Senate Passes Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, Advocates Call on Assembly for Floor Vote TODAY

The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act Reduces Single-Use Plastic Packaging by 30%, Bans 17 of the Most Toxic Chemicals in Packaging, Saves Taxpayers Millions, and Knocks Out Polluting Chemical Recycling

For Immediate Release: June 7, 2024

Contact: Marissa Solomon, marissa@pythiapublic.com, 734-330-0807

               Judith Enck, judithenck@bennington.edu, 518-605-1770

 ALBANY, N.Y. — This afternoon, the New York State Senate passed the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S4246D Harckham/A5322D Glick). Now, advocates are demanding the assembly bring the bill to a floor vote today.

 “The New York State Senate just passed a nation-leading bill that will save taxpayers money while protecting our environment and health. I’m hugely grateful to our lead sponsor, Senator Pete Harckham, and to Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins for shepherding this bill over the finish line and putting people over plastic. 

 Now, especially after Governor Hochul’s devastating decision to pause congestion pricing, we need Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to do his job and bring the bill to a floor vote TODAY. The assembly can’t leave Albany without passing any meaningful legislation to protect the environment. Plastic pollution isn’t going away, and neither are we,” said Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics and former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator

 “The Senate has led by passing the Packaging Reduction & Recycling Infrastructure Act, marking a pivotal step in tackling plastic pollution and shifting the financial burden from the public to producers. This legislation will alleviate environmental and economic strain on New Yorkers while setting a national benchmark. By reducing plastic waste and banning toxic chemicals, we pave the way for a healthier, more sustainable future. The Assembly must follow suit and vote today to pass this crucial bill,” said Vanessa Fajans-Turner, Executive Director of Environmental Advocates NY.

 The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act 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, with the first incremental reduction of 10% required by 2027;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 proper compliance.

 BACKGROUND

 The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act is widely popular. According to a new Siena poll, 67% of New York voters support this bill, and 22% oppose it. 

 Because the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act would save tax dollars, over 30 localities across the state passed resolutions urging the state legislature to pass the bill. The New York City Council recently passed a resolution in support, and Mayor Eric Adams released a memorandum of support in favor of the legislation. We are particularly grateful to the administration of New York City Mayor Adams for the city’s support for this bill.

 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 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 the year 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 L3C. And that’s not including the carbon footprint associated with disposing of plastic. 

Plastics and Health

Only about 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, heart, arteries, breast milk, blood, lungs, and testicles.   

In fact, new 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 thousands of plastic fragments. 

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