EPA Releases National Strategy To Prevent Plastic Pollution

Strategy highlights six objectives focused on creating a circular economy

On Nov. 21, the Environmental Protection Agency released the final version of its National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution. This release comes after a lengthy process to address nearly 92,000 comments received on the April 2023 draft document from a wide range of stakeholders, including from academia, industry, government, non-governmental organizations, and private individuals.

The strategy was developed at the direction of the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act of 2020. Following the National Recycling Strategy (November 2021) and the National Strategy to Reduce Food Loss and Waste and Recycle Organics (June 2024), the final national strategy is the third in a series of strategy documents focused on developing a "circular economy," which aims to keep materials and products in circulation for as long as possible by using waste to make new products and designing less resource-intensive materials.