Federal law lets firms claim recycled stuff using a new counting method.
S. 5674 — Recycled Materials Attribution Act of 2026 · Filed by John Curtis (R-UT) · Introduced Sep 30, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
The bill stops firms from lying about recycled stuff in products. It says a method called mass balance counting is okay. This method lets firms mix recycled and new stuff. Then firms claim some products have recycled stuff based on the total mix. The bill does not require firms to say what is actually in each product. The FTC will write new rules within one year. These rules will explain what recycled content claims are allowed.
Who it affects
People who buy products will see clearer rules about recycled content claims. Firms that make products can use mass balance counting to claim recycled content. The bill stops states from making their own stricter rules.
One thing to notice
A firm could say a product is 50 percent recycled. This is okay even if that product has only 10 percent recycled stuff in it. The firm's total recycled stuff must match 50 percent across all its products. The bill does not require firms to tell people they used this counting method.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Sep 30, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 30, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- mass balance counting — A method where a firm mixes recycled and new stuff, then spreads the recycled amount across products.
- recycled content — Stuff in a product that came from something already used and then made new again.
- FTC — The Federal Trade Commission, the federal agency that stops unfair and false business claims.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (9,863 characters) on Oct 16, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal law lets firms claim recycled stuff using a new counting method.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5674/simple Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.