamin, President, E.L. Harvey and Sons, Inc...........   156
        Prepared statement...........................................   158
        Response to an additional question from Senator Whitehouse...   162
        Responses to additional questions from Senator Sullivan......   163
    Hairston, Charles Levell, Vice President and General Manager for
      Recycling and Recovered Fiber, International Paper.............   164
        Prepared statement...........................................   166
        Response to an additional question from:
            Senator Whitehouse.......................................   171
            Senator Sullivan.........................................   172

                              ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

    Letter to Senator Carper from:
        The Glass Packaging Institute, February 2, 2022..............   197
        Tetra Pak, January 31, 2022..................................   200
    Letter to Senators Carper and Capito from:
        The Aluminum Association et al., March 2, 2022...............   201
        The American Coatings Association, February 15, 2022.........   202
        Ball Corporation, March 2, 2022..............................   204
        Danimer Scientific, February 16, 2022........................   206
        The Plastics Industry Association, March 2, 2022.............   208
        The Flexible Packaging Association, February 8, 2022.........   210
        The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc., February
          1, 2022....................................................   221
    Letter to Senators Carper and Boozman from:
        The Can Manufacturers Institute, January 31, 2022............   223
        Novelis, February 10, 2022...................................   226
    Letter to Senators Carper, Capito, and Boozman:
        February 24, 2022............................................   227
        From the Aluminum Association, February 28, 2022.............   229
        From American Beverage, February 2, 2022.....................   230
        From the Paper Recycling Coalition, March 1, 2022............   231
        From the U.S. Composting Infrastructure Coalition, March 2,
          2022.......................................................   233
        From AMP Robotics, February 25, 2022.........................   236
        From the Association of Oregon Recyclers, March 2, 2022......   238
    Biopolymers and Recycling: An integrated approach to plastic
      waste management, Danimer Scientific, August 2020..............   240
    Statement of the American Chemistry Council, February 2, 2022....   246
    Statement of the American Chemistry Council, March 2, 2022.......   248
    Statement for the record from the American Forest & Paper
      Association, February 2, 2022..................................   250
    Legislative draft of the Recycling Infrastructure and
      Accessibility Act of 2022......................................   252
    Legislative draft of the Recycling and Composting Accountability
      Act............................................................   260
    Letter to Senators Carper and Capito from:
        The Plastics Industry Association, February 2, 2022..........   276
        The Flexible Packaging Association, February 8, 2022.........   277
    Letter to Senator Capito from Novelis, February 10, 2022.........   288
    Letter to Senators Carper, Capito, and Boozman from the Institute
      of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc., March 1, 2022.............   289

      LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS TO IMPROVE DOMESTIC RECYCLING AND COMPOSTING
                                    PROGRAMS

                                  ----------

                          WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2022

                                           U.S. Senate,
                     Committee on Environment and Public Works,
                                                        Washington, DC.
        The Committee, met, pursuant to notice, at 10:10 a.m. in
    room 106, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Thomas R. Carper
    (Chairman of the Committee) presiding.
        Present: Senators Carper, Capito, Whitehouse, Stabenow,
    Kelly, Boozman, and Sullivan.

              OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. THOMAS R. CARPER,
                U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF DELAWARE

        Senator Carper. This Committee will come to order.
        I welcome a number of our witnesses that are here in
    person, I think three or four. Another person is joining us
    remotely. We welcome all four of you.
        I am going to give an opening statement, and our Ranking
    Member, Senator Capito, will do as well. Senator Boozman, who
    is the co-chair of the Senate Caucus on Recycling, will be
    speaking as well, in an opening statement.
        I was talking to Pashon, who is visiting us from Detroit,
    Michigan, where my Detroit Tigers are. Hopefully, pitchers and
    catchers are going to report in about 10 days if they can
    settle this strike. I hope they will, but I have passion. One
    of my passions, we were up here talking about football, about
    the Bengals. We have some Bengals fans up here, but I am a huge
    Detroit Tigers fan.
        Pashon, a special welcome to you.
        I am also passionate about recycling and composting. I have
    told Pashon and Rhodes, I said, I haven't recycled since this
    morning. Coming down on the train, the Amtrak takes recycling,
    and we have composting capabilities in all of our offices. So I
    composted right before I came over here, all the banana peels
    and apple cores and stuff that I wanted to compost. So these
    are things that I care about personally and have forever.
        Senator Capito and colleagues, I think I was a 22 year old
    Naval flight officer in training in California, just joined my
    squadron, and we were stationed near Palo Alto, California, and
    I used to recycle every month. I would drive over to the
    recycling center about 2 miles from my house and recycle when
    it wasn't that fashionable. So I have been doing this for a
    while, and I am too old to quit.
        Having said that, let me just get serious here, although I
    have been serious, but we have another big Detroit Tigers fan
    here, too, Senator Debbie Stabenow. She and I share this
    passion.
        Good morning. I am pleased to call this hearing to order.
    Let me start by thanking the witnesses for your willingness to
    be here today as we discuss two draft pieces of legislation
    related to recycling and composting.
        Rhodes Yepsen, is that the way you pronounce your name,
    Rhodes Yepsen? We don't have a lot of Yepsens that come here,
    or a lot of Rhodes, so we are especially delighted to have you
    here.
        Pashon, I don't recall in 20 years in the Senate ever
    having, from Detroit or anyplace else, Debbie, having a Pashon
    as a witness, but we are delighted that you are both here.
        Charles Levell, we are happy, Charles, to welcome you.
        We have, joining us remotely, we have one more person, I
    believe. Is that correct? I am looking on my statement here, to
    see who that person is. I don't see it. Ben Harvey.
        Ben, welcome Ben. We are glad you are out there and joining
    us remotely.
        As Ranking Member Capito, Senator Boozman, our Recycling
    Caucus co-chair, and many of our colleagues know, the topic of
    today's hearing is something that, as I have just mentioned, I
    care deeply about. I won't bore you again with my passion and
    where it came from. But we all have a part to play to improve
    our Nation's recycling and composting efforts.
        I am hopeful that today's discussion on two draft pieces of
    legislation will provide us with a bipartisan road map to
    address several of the challenges that America's recycling
    efforts currently face. Challenges, but also, I think, great
    opportunities. What Einstein used to say, in adversity, lies
    opportunity, so that is what we are all about here.
        One of these challenges is the availability of good data.
    This past November, the Environmental Protection Agency
    released its first ever National Recycling Strategy. This
    Committee provided a lot, extensive; Michael Regan, the EPA
    Administrator, will tell you, we provided, from the Committee,
    significant input to the development of that National Recycling
    Strategy, and it reflects the bipartisan views on this subject.
        The document that has been released a month or so ago by
    EPA offers a transformative vision for strengthening our
    Nation's waste management efforts, and it also highlights the
    need for greater standardization around data collection. To
    address this, Senator Boozman and I, with the help of our
    staffs, have developed the Recycling and Composting
    Accountability Act, one of the two bills that we are going to
    focus on today. Our bill would improve EPA's ability to gather
    data on our Nation's recycling systems and explore
    opportunities for implementing national composting strategy.
        This bill is an important first step toward a national
    composting strategy. I hope that the experts who are here with
    us today, as well as other stakeholders, will support our
    efforts to get the ball rolling at long last.
        Today, we will also focus on increasing access to
    recycling. Many Americans in disadvantaged communities want to
    recycle, and they want to compost, too, but are unable to do so
    because they live in neighborhoods that lack curbside pickup,
    bottle return, and other necessary recycling infrastructure.
        Senator Capito's Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility
    Act would help address this by creating a pilot program at EPA
    to improve recycling services in underserved areas. This
    legislation has the potential to bring many communities into
    the recycling world, including those in urban and suburban
    areas while also protecting our environment. I commend Senator
    Capito for her work and leadership on this bill, and I want to
    work with her and her team to make sure the bill helps
    jumpstart recycling in communities with the greatest need,
    especially those that have historically been left behind.
        Both of the two bills I have mentioned are the result of
    true collaboration and reflect a substantial amount of
    bipartisan effort dedicated to exploring our Nation's recycling
    and composting challenges. This fall, our Committee held
    several recycling roundtables, as some of you will recall, as
    well as a hearing on the important of transitioning to a
    circular economy.
        The term circular economy is going to be something people
    will start hearing about, thinking about a whole lot in the
    days to come. It is a way of doing business that would mean
    less pollution from landfills and stronger, more efficient
    supply chains. We benefited from the suggestions of numerous
    stakeholders on how Congress could collaborate with industry to
    bolster recycling efforts.
        Fortunately, we also discovered that with awareness and
    motivation, we can do a great deal to address the obvious needs
    and change some of the damaging behavior.
        One product that stood out in recycling was aluminum, as
    many of you know. Few of us realize this, but 75 percent of
    aluminum, I am told, 75 percent of aluminum ever mined is still
    in use today. Think about that; 75 percent of aluminum ever
    mined is still in use today. That is important, because
    aluminum products made from recycled materials use 95 percent
    less energy than it would take to create from first use
    materials. I have got to say that again. It is important,
    because aluminum products made from recycling materials use 95
    percent less energy that it would take to create them from
    first use material.
        In most cases, recycled products are more energy efficient,
    which translates directly into reduced greenhouse gas
    emissions, something we all care about. That is the power of a
    circular economy.
        As part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,
    which really has its roots right here from this Committee last
    year, Congress provided unprecedented levels of funding for
    recycling infrastructure and educational programs. The two
    bills we are examining today represent our next steps to build
    on these efforts to turn the challenges of recycling and
    composting into opportunities to reduce planet warming
    emissions and create good paying jobs.
        Someday, I hope to be asked by my children and
    grandchildren, what did you do to stop climate change and help
    save our planet? I want to be able to say, my generation did
    everything we could, everything we could. Working with Senators
    Capito, Boozman, and other members of this Committee and our
    colleagues in the Senate and the House and a lot of other
    stakeholders, I embrace the chance to work on a bipartisan
    basis to dramatically improve our recycling and composting
    systems in America. By doing so, we can respect our planet,
    preserve the precious resources that God has bestowed upon us,
    and I might also add, create a lot of jobs, good paying jobs,
    all over the country: In West Virginia, in Arkansas, in
    Delaware, in Michigan, and a whole lot of other places, too.
        With that, let me turn it over to our Ranking Member and
    partner on these issues and so many others for her opening
    remarks.
        Also, Taylor, I understand that Taylor, not Taylor Swift,
    but we have some bad news from Taylor. We will miss Taylor, and
    we are grateful for all of her help.

            OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO,
              U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA

        Senator Capito. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        I thank the witnesses for being here with us today.
        A lot of what the Chairman has said in his opening
    statement is mirrored in my own statements as well, because
    this is an issue that cuts across party, and certainly is
    absolutely essential in this Committee.
        In 2021, this Committee and the Congressional Recycling
    Caucus, which Senator Boozman is the co-chair of with Chairman
    Carper, they were extremely active in getting a hearing on
    stakeholder input on recycling policy. At that hearing, we
    discussed the need to expand material processing and
    manufacturing here in America and how a lack of demand for
    recycled materials is inhibiting market development, and as a
    result, investment in recycling infrastructure.
        The week before that committee hearing, Chairman Carper and
    I co-hosted a roundtable called Leadership in Recycling:
    Sustainable Practices and Innovative Technologies, where we had
    the opportunity to learn about some of the technological
    advancements in the recycling sector directly from our industry
    leaders.
        Later in the year, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs
    Act, led by this Committee, was enacted into law, establishing
    a new grant program for recycling education to reduce
    contamination and provide a feedstock of recyclable materials.
    This legislation also appropriated historic amounts of funding
    for recycling infrastructure and education.
        Today, we build on that momentum with a hearing on draft
    legislation to address some of the data and accessibility gaps
    in the sector to further improve recycling across the country.
        First, I will talk about my draft legislation, which is the
    Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act. This
    legislation establishes, as the Chair said, a pilot program to
    improve recycling accessibility throughout the United States,
    with a particular emphasis on bringing recyclable services to
    underserved areas.
        Recycling services, particularly curbside recycling, is not
    offered in many rural communities, like those of my home State
    of West Virginia. In fact, a study released last year showed
    that West Virginia has a recycling rate of just 2 percent when
    excluding cardboard, the lowest recycling rate in the States.
        If you include cardboard, we don't do much better, with a
    recycling rate of 31 percent and a ranking of 40th in the
    Nation. According to the most recent recycling survey by the
    Department of Environmental Protection in West Virginia, of the
    50 county and regional solid waste authorities, only 35 provide
    recycling services, and five work closely with local recyclers
    or municipalities to make sure that residents have recycling
    options.
        Together, these counties have 129 drop off locations and 36
    curbside. Of those, 14 are municipalities that have
    populations--we have 14 cities that have populations that
    exceed 10,000, and they are required to provide curbside
    recycling, but this is a problem.
        This is a challenge not just for our State, but also other
    States that are represented on this Committee, like Alaska and
    Wyoming, who face similar barriers. These rural areas share
    common challenges to accessibility: Location and proximity to
    material recovery facilities and the size and density of the
    population. This leads to low processing yields and high
    collection and transportation costs, leaving materials recovery
    facilities struggling to operate at a profit.
        According to an opinion piece on WasteDive, something I
    read every day, that was a little tongue in cheek there, a news
    outlet covering the industry: ``It is not uncommon for a small
    town to put out a request for a proposal asking waste companies
    to bid on recycling opportunities and to not receive any bids
    back due to the lack of perceived profitability.''
        This pilot program established would provide resources to
    increase collection and transportation of recyclables through
    investments to transfer stations, for example, providing access
    in those areas where a materials recovery facility may not be
    able to operate at a profit.
        Second, Senator Carper, Senator Boozman, and I have
    collaborated on a draft bill, the Recycling and Composting
    Accountability Act. This bill requires EPA to collect and
    distribute data on recycling and composting across the country
    to provide an accurate reflection of the performance both
    nationwide and statewide. This is information that is critical
    for us to be able to evaluate how we can improve and how to
    best inform future recycling policies.
        Recycling is a win-win solution, as the Chairman says, for
    our environment and our economy. In this political climate, it
    is critical that we remember there is a lot we agree on, and we
    need to be diligent in identifying and pursuing those
    bipartisan opportunities to improve the future. That is what we
    are doing here today.
        It is with great sadness that I announce, as the Chairman
    said, that I am losing a valued staff member at the end of this
    week, one who is here with me today, who has been absolutely
    integral in not only the recycling space, but other areas on
    the Committee. Taylor Meredith will be leaving us. It is rare
    that you meet a person who brings as much intellect and
    enthusiasm, both in a personal way and a professional way, and
    Taylor is one of those. So I know she will succeed wherever she
    goes, and we will certainly miss her and wish her all the best.
        So Taylor, thank you.
        Senator Carper. Amen.
        Senator Boozman, I oftentimes refer to our Ranking Member
    as my wingwoman, and she refers to me sometimes as her wingman,
    and she has other descriptive terms as well, depending on how I
    am behaving. But I just want to say thank you for being my
    wingman. I think we have been great partners leading the
    Recycling Caucus here in the Senate, and we have a bunch of
    folks on this Committee that are part of that and that are not
    on this Committee.
        John, why don't you go ahead and make an opening statement?

                OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN BOOZMAN,
                U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF ARKANSAS

        Senator Boozman. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman,
    and I want to congratulate you and Senator Capito for the
    example that you set around here. We hear a lot about the
    rancor, and this and that, and we don't always agree. But I
    know that you two together are always trying to find common
    ground and find a path forward, which is so, so very important.
        First, I want to thank you all very much for your attention
    to this important issue and for allowing us to discuss two
    pieces of legislation, the discussion draft of the Recycling
    and Composting Accountability Act that Chairman Carper and I
    have been working on, along with Senator Capito's Recycling
    Infrastructure and Accessibility Act. As the co-chair of the
    Senate Recycling Caucus, I understand the challenges and
    opportunities facing the recycling industry. It is certainly
    very important to me, and I know it is important to Senator
    Capito and Chairman Carper.
        So, we do appreciate you all being here very, very much. We
    have a distinguished panel. When Chairman Carper and I began
    working on our proposal, we shared a goal of learning more
    about the landscape of recycling and identifying the challenges
    facing our Nation's recycling and composting infrastructure.
        As you can imagine, the ability to recycle in Delaware and
    the ability to recycle in Arkansas are different. It is
    important to identify these regional differences so we can
    properly invest our resources to fix our Nation's recycling
    challenges. I believe there is great opportunity to make
    improvements in the recycling space. I look forward to
    continuing to work with Chairman Carper and Ranking Member
    Capito so we can develop meaningful, long term solutions that
    address the challenges facing the recycling industry today.
        Thank you to the witnesses again for your participation and
    sharing your expertise. I look forward to hearing your thoughts
    on these two pieces of legislation.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Senator Carper. Thank you, Senator.
        Senator Stabenow, I think you are going to introduce
    somebody from your home State. Please proceed, thank you.
        Senator Stabenow. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman
    and Ranking Member. This is a really important hearing, and I
    am so pleased that you have picked someone who is doing a
    fantastic job in Michigan, as well as across the country. It is
    my pleasure to introduce entrepreneur, activist, and educator,
    Michigan's own Pashon Murray.
        Welcome.
        Pashon was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and
    after college, she helped manage one of the city's leadership
    and energy and environmental design projects, which culminated
    in the country's first LEED certified YMCA. Today, Pashon is
    working to improve the carbon footprint of Detroit and beyond
    by finding solutions for everyday waste and eliminating trips
    to the landfill through composting.
        She is the founder of Detroit Dirt, I love that name,
    Detroit Dirt, a revolutionary closed loop composting company
    she started in 2010 that provides compost and food waste
    solutions to local businesses. Through her work at Detroit
    Dirt, Pashon is helping to build a low carbon economy by
    motivating communities and industries to have a zero waste
    mindset. In 2017, she expanded her impact further by
    establishing the Detroit Dirt Foundation, a non-profit serving
    the public through environmental education, research projects,
    and sustainable programs.
        Recently, Mr. Chairman, she was recognized as a United
    Nations FAO food hero.
        Ms. Murray, welcome. Thank you so much for the great work
    you are doing in Michigan as well as across the country. I am
    excited to welcome you to the Committee hearing.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Senator Carper. Senator Stabenow, thanks so much for
    introducing Pashon to all of us. Let me briefly introduce our
    other three remaining witnesses.
        Rhodes Yepsen, Rhodes, raise your hand, please. Good to see
    you, my friend.
        Rhodes is the Executive Director of the Biodegradable
    Products Institute, where he advocates for the value of
    compostable packaging and its role in diverting food waste from
    our landfills.
        Welcome, Mr. Yepsen.
        We are also joined by Ben Harvey. Ben is Chairman of the
    National Waste and Recycling Association.
        Ben, I think you are out there in the atmosphere, and you
    are joining us, I think, remotely. We are delighted that you
    are doing that.
        Our last witness is Charles Levell Hairston, and he goes by
    Levell. Levell is the General Manager for Recycling and
    Recovered Fibers, and he is joining us today.
        And Mr. Hairston, welcome. We are delighted to see you.
        I think, with that, we are going to start off with Mr.
    Yepsen.
        You are welcome to present your testimony when you are
    ready. Take it away. Thank you.

     STATEMENT OF RHODES YEPSEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BIODEGRADABLE
                           PRODUCTS INSTITUTE

        Mr. Yepsen. Chairman Carper, Ranking Member Capito, members
    of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to provide
    feedback on these two pieces of legislation today advocating
    for our Nation's systems for recycling and composting. It is
    wonderful to see bipartisan support on these two initiatives.
        As you heard, I am here on behalf of the Biodegradable
    Products Institute, a non-profit that advocates for the value
    of certified compostable packaging in diverting organic waste
    to composting.
        These two pieces of draft legislation complement each other
    very well. Starting with the Recycling and Composting
    Accountability Act, it will provide much needed national level
    support by attracting and quantifying the key aspects of
    successful recycling and composting programs. This includes the
    topic of access, whether that is curbside collection or drop
    off, the question of processing infrastructure capabilities and
    capacities. It addresses end markets for recycled material and
    finished compost, and it considers the importance of education
    and labeling.
        As I explain in greater detail in my written testimony, no
    one of these aspects on its own is sufficient for determining
    the success of recycling or composting, because these are
    systems of interconnected stakeholders that form a value chain.
    This is precisely why I am so excited to be here today, as BPI
    focuses on systems based thinking for compostable packaging,
    rather than a product based solution, meaning the items aren't
    just technically compostable, but are designed to fit into food
    scraps collection and composting programs.
        Looking at EPA's facts and figures, food is continually the
    No. 1 material sent to landfills and incinerators today. And
    the U.N. estimates that if food waste and loss were a country,
    it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter in the
    world, after the U.S. and China. That food is often tangled in
    non-recyclable food soiled packaging that makes it challenging
    for composters to recover. Compostable packaging enables the
    diversion of food scraps and associated packaging.
        Groups like BioCycle Magazine have been tracking
    residential compost access and compost infrastructure for
    decades, partnering with groups like BPI on projects like
    FindAComposter.com to map access. The last reports from
    BioCycle show that over 10 million households now have access
    to either curbside or drop off food scraps collection
    composting, a number that grows each year, but is still a
    fraction of our population. Of the 4,700 composting facilities
    around the U.S., the majority accept only yard trimmings, not
    food scraps or other materials.
        The U.S. Composting Council has done excellent work
    promoting end markets for finished compost, such as
    specifications for compost in use of Department of
    Transportation projects. Compost use helps restore our soils,
    improving water retention, pest resistance, nutrients for
    crops, humus for conditioning the soil. These benefits have
    been popularized in books and documentaries like Kiss the
    Ground and in research and reports by the Rodale Institute.
        Unlike with recycling, composting is inherently local.
    Neither the raw materials, largely food scraps and yard
    trimmings, nor the finished compost are going to be shipped
    internationally like recycling. The resources will be kept
    regionally for use in agriculture, landscaping, and other
    beneficial uses.
        Without the type of foundational data and reporting that
    the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act sets out for
    the EPA and without grant funding for communities like that
    provided in the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act,
    we won't realistically be able to advance a national strategy
    to recovering products and packaging in a meaningful way, and
    we won't be able to realize all the benefits associated with
    widespread recycling and composting.
        A few small points of clarification. In the Recycling and
    Composting Accountability Act, we suggest amending the
    definition of compostable materials to include certified
    compostable products beyond just paper. Compostable products
    and packaging will increasingly be part of the solution as
    companies and State governments roll out commitments to making
    all packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable.
        In the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act, we
    have two comments. The first is expanding the scope to include
    composting, as food soiled articles are often not readily
    recyclable, and again, the EPA is estimating roughly 40 percent
    of landfill and incinerator bound material is made up of food,
    yard trimmings, and wood waste, meaning we will need composting
    alongside recycling to make a difference. That would also help
    further align the two bills.
        Finally, we recommend modifying the definition of
    underserved to be more inclusive of urban and suburban
    populations. We definitely respect that distance to processing
    facility is important, but that it is not the only determinant
    for whether a community offers recycling or composting, and
    that there may be communities that already have recycling or
    composting programs, but charge an extra fee for that service,
    setting a barrier to participation. These funds could be used
    more broadly.
        Thank you for putting forward two excellent legislative
    proposals to improve domestic recycling and composting programs
    and for the opportunity to provide testimony and support. It
    has been an honor.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Yepsen follows:]
        [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Senator Carper. The honor is ours. Thanks, Mr. Yepsen.
    Thanks for the good work that you are doing and for joining us
    today.
        Pashon, you have already been introduced by Senator
    Stabenow, so we will just turn it over to you to give your
    statement. Please proceed.

           STATEMENT OF PASHON MURRAY, FOUNDER, DETROIT DIRT

        Ms. Murray. Thank you.
        Good morning to all of the Senators. It is an honor to be
    here.
        First, I would just like to read a letter that I addressed,
    and then I will just make a couple of statements, but just for
    the record, I do support both bills, or legislation. I think
    that we are moving in a positive step, moving forward for the
    future for generations to come, so thank you.
        Senator Carper. Thank you.
        Ms. Murray. At Detroit Dirt, our mission is to create a
    zero waste mindset and drive forward a low carbon economy. The
    foundation of our work is in climate change adaptation in terms
    of food waste. This is rooted in specific actions that create
    movement toward carbon dioxide reductions. We must also address
    food loss and waste because the U.S. spends $218 billion a year
    growing, processing, and transporting food that is not
    consumed.
        At Detroit Dirt, we transport food waste from clients and
    process it into a high quality compost. This impacts the
    environment by using food waste to its highest and best use, as
    a compost product for agriculture. Diverting food waste from
    landfills also mitigates the generation of carbon dioxide and
    methane.
        The benefits of using compost in agriculture are many,
    including increased crop yields and healthier plants. Beyond
    agriculture, incorporating compost into contaminated soils
    mitigates contaminants such as lead and other pollutants.
    Compost also helps increase soil's ability to hold stormwater
    runoff, which impacts nearby lakes.
        Another important part of our work is in soil erosion on
    agricultural lands. The rates of soil erosion and depletion
    exceed new soil production by billions of tons per year. The
    unprecedented loss of soil health and productivity has been
    well documented. In the U.S., there are reported to be less
    than 60 years of productive harvests. This speaks to the
    critical need to take organic materials like food waste,
    capture its embedded energy, and bring it back into the soils
    to increase the organic matter that agricultural soils must
    maintain.
        In terms of the environmental stewardship and circular
    economies, we know that we must take positive steps to make
    changes through strong partnerships. With these partnerships,
    we must establish foundations to support the next generation of
    people who will inherit a different world. Part of our vision
    is to prepare them for what is to come through education so
    that everyone can understand their own role, especially as
    climate change creates an environment where changing seasons
    will make food production more difficult and where a changing
    world will take competing interests for natural resources into
    uncharted territory.
        Our vision is to create a thriving, sustainable enterprise
    where employment opportunities are available to support healthy
    neighborhoods and sustainable agriculture. Infrastructure for
    food waste management within an urban setting means reducing
    our overall carbon footprint, while our high visibility and
    community outreach will create markets for a variety of
    products. The new generation of powerful electric trucks
    manufactured in Michigan will further support our vision of
    transporting food waste and generating zero emissions.
        The challenges of climate change mean that we must invest
    in innovation and creativity. While our work is measurable, we
    know some aspects extend far beyond those matters that are
    measurable or tangible. Supporting our community is a large
    part of our vision. We understand the value of citizenship and
    the responsibility of service to our community. To this end, I
    am in support of the legislation, the Recycling Infrastructure
    and Accessibility Act of 2022, as well as the Recycling and
    Composting Accountability Act.
        I would like to add a few comments. When we speak about
    innovation, I, for the last 10 years, have been primarily
    focusing on replacing landfills and bringing education around
    anaerobic digestion and vessel technology and other
    technologies that we can actually make byproducts. If we think
    about the methane when we bury food waste in the landfills,
    that carbon not only should be recycled, but when we look at
    the innovation of technologies that can capture that energy and
    use it for heating buildings, fuel, and other byproducts, this
    is imperative.
        I believe that, across the country and the world, we are
    having issues around education. If more of our people
    understand, in vulnerable communities that are impacted, what
    composting means, what recycling means, and translating
    science, this is the low hanging fruit of actually impacting
    climate change. Because it is not just about recycling our
    carbon cycles. This is actually about creating and
    manufacturing byproducts that we can create markets and retail,
    which is something I am very excited about, so we will get into
    that later. Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Murray follows:]
        [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Senator Carper. Thank you for that p.s., and for joining us
    today, and your testimony.
        Next, we are going to hear from Ben Harvey, I think,
    remotely.
        Ben Harvey, we are delighted that you can join us, and
    would ask you to just proceed, please. Thank you.

                     STATEMENT OF BENJAMIN HARVEY,
                 PRESIDENT, E.L. HARVEY AND SONS, INC.

        Mr. Harvey. Thank you.
        Good morning, Chairman Carper and Ranking Member Capito and
    members of the Committee. My name is Ben Harvey, and I am
    President of Westborough, Massachusetts, based E.L. Harvey and
    Sons, Inc., a full service waste and recycling firm servicing
    residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers
    throughout eastern New England.
        I am testifying today in my capacity as Chairman of the
    National Waste and Recycling Association, which represents the
    private sector waste and recycling industry that is essential
    to maintaining the quality of American life.
        I thank you for the opportunity to appear before the
    Committee today and present you with the industry perspective
    on recycling infrastructure and accessibility and discuss its
    impact on us.
        Ensuring that all Americans have access to recycling
    provides sustainable materials management across the Nation.
    Rural areas have unique challenges collecting recyclables and
    accessing recycling markets, leaving many communities
    underserved.
        Recycling has become increasingly complex over the past 20
    years. To manage the growing diversity of materials, material
    recovery facilities, or MRFs, must have more and increasingly
    sophisticated equipment.
        Today's MRFs do not just have magnets, eddy current
    separators, and screens. They include optical sorters and
    robots. To account for the increasing equipment costs, today's
    modern MRFs are larger and service regions rather than single
    communities. They are increasingly run by private sector
    companies that can adapt quickly to the changing makeup of
    packaging.
        These attributes make recycling in rural communities
    particularly challenging. MRFs are sited near population
    centers sometimes great distances from rural communities.
    Rather than curbside collection, rural residential recycling
    often consists of drop off programs or private sector
    subscription programs, with limited participation. Once
    recyclables are collected, transporting the materials to
    processing facilities and ultimately, to end markets,
    represents another hurdle.
        However, rural recycling can achieve success through the
    hub and spoke model, which creates consolidation hubs that
    service small communities. These transfer stations are where
    smaller truckloads of materials are consolidated into larger
    truckloads for their final transfer to processing facilities.
    Rural communities interested in adopting such a model would
    benefit from grants for transfer station infrastructure
    construction and recycling tractor trailers and transfer
    trailers to move the material.
        Hub and spoke systems reduce transportation and provide
    much needed operational efficiency to make recycling viable for
    rural areas. That is why I was encouraged by the approach
    undertaken by Senator Capito's legislation. The private and
    public sector usually benefit from a model where public sector
    can efficiently collect materials from rural areas and transfer
    them to privately operated MRFs for processing. Privately
    operated MRFs typically share revenues from the sale of the
    processed recyclables with the communities that bring the
    materials to them. We wholeheartedly support a program where
    rural communities can access the global recycling markets.
        Whatever we do needs to be undergirded with good data.
    Recycling, composting, and waste composition has changed
    significantly over time. Paper and cardboard have long made up
    the largest component of our recyclables, but this has changed
    significantly with newspapers now only a third of where it was
    in 2005, and cardboard boxes from households increasing due to
    what we call the Amazon effect.
        Food waste has become the largest part of what ends up in
    landfills, and disposal of clothing has doubled over the last
    20 years.
        As a businessman, it is important for me to be able to make
    decisions founded on good data. That is why I am also pleased
    to support the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act that
    empowers EPA to perform the studies that we need.
        Again, thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Capito,
    for this opportunity to testify today. I will be happy to
    respond to any questions.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Harvey follows:]
        [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Senator Carper. Mr. Harvey, thank you so much. I know that
    Senator Capito also appreciates your testimony and your
    presence. Thanks for joining us remotely.
        Batting cleanup, Mr. Levell Hairston; I am going to ask you
    to go ahead and give us your opening statement. Levell, thanks
    so much for coming.

       STATEMENT OF CHARLES LEVELL HAIRSTON, VICE PRESIDENT AND
          GENERAL MANAGER FOR RECYCLING AND RECOVERED FIBER,
                          INTERNATIONAL PAPER

        Mr. Hairston. Thank you, Chairman Carper, Ranking Member
    Capito, and Senator Boozman, and distinguished members of the
    Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My
    name is Levell Hairston, and I am the Vice President and
    General Manager of Recycling for International Paper.
        We are a leading global supplier of renewable, fiber based
    products, which includes corrugated packaging products and pulp
    for diapers, tissue, and other personal care products. We are
    headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, and employ approximately
    27,000 colleagues in the U.S.
        In our business, recovered fiber refers to paper and fiber
    based packaging products that have served their primary purpose
    and are now ready to be collected and recycled. In addition to
    manufacturing, International Paper recovers more than 7 million
    tons of recovered fiber annually.
        In 2020, International Paper released a Vision 2030 goal,
    which demonstrated our commitments to building a better future
    for people, the planet, and the company. These goals are
    detailed in my written statement.
        As a company that truly embraces the concept of a circular
    economy, our renewable solution goal includes a target to
    create innovative products that are 100 percent reusable,
    recyclable, or compostable, a metric designed to accelerate the
    transition to a low carbon economy throughout the company's
    value chain.
        I am pleased to share our support of the Recycling and
    Composting Accountability Act and the Recycling Infrastructure
    and Accessibility Act today, and to add some insights into
    International Paper's recycling business and the papers
    industry's commitment to circularity and sustainable practices.
        End markets for recovered paper products are strong, and
    thanks to the significant private investments by our industry
    over the past decades and established value chain of our
    customers. We support market based approaches, like the
    provisions in these two bills, to improve the Nation's
    recycling system.
        The paper industry is a leader in recycling. According to
    the EPA, by weight, more paper is recovered for recycling from
    municipal waste streams than plastic, glass, steel, and
    aluminum. Paper recycling rates have continuously grown over
    recent decades and remain consistently high, at or above 63
    percent since 2009.
        In 2020, nearly 66 percent of the paper and 89 percent of
    the corrugated boxes were recycled. The paper industry has
    planned or announced approximately $5 billion in manufacturing
    infrastructure investments by the end of 2023 to continue to
    best use of recycled fiber in our products. These investments
    will help increase the amount of recovered paper used by U.S.
    paper and paperboard mills by approximately 8 million tons,
    which would represent about a 25 percent increase in U.S.
    recovered paper consumption over the 2020 levels.
        Legislation like the Recycling and Composting
    Accountability Act would help companies like International
    Paper reach our goals. As a data driven company, we understand
    to improve something, you must be able to measure it.
    International Paper proudly developed these goals, and it will
    take resources, like in this bill's data finding, to help us
    achieve them.
        Our industry prioritizes data collection to improve
    recycling rates. The American Forest and Paper Association has
    completed two key data projects in the last year. This includes
    AF&PA's Access to Recycling Study, which found that 94 percent
    of Americans have access to community paper or paperboard
    recycling programs. The study also finds that 79 percent of
    Americans now have access to curbside residential recycling
    programs, making it easier for them to recycle at home. This
    represents an increase of more than 14 million people since the
    2014 study was done.
        Second, last year, AF&PA released a design guidance for
    recyclability. The guide provides data for packaging designers
    and consumer brands to better understand how non-fiber elements
    such as coatings and additives impact the recyclability of
    paper based packaging. This is another example of our
    industry's commitment to circularity.
        We appreciate that Senator Boozman's and Chairman Carper's
    bill supports EPA's national recycling strategy and
    acknowledges that industrial efforts are part of the circular
    economy. We strongly support the provision that requires EPA to
    conduct a study of recyclable materials in commercial and
    municipal waste streams that, for the previous 10 years, were
    diverted from the circular market. We believe studies like this
    will highlight the strong recycling rates of the paper
    industry, and it will also help identify that we are close to a
    practical maximum and that more regulation is not needed to be
    able to increase paper recycling rates.
        Senator Capito's bill to help increase recovered materials
    used by industries and access to communities without MRFs, or
    material recovery facilities, is also important. Without clean
    material, for us, it is hard for us to serve the needs of both
    the growing e-commerce and customer needs for our essential
    businesses.
        Again, I just want to say thank you for the opportunity.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Hairston follows:]
        [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Senator Carper. Thanks very much for your testimony,
    Levell.
        Let me ask a couple of questions, and then I will yield to
    Senator Capito. She will be followed by Senator Whitehouse,
    Senator Boozman, and Senator Stabenow, and then by others as
    they join us, remotely or in person.
        Question to start off with, Rhodes Yepsen. Mr. Yepsen, with
    respect to curbside composting data, you mentioned in your
    testimony that your organization has been working on tracking
    residential composting programs, I think you said, for nearly a
    decade. Yet significant data gaps remain. How would a study of
    curbside programs at the Federal level help eliminate existing
    data gaps and arm communities with the information they need to
    set up successful composting programs? Please proceed.
        Mr. Yepsen. Yes, thank you for that question. I was
    fortunate early in my career to work with BioCycle Magazine on
    some of that data tracking for residential curbside composting
    programs, and yes, while I have been working on it for a little
    over a decade, BioCycle has been at it for many decades. I
    think what I would like to highlight is that, as we heard
    earlier from Senator Capito, there are a lot of trade
    publications; WasteDive is one of them.
        So, part of the challenge is in collecting the data, and
    part of it is how does that information get out to the public.
    As a publication, BioCycle does wonderful investigative
    journalism, contacting States and municipalities to get that
    data collected, collate it, and then report back out on it.
        However, there is a big distinction between that and what
    we see with something like the EPA facts and figures. Those
    reports are incredibly important for standardizing the type of
    data that is collected and for getting that information out to
    the wider public. So I think that is the main thing that I
    would highlight, that is how this would help fill that data
    gap.
        Senator Carper. OK, thank you very much.
        Next question to Ms. Murray. This question is with respect
    to the national composting strategy and carbon reduction. As I
    mentioned, my wife and I are avid home composters and have been
    for some time. I am deeply interested in the role that reducing
    our food waste could play in conserving space in our landfills
    and reducing the harmful methane emissions that contribute to
    climate change.
        Delaware is not a big State. We are about 100 miles from
    north to south, about 50 miles from east to west, and we need
    all the land we have. We have got about a million people, so we
    don't need to create more and more space for a lot of
    landfills. We need to figure out how to compost and recycle.
        I think that this is an issue of social justice as well, as
    30 to 40 percent of our Nation's food supply is wasted, while
    nearly 14 million Americans, many of whom are children,
    experience food insecurity. With these potential benefits in
    mind, the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act would
    direct the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a study
    on the capability of the United States to implement a national
    residential composting strategy. The question is this: What do
    you see as the potential benefits of creating a national
    composting strategy?
        Ms. Murray. Thank you, Senator, for that question. I have
    been waiting for years to have someone address these issues.
        Senator Carper. The wait is over.
        Ms. Murray. Hallelujah.
        Senator Carper. The day has come.
        [Laughter.]
        Ms. Murray. And it being bipartisan, this is amazing.
        First, I would like to say that if we really break the
    waste stream down and look at the economics of what the waste
    stream really is and the value of how much we are burying in
    landfills, that should actually create a red flag right there,
    because there is over $200 billion of food waste being wasted
    annually in this country alone. So first of all, we need to
    make sure that the education and the awareness around this is
    just very crucial and imperative.
        But it is the byproducts that can be made from this. In the
    past history, people have been interested in the tipping fees
    and creating sites where they are looking at the front end of
    how much money they can make by discarding the waste, but it is
    not waste. It is a resource. Composting is actually healthy for
    soils, for our landscapes, our urban landscapes, for water
    runoff, et cetera.
        We have to look at the market and actually, on a national
    level, of creating retail and wholesale markets around this
    product as well. When you walk into a Home Depot or a grocery
    store, you have all these chemical fertilizers and chemically
    based products that we have to replace. There is no need to do
    that. We have the technology to actually create byproducts that
    can replace those chemically based products.
        And it is also healthy for not just the environment, but
    also we are looking at the economic benefit of that. I also
    would like to say that the more access we have to sites,
    whether they are boutique sites of two to three acres or a
    larger composting site, we have to look at the energy embedded
    in this, as well. When you truck compost or waste 30, 40 miles
    outside of the city, that is a lot of energy wasted. When you
    create a closed loop cycle or a closed loop market within an
    urban community or a rural community, you are actually keeping
    those products within that circular economy, which is a great
    benefit. So we are looking at social, economic, and
    environmental impacts.
        The key here is, at Detroit Dirt, we wanted to be able to
    display the fact that we could take manure from the zoo, food
    waste from automotive communities, and keep that product right
    in the community for urban farming, for people to purchase, but
    also reducing emissions. So I think a national campaign around
    education and implementing these practices and doing away with
    antiquated practices is key. We have technologies, weather
    permitting, whatever region we are in, to actually divert that
    waste and create byproducts from that.
        So I think we have to look at the energy embedded in that.
    We also have to look at, you know, creating the circular
    economy or local economy and the benefits. But I think on a
    national level, if we can look at a few factors here, making
    sure that we have education and awareness for the general
    public. Creating curriculum for K-12 schools, we are doing that
    in Michigan right now. I think that that is crucial when our
    youth and younger students can see themselves playing a role in
    this. That is key because they can take that home to their
    households.
        But I also think that when we start building these new
    markets to pinpoint what products we can replace that are on
    the market that is doing more harm, but also, when we are
    looking at reducing or omitting emissions, that is something,
    to me, from a moral and just ethical standpoint is key. So, I
    think, at the end of the day, socially, economically, and
    environmentally, we are taking a step forward in a positive
    direction.
        Senator Carper. Great. Thank you. Thanks for all of that.
    You read my mind. I had one more question I was going to ask
    you, and you have answered it without it being asked, so thank
    you for that.
        Now, it is Senator Capito's turn. She will be followed by
    Senator Whitehouse.
        Senator Capito.
        Senator Capito. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Thank all of you for being here again.
        I have a question for Mr. Harvey. Your family's company
    operates and provides recycling services in rural areas in New
    England. Can you explain why certain regions within New England
    have the infrastructure, geography, or special characteristics
    that enable curbside recycling, and why other areas in that
    region may not have that?
        Mr. Harvey. It comes down to the density of the
    municipality that we operate in. Our industry is all about
    density, and it is all about volume. We need to be able to send
    our trucks out in a dense area, and we need to collect the
    recyclables or the trash in one truck and bring it back to a
    central location. We want volume. So when you have a highly
    populated area, it is much easier to do curbside recycling.
        When you get into rural areas, even in the State of
    Massachusetts or in New England when you go up into northern
    New England, it is so much harder to send that truck out and
    collect the material. We send two trucks out a lot of times.
    What the industry has started to do is to start to use what we
    call split bodies, so we are only sending one truck out at a
    time to do it.
        But even in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts where we
    operate, we have feeder transfer stations that feed into our
    MRF in central Massachusetts. And we need those. We need those
    feeder systems to come in and make it profitable for us to run
    our MRFs.
        So we run into the same aspects, not quite as rural as West
    Virginia or Oklahoma or some of the other States, but that is
    the biggest reason. It is density.
        Senator Capito. Right. Well, so, investments, you
    mentioned, and I think you have already answered this, in
    transportation and other mechanisms for increasing collection
    and transportation would be long term solutions for rural; do
    you think those would be long term solutions for our rural
    communities, then?
        Mr. Harvey. Definitely, it would be, yes. Yes.
        Senator Capito. OK, so our previous witness, Ms. Murray,
    was talking about a circular economy, so if you were looking at
    a transfer station system, such as you have, would you consider
    that a circular economy way of dealing with recycling?
        Mr. Harvey. I think the circular economy goes from the
    collection to the processing to the marketing and then turning
    it back into another product. So, collection and the processing
    are only one-half of that or one part of that. We still need
    the outlets for the materials. We still need to establish good,
    solid markets, which we have worked hard for years to establish
    those.
        We need to be able to collect the materials, but at the end
    of the day, we need to be able to ship them out to consumers,
    wherever they may be, domestically or export, wherever that
    market is. We need to do that to close the whole loop.
        Senator Capito. Are those markets increasing for you now,
    or are they static? What is the state of the aftermarket, after
    it has been processed?
        Mr. Harvey. That is a very good question. We have certainly
    had some issues when China stopped accepting a lot of our
    recyclable materials. We have been very fortunate since that
    time that our domestic mills have picked up the need for more
    materials. You heard the gentleman from IP say about all the
    tons that they handle.
        So, yes, the markets right now are actually pretty robust.
    They have fallen off a little bit from where they were at the
    end of calendar 2021, but they are still fairly robust. Another
    reason why we need to get into these areas that are
    underserviced and collect those recyclables is because there is
    a need and a desire to use those materials currently.
        Senator Capito. Right.
        Senator Carper. Senator Capito, can I interrupt for just
    one moment?
        Senator Capito. Oh, sure.
        Senator Carper. We all serve on different committees. Some
    of them are in session right now. I am being summoned to come
    to the Homeland Security Committee for a business meeting. They
    need my vote, so I am going to slip away for a while.
        Senator Capito [presiding]. So you just need to recycle
    back over here. I got that one in before you could.
        [Laughter.]
        Senator Capito. Thank you.
        Just a quick question for Mr. Hairston on the data
    collection. The most recent Recycling Economic Information
    Report from EPA was released in November 2020, but it was
    relying on 8 year old data from 2012. I know in my own
    community, the ebbs and flows of recycling have been very
    apparent, a lot of it depending on the age of the facility that
    can recycle, the will of the municipal government, the
    available funds, the participation of the residents, all kinds
    of things. If this legislation were to become law and improve
    EPA's recycling data, what insights do you think we would be
    able to gain from analyzing this data?
        Mr. Hairston. Thanks, Senator.
        When we think about the data, again, when you think about
    the forest products industry, and you think about what we do,
    we have a very strong and historical track record of investing
    in this infrastructure. We do a great job of collecting that
    product and bringing it back.
        The opportunity for us is how to make sure we are accessing
    all the fiber available. So when I think about this study and
    what it will do is, even the data that we do as AF&PA is a
    sample. The data that EPA will be able to do will give us a
    more detailed view of the country and the breakdown and truly
    be able to identify where those opportunities are to be able to
    collect that fiber, collect those recyclable materials and get
    them back to some end use to make a new product. So I see the
    data as being very valuable in helping both public and private
    sectors understand where the opportunities are to drive a
    circular economy.
        Senator Capito. Thank you.
        Senator Whitehouse.
        Senator Whitehouse. Thank you, Chairman.
        Thank you, everyone, for being here.
        It strikes me that we have slightly different recycling
    markets for newsprint, for paper, for glass, for compost, and
    for plastics. I would like to focus on plastics, because I
    think we have a real failure happening in the plastics
    recycling market.
        In theory, this should be a pretty vibrant market because
    we are seeing immense public pressure on the plastics industry
    to clean up its act, particularly in regard to waste that ends
    up in the oceans and in our rivers. We are seeing, frankly,
    outright bans on certain single use plastics, sending what you
    would think would be a strong message to the industry to clean
    up its act.
        There is considerable reputational risk for these companies
    as the propagators of the material that ends up around some
    turtle's neck in the sea somewhere. So you would think that the
    conditions would be about as good as they can be for a
    corporate response with respect to recycling plastic instead of
    just churning out new plastic.
        In fact, the numbers tell a completely different story. If
    you look at single use plastic, which is the stuff most likely
    to end up in the ocean, in a whale's belly, tangled around a
    coral reef, the industry, by my information, has managed to
    achieve a grand 2 percent recycling component for single use
    plastics, 2 percent. I mean, that is probably the number you
    would get by accident. Under all that pressure, the best they
    can do is 2 percent.
        So, something needs to change if this is going to get
    serious. Everything tells me that the reason industry is still
    at 2 percent, despite all this pressure, is that the real
    decision driver is dollars, and it is cheaper to buy new
    nurdles of plastic and put out your single use plastic items
    than it is to buy recycled plastic. Therefore, the industry
    spurns recycled plastic, despite all that public pressure,
    because of the pressure of cost.
        So, it seems to me, that is a really simple gateway to a
    solution to the problem to get us above 2 percent. If you look
    at it at our blue bins, I have blue bins that we fill with
    recycling. The record that I think we have on actual recycling,
    when an American goes to their blue bin and takes the soda
    bottles and the plastic waste from their household and actually
    puts it in the blue bin, is less than 10 percent.
        Most likely, 6 to 8 percent of that actually gets recycled.
    More than 90 percent of it doesn't actually get recycled. It is
    almost at the level of being a scam on the consumers who, in
    good faith, are putting their plastics in those blue bins and
    aren't being told that the industry isn't recycling that stuff.
    A lot of it is simply being packed up and put into the dump. A
    lot of it is simply being packed up and shipped overseas to be
    put into open air dumps and end up in the rivers and end up in
    the oceans, and go on from there.
        The responsibility of the industry for getting above 2
    percent in terms of recycled content for single use plastics
    and for doing better than having more than 90 percent of what
    we actually put into those blue recycling bins be recycled
    ought to be a lot higher. They ought to be accountable for
    those, I would say, catastrophic failures verging on being a
    fraud on the public.
        So, I am hoping that we can work together not just to
    measure the disastrous state of plastics recycling, but to
    solve it. And I would really appreciate it if each of the
    witnesses would take a minute when this hearing is over, and
    take this as a question for the record and give me your ideas
    and suggestions as to what needs to be done to solve this
    dilemma of total plastics recycling failure that we are stuck
    in. I think it is purely cost, and I think if you are not going
    to put any kind of a price on dumping the plastic, any kind of
    a price on any type of an equivalence for recycled plastic
    versus new plastic, we are just never, ever, ever going to
    solve this.
        We can talk our way around this problem forever, but the
    dollars drive the decisions, in my view. I would like your
    response to that, if you don't mind putting it in writing, so
    that I don't take up more time in the hearing. I appreciate it.
    Thank you.
        Senator Capito. Thank you, Senator Whitehouse.
        Senator Boozman.
        Senator Boozman. Thank you.
        Mr. Hairston, Arkansas is proud to have two major companies
    willing to set voluntary sustainability goals. Walmart set a
    goal to achieve zero waste in their operations and reach 100
    percent recyclable, reusable, or industrial compostable private
    brand packaging by 2025, while Tyson Foods' transition from
    virgin fiber paperboard to 100 percent post-consumer recycled
    content across their Jimmy Dean brand and launch zero waste to
    landfill pilot programs at three production facilities,
    diverting nearly 5.2 million pounds of waste from their
    landfills, which was a 60 percent increase from the previous
    year.
        Mr. Hairston, how will the Recycling and Composting
    Accountability Act help companies like Walmart, Tyson Foods,
    others that are working hard in this area as they try and meet
    their needs?
        Mr. Hairston. Thanks for the question, Senator.
        Again, I go back to your companies that you referenced.
    Just like International Paper, we have some pretty strict goals
    out there, and we believe that we can achieve those goals. One
    of the challenges and opportunities as we try to get there is
    understanding what is impacting circularity. The first piece
    is, you want to be able to have packaging or a material that is
    circular, meaning that it is recyclable, it is reusable, or it
    is compostable. Once we do that, the next question has to be,
    is it coming back around?
        The thing that this act is going to do for us, it is going
    to help identify and help point out clarity, where the gaps
    are, so that we can take responsible actions with our private
    and public partners to be able to figure out how to continue to
    drive toward that 100 percent goal.
        Senator Boozman. Very good.
        Mr. Hairston, oftentimes, companies implement
    sustainability programs because it fits within their mission
    statement or core beliefs. But sometimes companies develop
    innovative sustainability practices because it makes economic
    sense to do so.
        Can you give us some examples of the private sector
    investing in sustainability practices to protect the
    environment while also helping their bottom line? This is
    really what Senator Whitehouse was alluding to, and it is very,
    very important.
        Mr. Hairston. Yes, I think it is definitely a good
    question, and I think you are always able to meet that momentum
    and drive when you can figure out a way to have both an
    economic and social solution.
        At International Paper, we are integrating our
    sustainability goals and targets into our strategy, into our
    capital plan, and operating plans. This will ensure that we
    create that long term value for our shareholders, and we
    operate a business that drives and delivers a sustainable
    outcome.
        We are not afraid to innovate in this space to meet the
    market demands and to advance the vision to build a better
    future for both the people, the planet, and our company. A
    recent service that we developed that meets this triple bottom
    line, people, planet, and profit, is a system that we call
    eBOSS. eBOSS is a service that we provide to our customers. My
    service focuses on analyzing the customer needs and being able
    to understand their shipping history and box utilization to
    then suggest to them the right size box to one, reduce their
    cost for packaging, and two, ensure that they have a solution
    that is recyclable or reusable.
        Those are some ways that, again, we are able to one, meet
    our goals of sustainability and a circular market, and at the
    same time, being able to help reduce costs and drive economic
    benefits for the companies that we are working with.
        Senator Boozman. Right. As you allude to, paper recycling
    rates are one of the great success stories within the industry,
    with an approximate 66 percent recycling rate, and 94 percent
    of Americans having access to community paper recycling
    programs. Additionally, 80 percent of the U.S. population has
    access to community recycling programs that accept pizza boxes.
        What are some lessons other commodities could learn from
    the paper industry to improve their rates, again, going back to
    the very important question that Senator Whitehouse raised?
        Mr. Hairston. Yes, again, I think it continues to go back
    to, we believe in producer responsibility, and we continue to
    show our commitment with our investments over our last three
    decades. And as we continue to meet the needs of our customers,
    working together as an industry is important.
        The pizza box recyclability was a concern that, as an
    industry, we put our heads together and said, how can we
    resolve that issue? What is a concern that is out there, and
    how can we manage that in a way that can truly allow that box
    to be recycled? I think that collaborative effort is the way
    that you improve. That has worked well for the forest products
    industry, and I think it is something that other industries
    should look at if they are having difficulties.
        Senator Boozman. Very good. Thank you.
        Senator Capito. Thank you.
        Senator Stabenow.
        Senator Stabenow. Thank you very much, and thank you to all
    of our witnesses today.
        Ms. Murray, in the 2018 Farm Bill, I championed the
    Composting and Food Waste Reduction pilot project under the
    Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovation Production. I am so
    glad to see the work that you are doing in Michigan and in
    Detroit. Working with my partner, Senator Boozman, I am looking
    forward to building on that work in the next Farm Bill and
    focusing on supporting composting activities and decreasing
    food waste.
        What types of barriers has Detroit Dirt faced in its
    efforts to transport food waste and process it into compost?
        Ms. Murray. Thank you, Senator, for that question.
        Some of the barriers have been--well, there are multiple
    barriers, but over the years, we have experienced
    transportation from food banks to homeless shelters and folks
    that could actually use the food. At first, it was an insurance
    issue. A lot of people were concerned about insurance. But with
    stadiums, restaurants, and any type of manufacturer of food, a
    lot of times, that excess food is getting dumped into landfills
    or burned in incinerators, because they don't have enough
    companies to actually transport that excess material.
        So I think there is an opportunity to build on that and
    have more companies that are transporting and logistics to help
    fill those voids.
        Some of the other challenges have been with education. We
    have simply--we feel like we have to go above and beyond with
    education. Because the municipalities, I think, at times, what
    happens is we focus on food waste, but we look past other low
    hanging fruit, such as yard waste, and the municipalities
    actually can buy back, when I speak about the circular economy,
    and we talk about markets, some of the municipalities on a
    State and as well as local level can purchase that product
    back. They are already buying supplies or materials or
    resources from other sources. They can buy back compost and
    process yard waste as well. So we have to look at those
    barriers.
        I just think it is a matter of bridging the gap and
    understanding what the byproducts are and the value.
        At General Motors, when we ran a pilot with the Detroit Zoo
    and General Motors and Blue Cross Blue Shield, they bought a
    lot of the compost back for their landscape, and they weren't
    really thinking about that. But landscapers and other
    municipalities with yard waste and food waste or other
    products, but I think the other challenge is just making sure
    that people understand what food waste is, because they get a
    little bit scared about the ick factor of it. That is why I
    think that education is the key, bringing awareness, so they
    understand how to compost.
        Senator Stabenow. Right. Thank you so much. This is an
    exciting area, I think, for all of us to be working in.
        Let me ask, Mr. Hairston, you mentioned in your testimony,
    and Senator Boozman indicated as well, that the 2020 paper
    recycling rate was just about 66 percent, 65.7 percent. That is
    really amazing. I also want to agree with Senator Whitehouse
    that plastics recycling is woefully inadequate.
        So, I really appreciate overall what the industry has done.
    Your industry has recovered more than 47 million tons of paper
    for recycling. But even with those impressive numbers, I know
    you are pushing to go even higher, which is very important. So,
    with that in mind, I introduce the PAPER Act that prevents
    waste energy facilities from earning a tax credit for burning
    recyclable paper.
        Could you talk about the importance of recovered fibers to
    your company and whether eliminating a tax incentive for
    burning paper would increase the recycling opportunities for
    the paper industry?
        Mr. Hairston. Thanks, Senator.
        International Paper supports the PAPER Act. The bill will
    help ensure that the Federal production tax credit protects the
    integrity of recovered fiber stream so that paper recycling can
    continue to be an environmental success story.
        When we think about the recycling, in general recycling, it
    has been able to take something that has completed its primary
    use and be able to collect that and reuse it in a similar
    fashion going forward. We do think that, again, being able to
    do that in the paper industry, we have shown that that is
    important.
        One thing that I said in my opening statement is $5 billion
    of investment, 8 million tons increase, that is going to
    happen. We are going to need that fiber. So being able to have
    all the fiber available to support that industry, support
    sustainable packaging for the customers, is going to be
    important to drive the circular economy going forward.
        Senator Stabenow. Thank you very much.
        Thank you, Madam Chair.
        Senator Capito. Thank you.
        Well, for our witnesses, I am going to ask a few more
    questions in anticipation of our Chairman coming back in.
        I see Senator Kelly, so we will wait just a second.
        If you are ready, Senator Kelly, or I can ask a question.
        Senator Kelly. Ready to go.
        Senator Capito. Ready to go. Just like a good astronaut
    would be. Thank you. Sorry to rush you, there.
        Senator Kelly [presiding]. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, and
    thank you for holding this hearing today.
        This question is for Mr. Harvey, who I believe is remote.
        Mr. Harvey, I appreciated that you took time in your
    testimony to discuss the unique challenges rural communities
    face when establishing and sustaining recycling programs. And I
    appreciate that both of the bills we are discussing today take
    steps to address these challenges.
        Many rural communities want to offer curbside recycling
    programs, but in recent years, it has gotten increasingly
    challenging for these programs to make financial sense. For
    example, in 2019 the city of Sierra Vista in Arizona was forced
    to end their curbside recycling program because they had to
    ship their recyclables nearly 200 miles to Phoenix, and then
    the numbers, the math, the financials on this just didn't add
    up. In the past 3 years, seven cities in Arizona have ended
    curbside recycling.
        Mr. Harvey, can you expand upon your testimony about the
    costs that rural and disadvantaged communities face when they
    must choose whether to ship recyclables tens or hundreds of
    miles to the nearest processing facility or to end recycling
    programs? And then what can the Federal Government do to
    support recycling in rural areas?
        Mr. Harvey. Thank you. I think what the biggest issue
    facing us is certainly the cost to collect, transport, and
    process.
        When we ran into this situation where China was not
    accepting any of our material, the recycling markets throughout
    the world collapsed. They went negative on us. There was no
    value for the materials that we were collecting.
        So we had to institute, in a lot of cases, we instituted
    processing costs at our MRFs, where before, we didn't have to
    do that because the value of those recyclables after we process
    them covered that. It doesn't matter what materials that you
    put in a truck; it costs money to send that down the road. It
    costs money to buy special trucks to collect the recyclables.
    It costs money to buy the tractor trailers to transport now
    from a satellite facility to a MRF. It costs to process that
    material, and then it costs to ship it out to the consuming
    mills.
        So all of those costs can add up significantly, depending
    on what part of the country that you are in. That is why I
    think you are facing these issues right now. As we start to get
    into a more robust marketplace with recyclables, hopefully we
    will see some of those costs come down, and I think that this
    is where we need the support of the Federal Government to come
    in and subsidize, maybe, in some of these situations where it
    is costing a municipality too much money to transport and
    process those recyclables.
        Senator Kelly. Mr. Harvey, what within the market could
    change to result in a more robust market for recyclables?
        Mr. Harvey. I guess the easy answer to that would be a
    guaranteed price for what we get paid for the materials that we
    process. But it doesn't. It fluctuates. It is a very supply and
    demand basis, and it fluctuates on that supply and demand.
        If we knew that every day for the next 10 years, we were
    going to receive a certain threshold of price for the
    materials, then at least we would know what we would have. But
    we have to be able to adapt to that pricing and make changes in
    our systems to adapt to that pricing.
        Senator Kelly. Is the only way for that to happen is that
    there needs to be some support from the Federal Government, or
    is there another free market scenario where that could come to
    pass?
        Mr. Harvey. I don't see anything happening in the free
    marketplace, and I am a free marketplace guy. I built my
    business; I have been doing this for 50 years, and we have
    ridden it up, and we have ridden it down, and I believe in the
    free marketplace, but there is no guarantee in the free
    marketplace. So that is the only issue that we deal with.
        Senator Kelly. Thank you, Mr. Harvey.
        If the Senator from Alaska is ready--I have one more
    question. I will go over the time, unless you are ready right
    now.
        Senator Sullivan. No, go ahead.
        Senator Kelly. All right.
        This question is for Mr. Yepsen. One of the biggest
    challenges recycling programs face right now is finding end
    markets for recyclable materials and finished compost. In fact,
    one of the leading challenges I hear from communities in
    Arizona who are struggling to maintain recycling programs or
    beginning composting programs is that it is costly to find
    buyers willing to take a finished product. That is why I
    appreciate the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act,
    which takes the first steps to address this problem through a
    comprehensive study on the end markets for recyclable and
    composted materials.
        Mr. Yepsen, can you expand upon why this study could be so
    groundbreaking, and has anything like this been done before?
        Mr. Yepsen. I do think it would be groundbreaking. There
    has been some research done on end markets for finished
    compost. The U.S. Composting Council has published reports on
    this and really advocates for different markets, and has case
    studies around use for things like the Department of
    Transportation, which has really helped spec compost into
    Department of Transportation projects.
        I think, as we heard also earlier from Pashon, we see more
    and more efforts from whether that is a business or a community
    that is trying to divert their food scraps and yard trimmings
    to compost, also committing to buying that back. So we know
    that whether it is a corporate campus that has a composting
    program and has grounds, or a municipality that has landscaping
    needs.
        And I think that having a Federal level tracking of this
    would be really helpful, because I think it is oftentimes just
    that composting is so new that a lot of communities don't have
    an understanding of just how many varieties of avenues that
    that finished compost could be used in.
        Senator Kelly. How many communities nationwide actually
    have composting programs? Do you know by percentage?
        Mr. Yepsen. For yard trimmings composting, the number is
    fairly large, but it is seasonal in most places for yard
    trimmings collection. So there are around 4,700 composting
    facilities taking yard trimmings. But the number is much
    smaller when it comes to food scraps composting and really
    robust curbside programs, and that is less than 10 percent of
    the population.
        Senator Kelly. Thank you.
        The Senator from Alaska.
        Senator Sullivan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        I want to thank the witnesses for being here today.
        This is an area that actually has a lot of bipartisan
    support. When you are helping us think through solutions, I
    want you to try and help us think through what would be
    bipartisan solutions.
        Let me give you an example. Senator Whitehouse, I know, has
    already asked some questions about plastics. You may have seen,
    he and I have been putting forward legislation that has been
    very strongly supported. The Save Our Seas Act, the Save Our
    Seas 2.0 Act have all been passed and signed into law, and now
    we are working on implementations.
        So let me ask Mr. Harvey and Mr. Hairston. Give me your
    thoughts, quickly, particularly really following up on Senator
    Whitehouse's question earlier about plastics and what you see
    as a bipartisan approach. You think you guys have a sense of
    what that would be? I am not looking for big, top down mandates
    and taxes, but there are other things that I think can achieve
    a lot of broad based support here on an issue that, in many
    ways, is a uniting issue. The oceans clean up, ocean plastic
    issue certainly is one here in the Senate.
        Do you have any thoughts on those, in terms of plastics in
    particular? Mr. Hairston, we will start with you.
        Mr. Hairston. Yes, thanks, Senator, for the question.
        I spoke to it a little earlier. As we think about
    addressing those issues, I think coming from a fiber based
    industry, and what have we done, and what are the things that
    have been successful for us. We believe, one, honestly, that
    the producers have a responsibility. Over our three decades, we
    have been focusing on infrastructure investments to help drive
    that piece. The recycling rate for cardboard continues to be
    high.
        Senator Sullivan. Why is that high, and it is not high in
    other areas? Do you guys know, or have a sense?
        Mr. Hairston. I can't speak to what is driving the
    economics of plastic. I can speak to the things that we see in
    the fiber based, where we have a local commodity that is
    collected that has global demand, and we have been able to
    leverage that to provide sustainable, fiber based packaging for
    our customers. And we think that that continues as an
    opportunity. Exactly what is the problem with plastic, I can't
    speak to. I don't feel comfortable speaking to it at this time.
        Senator Sullivan. OK.
        Mr. Harvey, do you have a sense on the questions that I
    posed?
        Mr. Harvey. So, I am having just a little bit of trouble
    hearing, but you are talking about plastics, and a solution.
    From our standpoint, we are kind of like, in the middle. We
    don't manufacture it, and we don't use it. We just kind of pick
    it up and process it.
        But I will tell you, in all my years of doing this, there
    has been a tremendous amount of confusion on what is and isn't
    recyclable and the different types of resins that are
    available. And it is very, very difficult when these
    manufacturers keep coming out with new products and a different
    resin that looks the same as maybe something else [audio gap]
    sorted out, and our opticals can't, either.
        So again, I think a lot of what will happen, I think this
    accessibility that we need to get into these rural areas is
    going to help that. If we can collect those materials and not
    dispose of them or throw them out the window of a car or throw
    them into a creek that now it ends up in the ocean, it is the
    accessibility and it is going after these robust programs and
    getting them working.
        Senator Sullivan. Great.
        Let me ask a follow up question, Ms. Murray, maybe you can
    lead off on it. It relates to what Mr. Harvey just mentioned,
    and then if anyone else wants to jump in.
        My State is a very big State in terms of size, but a pretty
    small population, so about 70 percent of the households do not
    have access to curbside recycling. So, how do you bring
    recycling infrastructure to many parts of the country that
    don't have it, particularly big, rural, spread out parts with
    limited or spread out populations?
        Then related, I think it is related, does the answer to
    that question also have something to do with to what degree you
    think the emphasis should be on local government initiatives
    versus kind of big, Fed, top down? In Alaska, we often say,
    hey, one size does not fit all. Federal Government comes up
    with some plan, and we are usually the State that it doesn't
    work in. So that is a secondary question, but I think it is
    related to the first question.
        Ms. Murray. Yes, thank you, Senator. That is an excellent
    question. I am a strong believer in local policies and
    ordinances, simply because those mandates will give you
    benchmarks that are going to produce the data. It simply lets
    you know who is and what neighborhoods are doing what.
    Municipalities have resources, as well. They have yard waste
    and other things that these households can actually use.
        So if we are creating ordinances around a circular economy
    where it says, OK, if you are going to utilize, depending on
    what region and where you are, your yard waste clippings, as
    well as your food waste, those are byproducts that we can
    actually manufacture and distribute back to landscapers or
    others who need it for tree planting, for water runoff, and
    other necessary needs too, as well as soil remediation.
        I am in an industrial city, so we are always looking to
    remediate soils for brownfields and other issues that we face.
    So I think education is key. Making sure households understand
    the difference between carbon.
        In our composting world, you have the greens, right? All
    the decomposable food waste and spent grain from breweries,
    food waste from restaurants, manufacturers. But then you have
    the browns: The cardboards, the leaves. You have to process
    these things in a certain way that makes sense.
        I think with education, that makes it simple for most
    residents to understand that. So I think the Federal
    Government, as well as local, should be working together,
    depending on what region you are in in the country. Because
    these are all processes that can be done.
        But there are also technologies if you are in Alaska or
    Michigan, where, weather permitting, you have a bunch of snow,
    if you have these closed facilities with in vessel, anaerobic
    digestion, certain technologies that can take that material,
    you can produce and accelerate the process easier. But we
    really don't have these facilities set up around the country,
    as much as we should. I think that investment in infrastructure
    is going to be huge to accelerate that.
        That is really what we need to be able to do, is to sort
    and separate that waste stream so we know what the value is.
    Also not just MRFs, but there has to be composting facilities
    as well as recycling facilities. And I think that that is
    something that we are sleeping on. A lot of people talk about
    transfer stations, but they are not looking at actually taking
    certain technologies that exist in Denmark and Germany and
    other places around the world that can replace the landfill. It
    is happening.
        So I hope that I answered your question, because education
    is the key in households. But also mandates and ordinances with
    the local government are going to be key. I have seen Detroit
    slow walk this thing for years for the last decade, and then
    last year, the education and the investment in education and
    having the people understand what these processes are has
    accelerated the process, especially with K-12 schools and
    universities taking that home to those households, as well.
        Senator Sullivan. Thank you.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Senator Boozman [presiding]. Thank you.
        Mr. Hairston, in the last 10 years, and especially in the
    last 2 years, we have seen a rise in total online retail sales,
    which means an increased demand for paper packaging. To meet
    the demand, it has been vital to have as much recovered fiber
    in the circular market as possible.
        How has the paper industry's investment into research
    helped you prepare for the upswing in e-commerce we are seeing
    right now?
        Mr. Hairston. Thanks, Senator.
        The data that the act will provide is really going to give
    us more detail on where e-commerce sales and that packaging
    material is available to be recovered. One of the things that
    we have talked about, historically, recycling has been a
    percentage of residential, a percentage of commercial. As we
    see the e-commerce shift, we are seeing a lot more of the
    recycling of fiber based products coming through the
    residential stream. Understanding that stream, understanding
    what is available to be recovered, will allow our industry to
    continue to invest in the right infrastructure and support to
    be able to drive the circular economy and get that commodity
    back into the value stream.
        Senator Boozman. Very good.
        The rest of the panel, anybody who wants to jump in, in
    regard to the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act,
    what type of projects do you expect to be completed should this
    program be enacted?
        Mr. Yepsen. Building off of this question about how you
    make sure that we have solutions that fit the wide variety of
    States, whether that is rural, urban, or suburban environments,
    I think that what I would be really hoping is, I think,
    connected to that rural environment. For composting, we have
    seen a lot of success for drop off programs for food scraps
    composting in more rural States. I know, maybe not as large as
    Alaska, but in Vermont and in Wisconsin, they have had
    successful drop off programs for composting where curbside
    isn't available, so I think that would be one indicator of
    success.
        Senator Boozman. Anybody else?
        Mr. Harvey. I just would add to that, that we would look
    for these programs to give us a source of more material to
    process and get that material, collect all that material, and
    get it into something where we have a package, a bundle, a
    whatever, that the end users can use. That is basically what we
    are looking at today, is to try to get the recycling rate up in
    not only rural America, but all of America, get the whole
    nationwide recycling rate up. Let's use these resources that we
    have in front of us and turn them into another product or into
    the same product.
        Ms. Murray. Hopefully, Senator, we will be able to see more
    mandates around banning food waste from going to the landfills.
    I am a little aggressive with this, because I have been
    involved for the last 12 or 13 years of my life. And I have
    seen places like States like Massachusetts and California,
    different pockets who have aggressively mandated the banning of
    food waste going to the landfill or being burned in the
    incinerator to begin with.
        But I also think the investment in creating these sites
    with the right equipment and technology is going to be key. So
    I think we are going to see a lot of excitement around
    entrepreneurs and advocates who have been working in this,
    particularly me. I would love to be able to expand in Detroit.
    We went from a 2 and a half acre site. We are going before city
    council here soon to expand to 5 or 6 acres. I believe that
    once we create these larger pilots, that is going to open up a
    door for more opportunity for expansion.
        Senator Boozman. Very good.
        Mr. Hairston. Senator, just one thing I would like to add
    to that question, the power of the data is going to allow us to
    solve the right problem for that community. One of the things
    that we talk about sometimes, maybe more of a Federal or a
    broader brush, the reality is, the solution is different based
    on each community, and by having the data, it allows that
    community to really focus there. It may be education; it may be
    infrastructure, it may be something else. But by having this
    data that this bill or this act will put in place, it is going
    to allow us to really tailor that need to meet each community's
    gap and solve that problem.
        Senator Boozman. That really was going to be my next kind
    of follow up. One of the things that Senator Carper and I did
    in the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act was make it
    so that we collect a lot more data and making sure that the
    data is out there to help you all do your stuff, but also to
    inform the legislators, the people at all levels of government
    as to what exactly is going on, so that we have a better
    ability to respond.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Senator Carper [presiding]. Senator Boozman, thank you so
    much.
        This is an interesting morning. We have all these votes
    going on on the floor, committees meeting, marking up, voting
    on issues, and trying to hold a hearing on an important issue.
    But thank you for helping to make it all work and for being a
    great partner in this.
        I also want to say what I think of it. I want to thank our
    staffs. Sometimes we get the credit as members, or blamed for
    progress made or not made. We are blessed with the staff we
    have on both sides of the aisle, so I want to thank all of
    them, including one who is leaving at the end of this week.
        I want to come back to Mr. Hairston for a question dealing
    with recycling end markets, recycling end markets.
        Mr. Hairston, we all know that the existence of robust end
    markets for recycling products is critical to the longevity and
    effectiveness of the recycling industry. The Recycling and
    Composting Accountability Act would require the Environmental
    Protection Agency to study and issue a report on the end market
    sale of all recyclable materials collected from households and
    processed at a materials recovery facility. This would include
    looking at the end market sale of materials like, for example,
    plastic, like paper, like glass, like aluminum, just to name a
    few of the most common ones.
        My question of you, Mr. Hairston, is this. Based on your
    experience, how could this study on end markets be a useful
    tool to both the public and private sector, and what kind of
    benefits might we see from studying this at the Federal level?
        Mr. Hairston. Thanks for the question. Again, I think what
    the study is going to allow us to do is really have data to go
    in and confirm or potentially identify what is the hypothesis
    or the opportunity we are trying to solve.
        The end markets; International Paper, again, has a 2030
    goal of 100 percent recyclable, reusable, compostable material.
    Our goal is that that product that we are producing is able to
    meet that circularity. This data will help prove that, and it
    would help us continue to innovate solutions for our customer
    base and for others.
        So I think, again, when I think of the Recycling and
    Composting Act, and the data that we will have on both a local
    and Federal level, it will allow private companies, along with
    the public, to partner on how to solve the gaps and where
    materials are really being diverted, and how can we do the
    right things to drive that end market.
        Senator Carper. Thank you, sir.
        Mr. Yepsen, a question for you, if I could, also on
    composting end markets. What are some of the differences
    between composting and recycling end markets? What are some of
    the differences between composting end markets and recycling
    end markets, and how will this separate study be useful in
    ultimately reducing the amount of food waste in our landfills?
        Mr. Yepsen. It is a good question. There are so many
    differences, I think, for the end markets for recyclables
    versus compost. When we are thinking about recycling end
    markets, we are thinking about post-consumer recycled content
    going back into new packaging as a direct input.
        When we are thinking about compost end markets, those are
    not a direct input back into new packaging materials or
    directly into new food, there is a slightly longer system
    there. So I think the reason that this study and extra data
    will be so important is just showing all those varieties of
    avenues for end markets for finished compost and making sure
    that we are driving those end markets.
        Because the commonality between recycling end markets and
    composting is that if you don't have an end market, your
    business falls apart. We heard about this earlier, that a lot
    of composting businesses have historically focused on that tip
    fee, the money generated from materials coming in, rather than
    the markets for the finished compost and the sale of that
    compost. Obviously you need both of those for recycling and
    composting, the tip fee and the end market.
        But I think that that is where there is some commonality.
    We have to have that, more knowledge and data around what those
    end markets are and ways that we can make sure that we drive
    that through.
        Senator Carper. Thanks for that response.
        Mr. Yepsen, we are going to stay with you for just a
    minute. I will direct the same question on proper management of
    composting facilities. I want to direct this to you, but also
    to Ms. Murray. I will direct it to you initially, and then we
    will get over to her.
        One of the challenges that often--and this deals with
    proper management of composting facilities--and may act as a
    deterrent for communities who might otherwise want to start a
    program is the odor. In fact, my State of Delaware has faced
    some challenges with this issue in the past. We have a lot of
    chickens in Delaware. We are not a big State, but we are a big
    ag State, as it turns out, and we raise, I think, for every
    person in Delaware, there are 300 chickens, and they create a
    lot of chicken manure.
        We have been working for decades to figure out what to do
    with all of that chicken manure and straw and sawdust that
    comes out of our poultry houses. And I think we are making some
    pretty good progress, some really good progress.
        But my question to you is what can composting facility
    managers do to reduce or eliminate any odors associated with
    composting?
        Mr. Yepsen. That is a good question, and I am familiar with
    some of the composting facilities that have existed and are no
    longer in Delaware, partly around issues due to odor. I think
    that the simple answer is, there are ways to successfully
    compost without huge amounts of odor. The U.S. Composting
    Council has a Certified Operator Program, and there are
    composting classes that happen all around the country in
    different States hosted by the U.S. Composting Council or
    universities or master gardener programs.
        So it is definitely possible to run a facility without
    odors, and it comes down to biology, I think. They are not
    super high tech solutions to control odor; they can be taught
    within these schools. Again, it kind of leads back to that
    other question of what is the business model of those
    composting facilities? Are they really driving to get the
    maximum tonnage coming in to get that tip fee, or are they
    really taking their time to compost successfully and well,
    rather than trying to rush that process?
        Senator Carper. All right, thanks for that response.
        Ms. Murray, really the same two questions. The first
    question again was, what can composting facility managers do to
    reduce or eliminate any odors associated with composting? Then
    a follow up question is how can education programs like the
    development of voluntary guidelines in the Recycling and
    Composting Accountability Act that we are having this hearing
    on today, how can those guidelines help enhance existing or new
    compost programs? Take it away; thank you.
        Ms. Murray. Thank you. Really quickly, on the end market
    question that you asked earlier.
        Senator Carper. Please.
        Ms. Murray. The Department of Transportation, construction
    companies, the Department of Environmental Quality, these are
    all sources that can actually use as an end market for water
    runoff of freeways and interstates. Construction sites buy
    millions, millions of dollars of compost and soils. They are
    always looking for resources around that.
        So I just wanted to put that on record, that there are
    opportunities with the Department of Transportation and other
    government organizations, as well as construction companies
    that buy it as fill. But also when you look at land, lakes,
    rivers, when you look at soil remediation, there is an
    opportunity for us to divert that compost in those directions,
    as well.
        We have run pilots, so we have seen the water, the soil, it
    captures water as a filter as well, so we have seen these
    things happen.
        Of course, you mentioned data. That is very important, but
    we have to hold waste management companies in general and
    others who control these landfills, we can collect all the data
    we want, but we have to mandate and make sure that we are
    getting the right data and that all honesty and transparency is
    happening when you are collecting the data, as well.
        Now, when we are talking about odor, what I have done with
    manure, spent grain from breweries, restaurants, you have to
    look at, again, the carbon and nitrogen, as you mentioned. It
    depends on what the model is.
        So, if you are receiving a lot of feedstock, if you will,
    that has odor, it is imperative that you manage that in a
    certain amount of time. There is a timeframe in which you do
    not want to allow those materials to sit and rot and decompose.
    So you have to have mandates around holding facilities
    accountable, depending on zoning.
        This is where the local government is going to come into
    play as well. Municipalities have to have zoning and laws
    around what they are going to do in specific areas, because the
    zoning is key. In a place like Detroit, we are located along
    the river. We have certain zones that we only allow composting
    to be operated. That is going to be key. You do not want
    residents to smell these odors.
        But can we retain this water runoff and make sure that we
    are reducing odor? Absolutely. It is about process. There are
    simple solutions. You can use sawdust, woodchips, all kinds of
    browns, I call them, products, the carbon, to suppress that.
        But in vessel technology, anaerobic digesters, the zoo that
    we work with, the Detroit Zoological Society, has an anaerobic
    digester. That works as a simple system. That manure and that
    food waste is processed, that energy that is retained, that
    methane is used to heat a building, the animal hospital. The
    solids go into one area; the liquids go into another. So it can
    be done. So the odor can definitely be suppressed.
        Your last question, I believe, you talked about education?
    Is that what you mentioned?
        Senator Carper. Yes.
        Ms. Murray. What I have seen, which is phenomenal, is,
    let's take a company like General Motors or an automotive
    community. They feed thousands of people. General Motors has 25
    restaurants in their headquarters. Then you take a small mom
    and pop restaurant, or you have someone as large as Campbell's
    or a brewing facility.
        What happens is, all those materials represent something
    different. They all have a certain lifespan. You have to go in
    and educate the head chef of these restaurants to make sure
    that they are sorting and separating, just like you have to
    talk to a major corporation about how long is that food waste
    going to sit on that docking area. We have collected food waste
    from numerous sources, but it is all in process and education,
    depending on if you are manufacturing food, if you are cooking
    the food, whoever you are, whether it is a household, there is
    a lifespan in which you have to manage that food waste
    properly.
        Senator Carper. Every now and then, we have witnesses,
    after we ask questions, they will say thank you for that
    question. I want to say, thank you for those answers. Those
    were very good, very helpful.
        This next question is for all of the witnesses, and I think
    every one of you has mentioned the term circular market or
    circular markets, as we have been in this hearing today. We
    will kind of go in reverse order here. We will go with Mr.
    Harvey, Ben Harvey.
        I will ask you to respond initially, Ben.
        This past fall, as you know, we held a roundtable series
    and a Committee hearing on the concept of a circular economy.
    We heard from stakeholders from a variety of industries and
    organizations as well as State and local governments as to what
    it would take to truly transition to an economy that values and
    promotes circularity at every step of the industrial process.
        The Recycling and Composting Accountability Act would
    continue this conversation by directing the Environmental
    Protection Agency to conduct a study on the amounts of
    recyclable materials that are being lost out of the circular
    market in a variety of ways.
        Ben, I am going to ask you to lead off on this one. How can
    having a better understanding of how materials that could
    otherwise be reused being lost from the circular market be
    beneficial to each of your industries and the country as a
    whole?
        Mr. Harvey, I am going to ask you to take that one
    initially, and then we will turn to Mr. Hairston.
        Mr. Harvey. OK, thank you.
        The great data gives us the opportunity to plan our MRFs
    and our markets to take this material, and again, bring it in.
    If we have the data soon enough, the correct data, the amount
    of material that we are going to be gathering, where it is
    going to come from, what we can turn it into, then we can make
    smart business decisions. We can make those decisions, OK, do
    we put in more, in our industry's case, can we put in more
    optical sorters, do we need to have more robotics, do we need
    to establish and look for more markets for this material to go
    into.
        Without this information, it comes into our facilities, and
    we are dealing with it kind of on the go. We are very
    adaptable. We are used to doing that. But again, concrete, good
    data is so important to moving this along.
        Senator Carper. All right. Thank you.
        Mr. Hairston, please, same question.
        Mr. Hairston. Thanks, Senator.
        We strongly support the provisions that require EPA to
    conduct a study of recyclable materials, the commercial and
    municipal waste streams, where the previous 10 years that were
    diverted from the circular market. We believe that the study
    will highlight the strong recycling rates of paper and paper
    based packaging and help clarify why our current recycling
    rates are reaching a practical maximum without potential
    regulations to improve.
        Examples like products similar to wallboard tape and
    tissue, which aren't really identified for recovery, are things
    that may show up in the study. But the data will also, again,
    allow us to make sure we focus on the right items.
        One of the biggest things impacting the circularity of
    fiber based products is contamination. The Recycle Act is
    focused on education, and we think what education does is it
    reduces contamination. But the data will also help make sure we
    are focused in the right areas going forward.
        Senator Carper. All right, thank you.
        I am going to ask our other two witnesses to, Mr. Yepsen
    and Ms. Murray, I am going to ask you to answer that question
    for the record.
        Now I am going to yield to Senator Boozman; you are all
    done? OK, all in.
        OK, in that case, I am going to ask Senator Yepsen----
        [Laughter.]
        Senator Carper. If you stay long enough, you might be. Mr.
    Yepsen and Ms. Murray, to go back and answer the same question
    that has just been answered by our other witnesses, and that
    is, just to remind you, how can having a better understanding
    of how materials that could otherwise be reused are being lost
    from the circular market be beneficial to each of your
    industries and to our country as a whole?
        Please go ahead, Mr. Yepsen, Ms. Murray.
        Mr. Yepsen. Yes, thank you.
        I think one of the reasons that this would be so important
    is that we need the systems based approach, right, it is not
    just the number of the facilities or the number of collection
    programs. Having Federal data and studies that show all of
    these different elements and to start using some common
    language are really important. Because right now, we have
    different State reporting requirements.
        I think that has been part of the challenge when we look at
    something like composting, is that there are different
    definitions of what is recyclable or compostable from community
    to community, from State to State. States have different
    requirements for what has to be reported to them or not
    reported, and that makes it really challenging as we start
    trying to think of what a national strategy is to make sure
    that we are able to have more communities with composting
    programs.
        Senator Carper. Thank you.
        Ms. Murray, do you want to bat cleanup on this one?
        Ms. Murray. Sure.
        I agree with Rhodes that, with a national strategy, we have
    to look at throughout the country the different regions and
    States, because it is all different. For instance, in Michigan,
    when you look at ordinances on the local level with the city
    and whether you look at the State level, I agree with the
    language. It all has to translate the same in a harmonious way.
    We need a commonality around speaking climate and speaking
    around composting.
        But the Department of Transportation may get a different
    message from the State than what they may get on language from
    the city. I think it all has to align in order for us to
    positively move forward.
        When I first started Detroit Dirt, the city did not have
    any ordinances in place. We had to adhere to guidelines with
    the State on composting. But now with Part 115, which is what
    they are working on in Michigan, we are looking at
    categorizing, if you will. A small household composting, or an
    urban farmer is different than a mid-sized level composter, or
    an industrial composter.
        So we definitely want to make sure that we are categorizing
    the businesses according to certifications, but also making
    sure that we adhere to a common language that is being used on
    a city and State and Federal level, so it all translates the
    same.
        Senator Carper. Thank you.
        Last question, from me and from our Committee today, will
    be directed to Mr. Harvey. It deals with, Mr. Harvey, technical
    assistance.
        As you know, many communities have a desire to improve
    their recycling programs, but oftentimes, they lack the
    expertise to make meaningful changes to those programs. The
    Recycling and Composting Accountability Act that Senator
    Boozman and I have co-sponsored would allow the Environmental
    Protection Agency to provide technical assistance to States, to
    local, and tribal communities that wish to reduce their overall
    waste or improve their composting and recycling programs.
        Mr. Harvey, my question is simply this. Do you believe that
    the ability to provide technical assistance is important? Can
    you share with us an example or two of how receiving technical
    assistance has helped improve a recycling program?
        Mr. Harvey. I definitely think that technical assistance is
    critical to our industry to help the municipalities or help the
    rural areas to increase their recycling. The Commonwealth of
    Massachusetts has given grants for technical assistance that
    have helped us develop markets. Developing those markets, now
    that we can bring more material in through our system, helps
    us. They have developed the technical market, the technical
    assistance on glass. They have also given us technical
    assistance on organics, how to process organics, given us the
    tools we need to collect and process that material. We are
    actually using it for anaerobic digestion. We are not
    composting it. But those are a couple of types of the technical
    assistance that we have used in our operation.
        Senator Carper. Well, good. Thank you.
        Those are all the questions we have today. I want to do
    just a quick wrap up, here, if I can. We have a couple of
    sisters who work in our Dover offices and Wilmington office,
    the King sisters. They have a favorite saying. Their saying is
    ``Teamwork makes the dream work.'' How about that? Teamwork
    makes the dream work.
        We are blessed in this Committee to be really good at
    teamwork, and we don't agree on every single thing, but we
    reported unanimously out of this Committee last year bipartisan
    infrastructure legislation dealing with roads, highways,
    bridges, bipartisan legislation dealing with water, drinking
    water, wastewater sanitation, all kinds of issues that can end
    up being a part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill that the
    President signed into law.
        We have seen another good demonstration here today of
    teamwork. I ran out of here to go over to one of my other
    committees, Homeland Security Committee, I think we had a dozen
    or more nominations to vote on. We had, I think, a dozen or so
    bills to go through and to vote on separately. I had an
    opportunity to speak on at least one of those and make all of
    our votes, and another vote on the floor, and it could not have
    happened without the great teamwork we have here, especially
    been demonstrated by Senator Capito and Senator Boozman. I just
    want to say especially thank yous to them and to others who
    participated in this hearing, both here in person and remotely.
        I want to thank our staffs as well. We couldn't do it
    without you, and this is such an important issue, and one that
    I am quite passionate about. I know a lot of folks on our
    Committee are, and across the country.
        Every now and then, we have an opportunity on issues that
    are important to our country on which there is agreement. I
    like to say, the sun, the moon, the stars are coming into
    alignment. This is one such day, one such issue. I have been
    waiting for this issue, for this day, for a long time, and I
    believe that Senator Capito and Senator Boozman and others on
    our Committee have, as well.
        I have all these aphorisms that I like to use, and I could
    just go through them. In adversity, lies opportunity. That is
    Einstein. We have plenty of adversity in terms of what do we do
    with all this waste, whether it is food waste or whether it is
    other kind of waste that ends up maybe in our trash cans, or
    maybe in recycling, but there is plenty of opportunity here,
    too.
        I am always looking for ways to put people to work. I am a
    recovering Governor, and the idea of doing something that is
    good for our planet and good for putting people to work and
    helping them be self-sufficient, that is always something that
    is near and dear to my heart.
        Someone mentioned hub and spoke systems. I think a couple
    of people mentioned that; a couple of our witnesses did, with
    respect to making improvement to opportunities to recycle and
    compost in more rural parts of our country. I especially
    appreciate hearing that, from a State that has a lot of urban,
    not up north, but a lot of rural in the southern part of our
    State.
        One of the other thoughts that came to mind for me during
    the course of this was, find out what works, and do more of
    that. There you go. Find out what works; do more of that. I was
    Governor and Chairman of the National Governors Association,
    and Tommy Thompson, Governor of Wisconsin and I helped create
    something called Center for Best Practices, kind of a
    clearinghouse for good ideas. I am going to be sharing with
    them, I still share with the National Governors Association's
    Center for Best Practices. We are going to be talking with them
    probably later this week about this hearing, and some of what
    we are learning and some of what we are hearing is we can use
    the NGA as a way to get good information out.
        I just am so encouraged by what we have heard here today,
    encouraged by what is happening, particularly in places like
    Detroit, but other places, including Delaware and places across
    the country, rural, urban, and somewhere in between. There are
    any numbers of ways to do good things for our planet and create
    economic opportunity and jobs, and we are onto some really good
    stuff here, really good stuff here.
        Let me see. I think I need to say, this is printed out for
    me, so I won't forget it. Again, thank you for all those who
    joined us in person and one from afar. Your support of the two
    pieces of legislation is going to be really important as we
    work to pass both of them and make them better, and hopefully
    pass them and work with the House and the Administration to get
    them done.
        I am thrilled that the EPA, led by Michael Regan, has
    gotten really serious about recycling. They have taken a lot of
    input from our Committee, as they have provided in their recent
    paper.
        We enjoyed hearing all the ways that these bills can
    improve our Nation's recycling and composting programs. It also
    helps us to appreciate that our waste challenges are vast, but
    not insurmountable if we take steps now.
        Before we adjourn, a little bit of housekeeping. I would
    like to ask unanimous consent to submit for the record a
    variety of materials that includes letters from stakeholders
    and other materials that relate to today's hearing.
        I love to ask for unanimous consent when I am the only one
    here, because I am not going to object to my unanimous consent
    request, so. It is agreed to.
        [The referenced information follows:]
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        Senator Carper. Additionally, I would say to my colleagues
    on the Committee, you will be allowed to submit questions for
    the record through the close of business on Wednesday, February
    the 16th. That is a couple of weeks. We will compile those
    questions, send them out to our witnesses, and ask that you
    reply by Wednesday, March the 2nd. I believe that is 2 weeks,
    if I am not mistaken.
        With that, in the Navy, when people do an especially good
    job on important issues, we have a saying, and that is bravo
    zulu. Bravo zulu, I would say to each of you, to our Committee
    members, to those who helped, staff, Committee members, bravo
    zulu all around.
        With that, I think, it is a wrap. I am going to run and
    vote again.
        Thanks, everybody.
        [Whereupon, at 12:12 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
        [Additional material submitted for the record follows:]
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