160+ Environmental and Community Organizations, Recycling Businesses Call on NYS Assembly and Senate To Reject Flawed Extended Producer Responsibility Legislation in State Budget

GROUPS LOOK TO POST-BUDGET LEGISLATIVE SESSION TO SUPPORT STRONGER PACKAGING REDUCTION LEGISLATION AND EXPAND NEW YORK’S BOTTLE BILL ON ITS 40th ANNIVERSARY

For Immediate Release: March 17, 2022

Contact: Judith Enck, President, Beyond Plastics, judithenck@bennington.edu, Cell: 518-605-1770

ALBANY, NY - Over 160 environmental  groups, community groups and recycling small businesses today called on Speaker Heastie and Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins to reject Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) bills in the state’s budget process. The coalition argues that adopting EPR  is a policy choice, rather than a state spending budgetary decision. Click here to view their joint letter.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requires companies to be financially responsible for mitigating the environmental impacts of the packaging they use to sell and transport their products. Nearly 30% of the waste stream is packaging, much of it unrecyclable.  Other than through deposits on beverage containers through the state’s successful bottle bill,  companies have no financial responsibility for the waste management of product packaging, and no requirements to reduce packaging waste or design packaging for recyclability.

The groups expect to see a strong bill proposed by the State Assembly next week.  Together with a new expanded bottle bill, studies show these initiatives will substantially reduce the financial burden on taxpayers and municipalities for recycling programs, decrease pollution caused by packaging, and extend the life of municipal landfills.

Both Governor Hochul’s budget proposal and Senator Kaminsky bill on Extended Producer Responsibility have significant problems, including:

Putting packaging companies in the driver's seat to reduce their own packaging.  

We do not expect fossil-fuel companies to solve the climate change problem, nor for the tobacco industry to reduce smoking rates. Yet this bill gives control to the packaging industry through the establishment of new Producer Responsibility Organizations that are not accountable to the Legislature or the public.

No clear or binding requirements to reduce packaging or achieve higher recycling rates.

Defines recycling in a way that would allow for the burning of plastics.

Fails to phase out of key chemicals in packaging, exacerbating landfill  and incineration pollution.

In order to create a strong EPR bill, the Governor must require the reduction of PFAS chemicals and phthalates in packaging, as well as a reduction in mercury, arsenic, formaldehyde, cadmium, and styrene. While it’s good that  Governor Hochul  has a separate bill to require the reduction of PFAS chemicals and phthalates, hers and the Senate EPR bill fails to address the other carcinogenic chemicals commonly found in packaging. 

"New York is hard hit by plastic pollution. There are serious deficiencies with Governor Hochul's budget proposal on Extended Producer Responsibility.  This non- budget policy should not be included in the budget.  Instead, lawmakers should spend the rest of the legislative session working on a strong bill that gets the job done.  We also need to expand New York's successful bottle bill. We expect to see a strong bill from the Assembly that can be the basis for post-budget legislative discussions," said Judith Enck, President of Beyond Plastics and former EPA Regional Administrator.

“One response to this growing problem is to expand New York’s successful beverage deposit law, known as the “bottle bill,” by requiring deposits on non-carbonated beverages, wine, and liquor. After 40 years of this landmark law, the time has come to increase the deposit from a nickel to a dime. This will increase recycling and provide much needed income to New Yorkers who pick up bottles and cans and return them for recycling. Furthermore, shoppers will find another way to add money back into their wallets by redeeming cans and bottles, as opposed to increased taxes for municipal waste management,” said Ryan Thoresen Carson, Campaign Coordinator for the Bottle Bill 40 Coalition.

"New York has a growing waste crisis with poisonous plastic packaging waste and bottles filling up landfills and burdening municipalities, '' said Anne Rabe, NYPIRG Environmental Policy Director. “Expanding the successful “bottle bill” deposit law is long overdue, however the Governor’s Packaging Reduction EPR bill is a step backwards as it is rooted in excessive industry-self regulation. Those with a financial conflict of interest have no role in setting the parameters of the program. We call on Assembly Speaker Heastie to “hit the pause button” and kick the Governor’s EPR bill out of the budget negotiations to work on after April 1st.”

 “These proposals from Governor Hochul and Senator Kaminsky do not do enough and will not work. They maintain the status quo, giving the plastic and packaging industry the power to make up their own rules and define who is held accountable. They provide no mandated metrics, goals, nor reduction to be met. Similar industry-run systems in Europe and British Columbia are failing. Why set ourselves up for failure when we know New York must regulate businesses that create polluting products, not the other way around?  We need real change that solves New York’s plastic pollution, recycling, and waste crisis,”said George Povall, Executive Director of All Our Energy. 

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