Commentary: Fix Flaws In New York’s Plastic Packaging Waste Proposals

Judith Enck | March 30, 2022 | TimesUnion

Nine million metric tons of plastic pollution enter the ocean each year. Most of it comes from land — such as litter that reaches the Hudson River and then flows down to the Atlantic Ocean. This is the equivalent of a garbage truck dumping plastic into the ocean every minute.

Plastic damages our planet at every level. It creates greenhouse gasses and air pollution during production, it persists in the environment and kills seabirds and animals, it breaks down into tiny pieces that harm the food chain and travel through the air and water, it releases powerful toxins when it is burned in incinerators, and it enters our bodies, including the human placenta and our unborn babies.

The United States generates more plastic waste than any other nation. 40 percent of virgin plastic production is used for plastic packaging and about 30 percent of our waste stream is packaging. We are drowning in plastic.

A recent poll done by Oceana found that eight out of 10 U.S. voters want government action to reduce single-use plastics. And the support for action was bi-partisan. One way to do this is through a program called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). The goal of EPR is to require companies such as McDonalds, Starbucks, and Nestle to shoulder the financial responsibility for the avalanche of excess packaging they put on the market — rather than taxpayers. Right now, you and I pay for the recycling or disposal of this excess packaging, but we have very little control over how much packaging comes our way, or what that packaging is made of.

But EPR needs to be done right for it to work, and both Gov. Kathy Hochul and state Sen. Todd Kaminsky, D-Long Beach, have proposed flawed bills that miss the mark. Both include gaffes such as placing the packaging industry itself in charge of EPR with limited regulatory oversight. This is like putting the cigarette industry in charge of reducing smoking. The fox would be running the henhouse.

Just like we have fuel efficiency standards for cars, an effective EPR program establishes environmental standards for packaging. Companies should first be required to reduce packaging. Every ton of reduced packaging is a ton of waste that local governments don’t have to collect, transport and deal with.

After reduction, packaging needs to be made from recycled content or be truly recyclable. The most toxic ingredients in packaging need to be eliminated, plastic burning needs to be prohibited, and there needs to be strong oversight of the program. Also, studies show that EPR works best when paired with a modernized bottle deposit law. After 40 years on the books, it is time to update the “Bottle Bill” to require deposits on noncarbonated beverages, liquor, and wine and increase the deposit to a dime. Unfortunately, none of these key elements is in the Hochul or Kaminsky bill.

Assemblyman Steven Englebright, D-Setauket, chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee, will soon introduce a strong and effective EPR bill that will be a model for the entire nation, and a separate bill to modernize the Bottle Bill.

EPR is not a state spending issue and should be put aside until after the budget passes on April 1. Then the governor and Senate can work with the Assembly to create an EPR program for New York that actually fixes our packaging crisis and reduces plastic pollution. This is too important not to get right.

Judith Enck of Poestenkill is a former EPA regional administrator, president of Beyond Plastics and a visiting professor at Bennington College.