Image: Surapol Usanakul/Adobe Stock
Biden’s infrastructure plan is not perfect by any means, but it’s a bold step in the right direction. The plastics industry has much to contribute.
Is $2 trillion too much or not enough to spend on infrastructure? Opinions diverge wildly, but here’s one benchmark: The American Society of Civil Engineers estimated that nearly $13 trillion is needed across 11 infrastructure areas — highways, bridges, rail, transit, drinking water, stormwater, wastewater, electricity, airports, seaports and inland waterways — in a report published in January of this year. No one will dispute that our infrastructure is a shambles, the consequence of many years of neglect. Make no mistake — President Biden’s American Jobs Plan is an epic proposal. (It also defines infrastructure in a remarkably elastic way, but that is a debate for another time.) Unlike previous administrations, which paid lip service but not much else to rebuilding our infrastructure, Biden is putting his — well, our — money where his mouth is. Without getting too deep into the weeds of the proposal, I believe that the plastics industry has an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to this massive project and to derive some benefit.