Hidden Cost of Plastics: New Study Shows Single-Use Plastics Worse for Health Than Previously Known
Advocates call on Albany leadership to fight plastic pollution and pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act
For Immediate Release: March 25, 2024
Contacts:
Marissa Solomon, marissa@pythiapublic.com, 734-330-0807
ALBANY, NY — Advocates and leading medical doctors held a virtual news conference to highlight new research in the New England Journal of Medicine, showing that microplastics are linked to increased heart attacks and strokes, in addition to the many previously known negative impacts of single-use plastics to everyday New Yorkers’ health. The group highlighted the out-of-control expansion of single-use plastic and called on Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins to pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (A5322B Glick / S4246B Harckham).
Watch the virtual press conference here.
“The research is clear: Plastics cause disease, disability, and death. They cause premature birth, low birth weight, and stillbirth as well as leukemia, lymphoma, brain cancer, liver cancer, heart disease and stroke. Infants, children, pregnant women, and plastics workers are the people at greatest risk of these harms. These diseases result in annual economic costs of $1.2 trillion. As a pediatrician, I strongly support legislative action to reduce plastics and save lives. Globally, the United Nations needs to pass a strong and legally binding Global Plastics Treaty. And in New York, we need to pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act. Passage of this Act will benefit the health of all New Yorkers,” said Dr. Phil Landrigan, noted pediatrician and environmental health expert.
“Everyone knows that single-use plastics are a major source of pollution, but it’s now increasingly clear that the negative impacts are more widespread than we’ve ever understood. We simply cannot continue to pollute our planet and poison our communities at this rate, which is why it’s time to make polluters pay —not New Yorkers who suffer from their effects. The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act would make polluters pay for their own pollution, and establish new environmental standards for packaging and prompt a transition towards more sustainable packaging,” said Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics and former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator.
Only 5- 6% of plastic in the United States actually gets recycled, and only 9% of all the plastic waste ever generated, globally, has been recycled. The rest ends up burned at incinerators, buried in landfills, or polluting rivers and the ocean — an estimated 33 billion pounds of plastic enter the ocean every year, where it builds up in the marine environment.
Plastic is being measured everywhere, and microplastics are entering our soil, food, water, and air. Scientists estimate people consume, on average, hundreds of thousands of microplastics per year, and these particles have been found in human placenta, heart, breast milk, stools, blood, and lungs. Scientists are still researching how exactly this is affecting our health, but chemicals found in plastics have been associated with cancer, nervous system damage, hormone disruption and fertility issues. A recent study from Columbia University found that plastic bottled water can contain hundreds of thousands of plastic fragments.
BACKGROUND
About the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act
According to polling from Oceana, nearly nine in 10 New Yorkers support policies that reduce single-use plastic. The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S4246B Harckham/A5322AB Glick) will do just that by transforming the way our goods are packaged. It will dramatically reduce waste and ease the burden on taxpayers by making companies, not consumers, cover the cost of managing packaging. The bill will:
Reduce plastic packaging by 50% incrementally over 12 years;
After 12 years, all packaging including plastic, glass, cardboard, paper, and metal must meet a recycling rate of 70% ;
Prohibit the (use new number) worst toxic chemicals in packaging, including vinyl chloride, PFAS, and heavy metals;
Not allow polluting so-called chemical recycling to be considered real recycling;
Establish a modest fee on packaging paid by product producers, with new revenue going to local taxpayers; and
Establish a new Office of Inspector General to ensure proper compliance.
The legislation has serious momentum, with a majority of members of the assembly (80 cosponsors) and the Senate (34 cosponsors) already signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. The City of New York has officially backed the bill (see attached), and more than 200 organizations and businesses — including Beyond Plastics, Environmental Advocates, NYPIRG, Earthjustice, Blueland, and DeliverZero Inc. — issued a memo of support (see attached). They write, “This bill would save tax dollars and position New York as a global leader in reducing plastic pollution.”
The bill has already passed the Assembly and Senate Environmental Conservation Committees.
Under the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, not only would it cost less for taxpayers to manage waste, but local governments would also receive new revenue from packaging fees paid by producers. This would provide substantial revenue — New York City alone would receive at least $150 million to support waste reduction infrastructure, recycling and waste disposal costs.
Plastics and Climate
Plastic production is already out of control and is expected to double in the next 20 years. As more of our energy comes from renewable sources, fossil fuel companies like Shell and Exxon are seeking to recoup falling profits by increasing plastics production and canceling out greenhouse gas reductions. In fact, half of all plastic in Earth’s history was produced in the last 20 years — the plastic we’re seeing now in our air, water, food, and bodies didn’t even exist before 2000.
Plastic is made from fossil fuels and toxic chemicals. Most plastics are made out of “ethane,” a byproduct of fracking. In 2020, plastic’s climate impacts amounted to the equivalent of nearly 49 million cars on the road, according to a conservative estimate by Material Research. And that’s not including the carbon footprint associated with disposing of plastic.
Why Chemical Recycling Isn’t A Solution
Because plastic recycling is a failure (keep recycling paper, glass and metal) , the plastic and chemical industry is now arming itself with a pseudo-solution: “chemical recycling,” or “advanced recycling.” This is a polluting process that uses high heat or chemicals to turn plastic waste into fossil fuels or feedstocks to produce new plastic products. It’s a dangerous distraction that’s allowing companies to exponentially increase the amount of plastic — and greenhouse gasses — they put into the world. Learn more from Beyond Plastics’s recent report, “Chemical Recycling: A Dangerous Deception.”
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