Hochul, Plastics Industry and Green Groups Battle Over Recycling Proposal
By Tracy Tullis | April 4, 2022 | NY Focus
Rather than try to improve Hochul’s proposal, some environmentalists want to scrap it and instead concentrate on a forthcoming bill from Assemblymember Steve Englebright.
Like cities and states across the country, New York has seen fierce debates over bans and fines on single-use plastic in recent years. The plastics industry has argued that the water bottles, takeout containers, and milk jugs New Yorkers consume at a ferocious rate can be efficiently and ecologically recycled, keeping plastic out of landfills by molding it into new products.
But across the US, less than 9 percent of plastic waste is actually repurposed, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The rest is either incinerated, buried in a landfill (where it releases methane), or left to pollute rivers, beaches and oceans. Meanwhile, cities and towns spend millions of dollars to collect and sort the plastic items we put out on the curb.
Now Governor Kathy Hochul is proposing to shift the burden of waste to the companies that produce it: the manufacturers of cans, bottles, paper, and plastic. The notion that companies should be made to deal with their own waste — known by the infelicitous term “extended producer responsibility,” or EPR — is gaining ground across the country. Maine and Oregon passed EPR laws last year and legislators have proposed bills in several other states, including California, Hawaii, Maryland, Washington, and Massachusetts.
In her 2022 State of the State report, Hochul promised to introduce a program that “requires producers — not taxpayers — to cover the cost of recycling.” She said New York must ensure that manufacturers are “financially responsible for their products through the entire product lifecycle, incentivizing them to reduce waste, invest in recycling infrastructure, make products that are easier to recycle, and support a circular economy.” She then included a version of EPR in her executive budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year.
Green groups in New York have advocated for an extended producer responsibility program for years, but many of them — including NYPIRG and Beyond Plastics — opposed Hochul’s proposal, which they say is too weak and deferential to industry. They worry that passing the governor’s proposal would doom future efforts to pass a stronger EPR law. Industry lobbies, meanwhile, have offered qualified support of the plan while pushing Hochul to water it down even further.
As supporters and opponents of Hochul’s proposal debate everything from the presence of industry representatives on advisory committees to the very definition of “recycling” itself, environmental advocacy groups are left with a difficult choice — should they pressure Hochul to strengthen her EPR proposal or ask legislators to scrap it and start over?
Industry Involvement
Hochul’s proposal would task an advisory committee with recommending annual minimum rates for recovery, recycling, and post-consumer recycled content. This advisory committee would include representatives from the packaging and paper industry, as well as those from municipalities and environmental groups.
Manufacturers would then have to develop plans to meet those recommendations and submit them for approval to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) by April 2025. Producers would be required to start implementing their programs no later than a year later.
NYPIG and Beyond Plastics say this approach would give manufacturers too much power to set their own goals and evaluate their own performance.
“It’s a conflict of interest for industry to have a role in deciding goals and performance standards,” said Anne Rabe, NYPIRG’s environmental policy director. Her group and others say standards should be set and compliance monitored by the DEC, which should be provided with sufficient funding to conduct meaningful oversight of the industry.