As Plastics Industry Boasts About Their Political Access in Albany, Taxpayers Get to Foot the Bill for Their Plastic Pollution
Beyond Plastics Urges Albany Lawmakers to Put People Over Plastics
For Immediate Release: January 29, 2025
Contact: Marissa Solomon, marissa@pythiapublic.com, 734-330-0807
ALBANY, N.Y. — Yesterday, after 250 New Yorkers traveled to Albany and rallied at the Capitol against plastic pollution, Plastics Industry Association president and CEO Matt Seaholm shared a picture with New York Governor Kathy Hochul from a ritzy reception. Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics and former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator, issued the following statement in response:
“While Plastics Industry Association president Matt Seaholm boasts about meeting Governor Hochul, his organization fights a bill that will save taxpayers money and bring in critical funding for New York communities. Not only that, but his “Recycling Is Real” PR campaign pushes greenwashed messages that mislead New Yorkers about the failures of plastics recycling. With affordability as this session’s priority, Governor Hochul and the legislature must listen to the fiscal reality and local elected officials: Don’t cozy up to the plastics industry. Pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act.”
The Plastics Industry Association represents corporations like ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Unilever.
The real, credible numbers show that less than 6% of plastic in the U.S. actually gets recycled. “Chemical recycling,” also known as “advanced recycling,” is not a solution – it actually exacerbates the problem: It’s a polluting process that uses high heat or chemicals to turn plastic waste into fossil fuels or feedstocks to produce even 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 environment. Learn more from Beyond Plastics’s report, “Chemical Recycling: A Dangerous Deception.”
ABOUT THE PACKAGING REDUCTION AND RECYCLING INFRASTRUCTURE ACT
Last year, the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act gained momentum. The bill 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% 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 70%;
Prohibit 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.
Yesterday, January 28th, 155 organizations and businesses — including Beyond Plastics, Consumer Reports, League of Women Voters, Environmental Advocates, NYPIRG, Only One, Food and Water Watch, and American Lung Association — 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.
###
