Erie County becomes first municipality in New York to ban microbeads

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz stood at the end of Wilkenson Point on Buffalo’s outer harbor with county legislator Patrick Burke, environmental advocates and representatives from state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office to sign the recently-passed measure into law with Lake Erie as their backdrop.

Poloncarz, whose office provided some assistance to the bill’s sponsor Burke and co-sponsor John Mills, the chair of the county legislature, said the banning of retail sales of products containing the tiny plastic beads is a step forward in protecting the region’s most precious natural resource; the Great Lakes.

“Our future is dependent upon (the waterways) in many ways as we focus on a blue economy,” Poloncarz said.

The legislation, which passed the county legislature unanimously last month, will take effect 180 days after the bill is received and filed. Retailers in the county will be prohibited from stocking the items after the grace period and the county’s weights and measures division will be responsible for enforcement, issuing fines to stores found to be selling products containing the tiny pieces of plastic.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has pushed for a statewide ban for the last two years, and while the state Assembly passed microbead bills in those sessions he has not been successful in moving the legislation in the Republican-controlled state Senate. Federal legislation has also been introduced and sponsored by U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand but has been slow to find support.

Polincarz said he was glad that Erie County was taking the lead on the issue.

“I don’t think waiting for the federal government was the right thing to do,” Poloncarz said. “We have the power to act ourselves and send the message that Erie County will not tolerate the pollution of our environment.”

The push to ban products containing the beads comes after a series of reports found the plastic, often advertised as an exfoliant, was not being filtered out in the water treatment process. As much as 90 percent of new plastic pollution, upwards of 19 tons of plastic a year, is coming from the microbeads, according to recent studies.

Burke, a freshman lawmaker from South Buffalo, said it was exciting to see one of his key initiatives signed into law in his first term.

“To have a success in this way, in something that I think will have a pretty large impact on our waterways and public health and all of that, it’s kind of surreal and it feels great,” Burke said. “It’s definitely a huge relief that it’s finally done.”

Burke has said that while the ban can’t stop people in the county from ordering products with microbeads online or neighboring counties and states from allowing their use, he hopes that the law will act as a catalyst for other governments to put forth bans and for retailers to take it upon themselves to stop selling the products.

The Tops grocery store chain has already set in motion plans to stop selling the products at all of their stores, including those outside of Erie County, he added.

“There’s been a pretty rapid response from counties all lover requesting our legislation,” Burke said.