Sponsors (66)
The bill reduces plastic pellet pollution and related health and environmental harms—especially for disadvantaged communities—at the cost of compliance and enforcement expenses for businesses, governments, and taxpayers and with potential implementation/legal risks from accelerated rulemaking.
Urban and rural communities will experience less plastic pellet pollution in waterways and runoff, improving local water quality and reducing aquatic contamination.
People who use local water bodies for recreation or fishing will have lower exposure to plastic debris, protecting public health and ecosystem services.
Disadvantaged communities that often shoulder higher environmental burdens will face reduced microplastic contamination, advancing environmental justice outcomes.
Facilities that make, use, package, or transport pre-production plastics (including small businesses) may face new compliance and remediation costs, and taxpayers could pay more for expanded enforcement and monitoring.
State and EPA permitting programs and local governments may face administrative burdens and potential backlogs from revising numerous NPDES permits and issuing rules on short timelines.
The 60-day deadline for rulemaking risks implementation challenges or legal vulnerability if federal or state agencies cannot complete required analyses, potentially delaying or complicating enforcement.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Directs EPA to ban discharges of plastic pellets and pre‑production plastics and require those bans in all applicable NPDES permits and performance standards within 60 days.
Official title: To require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to promulgate certain limitations with respect to pre-production plastic pellet pollution, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 12, 2026 by Mike Levin · Last progress February 12, 2026
Prohibits discharges of plastic pellets and other pre-production plastic materials from covered industrial point sources and facilities, and requires the EPA to issue a final rule within 60 days that incorporates those prohibitions into NPDES permits and relevant performance standards. The mandate applies to facilities regulated under specified effluent guidelines and to any point source that makes, uses, packages, or transports pre-production plastics, including discharges via wastewater and runoff.