1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Plastic Waste Reduction and Recycling Act . 2. Findings Congress makes the following findings: (1) It is estimated that global production of plastic has increased from 2,000,000 tons of plastic per year in 1950 to 400,000,000 tons per year today, and of the 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic ever produced globally, 6.3 billion metric tons has become plastic waste. (2) The United States has failed to invest in the development of domestic recycling markets, technology and materials to make the recycling process more available and efficient, and as a result, the United States recycles only 9 percent of its plastic waste. (3) For more than 2 decades, the United States and other developed nations sold and exported 106,000,000 metric tons of recyclable plastics to China, but in 2018 China issued a ban on contaminated United States plastics. (4) Following the 2018 China ban, more and more United States communities are sending recyclable items to landfills or incinerators. (5) As recycling programs have moved toward single-stream curbside recycling, more recyclable items are mixed with non-recyclable items, resulting in fewer potentially recyclable items actually being recycled and turned into new, valuable products. (6) The resin identification coding system in use today has not been substantially updated since its creation in 1988. (7) Characterizing the type and recyclability of different types of plastics in use today requires updated standards. (8) Separating and processing the many different types of plastics as well as the heterogenous materials containing multiple layers of different plastic types commonly in use today will require new sorting and recycling technologies. (9) There are currently limited private or public investments in advanced recycling technologies and other technologies to reduce the amount and impact of plastic waste. (10) The Federal Government can play an important role in supporting research and development and facilitating standards, tools, and