New Version of a 1990 Packaging Waste Report Shows the Problem Has Only Persisted 35 Years Later
Beyond Plastics, NYPIRG Show Side-by-Side Comparisons of Findings of 1990 ‘Plagued By Packaging’ Report and 2025 in Call for New York State to Pass Packaging Reduction Bill
For Immediate Release: March 7, 2025
Contact: Marissa Solomon, marissa@pythiapublic.com, 734-330-0807
ALBANY, N.Y. — Beyond Plastics has teamed up with NYPIRG to update NYPIRG’s 1990 “Plagued by Packaging” report, which detailed excess packaging and issues with disposing of waste, leading to plastic pollution and rising taxes to pay for waste removal. Spoiler alert: Thirty-five years later, not much has changed. In fact, the problems with single-use packaging have only gotten worse. Now, New Yorkers pay millions to throw away 10 billion pounds of packaging waste every year! New York City alone budgeted $477 million for fiscal year 2025 just to get rid of waste, 30% of which is made up of packaging and single-use plastic products.
The groups are advocating for the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S1464 Harckham/A1749 Glick) and the Bigger Better Bottle Bill (Senate bill 5684 May/TBD Glick) to end plastic pollution, save tax dollars, provide new revenue for localities, reduce plastic packaging, and protect New Yorkers’ health.
New Yorkers may remember last year’s “cheese debate,” after the New York Post pointed out that the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act would cause the absolutely unthinkable reality of a New York without individually plastic-wrapped cheese slices like Kraft Singles. But Kraft Singles aren’t the only wasteful products that need a packaging overhaul.
See below for an updated version that compares examples from the 1990 report with those of 2025.
Many more examples of today’s excessive single-use plastic packaging:
Bananas in plastic bags
Potatoes in plastic bags
Every other fruit or vegetable sold in plastic bags or plastic wrap
Six-pack plastic rings (instead of cardboard)
Eggs encased in polystyrene instead of cardboard cartons
Large plastic bags of chips, crackers, etc. that are less than half-full
Thanks to the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, each of the products listed for 2025 will bring in more money for New York communities, become cheaper and easier to dispose of, and become healthier without toxic chemicals in their packaging.
See the complete 1990 Report here.
ABOUT THE PACKAGING REDUCTION AND RECYCLING INFRASTRUCTURE ACT
Last year, the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act passed the Senate in June 2024 by a vote of 37-23, and passed four committees in the state Assembly. When the 2024 legislative session ended, a Siena Poll found that 58% to 31% of New York voters think the legislature should have passed the bill. The bill was popular across party lines, with 67% of Democrats, 44% of Republicans, and 54% of Independents agreeing it should have passed.
The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S1464 Harckham/A1749 Glick) will transform 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 30% incrementally over 12 years;
After 12 years, all packaging — including plastic, glass, cardboard, paper, and metal — must meet a recycling rate of 75%;
Prohibit 17 of packaging’s worst toxic chemicals, including all PFAS chemicals, vinyl chloride, lead, and mercury;
Prohibit the harmful process known as 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 that companies fully comply with the new law.
Because the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act would save tax dollars, over 30 localities across the state have passed resolutions urging Albany leaders to pass the bill. The New York City Council passed a resolution in support, and Mayor Adams released a memorandum of support in favor of the legislation.
Last year, more than 300 organizations and businesses — including Beyond Plastics, NAACP, Mothers Out Front, League of Women Voters, Environmental Advocates, NYPIRG, Earthjustice, Blueland, and DeliverZero — issued a memo of support stating, “This bill would save tax dollars and position New York as a global leader in reducing plastic pollution.”
Plastics and Climate
Plastic production is warming the planet four times faster than air travel, and it’s only going to get worse with plastic production expected to double in the next 20 years. Plastic is made from fossil fuels and contains 16,000 chemicals, many of them known to be harmful to humans and even more untested for their safety. 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 L3C. And that’s not including the carbon footprint associated with disposing of plastic.
Plastics and Health
Less than 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.
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, breast milk, stool, blood, lungs, and more.
Scientific research continues to find that the microplastics problem is worse than previously thought: New research in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that microplastics are linked to increased heart attacks, strokes and premature deaths. Another new study from Columbia University found that bottled water can contain hundreds of thousands of plastic fragments.
Why Chemical Recycling Isn’t a Solution
Because plastics recycling is a failure, the plastics and petrochemical industries are now pushing 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 gases — they put into the world. Learn more from Beyond Plastics’s report, “Chemical Recycling: A Dangerous Deception.” These New York bills do not ban chemical recycling but simply do not allow chemical recycling to count as real recycling.
ABOUT THE BIGGER BETTER BOTTLE BILL
According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the state’s landfills are likely to close no no later than 25 years from now and as early as 16 years. In an effort to divert waste from closing landfills, the DEC recommended that the state strengthen the Bottle Bill among its policy recommendations. An increase of the deposit from 5 cents to 10 cents would result in a huge increase of redemption rates, as has been shown in other states. And according to a new analysis from NYPIRG, the Bigger Better Bottle Bill would bring in as much as $100 million for the state’s environmental efforts in year one alone.
The Bigger Better Bottle Bill (TBD May/TBD Glick) would:
Expand the beverage containers covered under the law to include containers for sports drinks, non-carbonated drinks, wine, and spirits;
Raise the deposit fee to a dime (it has been a nickel since 1983);
Raise the handling fee for those who handle redeemed beverage containers (it has been stagnant at 3.5 cents since 2009, leading to at least 50 redemption centers closing because of this “freeze” on handling fees while other costs increased);
Reduce single-use beverage containers; and
Implement a grant program to help redemption centers and small businesses increase the use of technologies to make it easier for the public to redeem covered beverage containers.
The organization Reloop has estimated that modernizing the Bottle Bill would divert 5.4 billion containers from the waste stream each year. If approved, this would save New York local governments over $70 million resulting from lower solid waste disposal costs.
The Bigger Better Bottle Bill would support environmental justice communities by diverting waste and litter from these communities that already disproportionately experience the negative impacts of pollution. It would also support people who can’t access traditional employment. Canners are essential workers, yet today in New York City they earn around $5 per hour on average, or less than a third of the minimum wage, according to a 2023 study performed by Sure We Can. There are an estimated 10,000 New York City residents that collect deposit containers for their income; container collection supports people who can’t access traditional employment.
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