Steve Toloken

S.C. Johnson sees the bright side in a national extended producer responsibility law; Procter & Gamble alters its Oral-B floss to reduce PTFE use; Ukrainian film and pipe producer hit by Russian bombs for the second time.

The Plastics Industry Association plans public opinion polling to guide microplastics messaging campaigns, while also building internal education programs and pushing Operation Clean Sweep into state law.

A chemical industry trade group says state governments are starting to regulate fluoropolymers separately from other PFAS chemicals, but said the results of midterm elections will likely shape the direction.

Speakers at two related SPE conferences compared microplastics debates today to PFAS 20 years ago, and urged companies to upgrade their pollution control work.

A municipal recycling and waste conference pointed to higher costs from sorting different kinds of packaging and plastics as driving city governments to see EPR laws as critical to the survival of their recycling programs.

The Trump administration said imports of industrial machinery and robots are a national security risk, but declined to impose more tariffs, for now.

New legislation from Congressional Democrats would require the EPA to test drinking water for microplastics.

Democratic midterm gains in Congress and statehouses could elevate advocates of tougher plastics laws, but cost concerns may slow EPR and recycled content implementation.

The blue wave in the midterms shifted both Congress and state governments to Democrats in some key ways, with implications for policy around plastics.

A former California plastics association leader says regulators want the industry to take extended producer responsibility targets seriously, even if some of those targets are unrealistic.