Policy

Plastic packaging reduction bill once again a post-budget priority

Environmental advocates are hoping to get the legislation meant to reduce single-use plastics over the finish line after almost accomplishing it last year.

Environmental advocates display discarded plastic packaging outside the Assembly chamber on June 3, 2024.

Environmental advocates display discarded plastic packaging outside the Assembly chamber on June 3, 2024. Rebecca C. Lewis

High-profile legislation to reduce the amount of plastic waste in the state is making its way through the Assembly once again. And with growing support from groups like the NAACP and the Hispanic Federation, environmental advocates are hopeful that lawmakers will approve the bill once the budget is passed after a near miss last year.

The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act aims to reduce the amount of single-use plastics in New York by 30% over the next 12 years. The main vehicle to achieve that would be the requirement for businesses with revenue of $5 million or more who distribute plastic packaging to create an extended producer responsibility program. This would put the cost of recycling on those companies by charging them a fee that would be paid to municipalities, while encouraging those companies to reduce their plastic use. The legislation would also prevent a controversial process known as “chemical recycling” from counting towards recycling requirements and would ban certain toxic chemicals from being used in packaging.

The Assembly Codes Committee advanced the bill on Tuesday, sending it to the Ways and Means Committee. Although it’s not quite ready for a full vote in either chamber, the bill has made good progress in both. “There's huge public support… but there's also ferocious industry opposition, so I'm never confident until it actually passes,” said Beyond Plastics President Judeith Enck. The state Senate passed the legislation last year, and the Assembly came close to approving it as well before running out of time. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s last-minute decision to pause congestion pricing threw a wrench into the process and delayed a number of bills that might have passed at the end of the legislative session, including the plastics packaging bill. “It kind of ruined my summer,” Enck quipped.

Advocates for the bill will rally in the state Capitol on Wednesday before spending the day lobbying lawmakers to support the measure. Additionally, a group of environmental justice advocacy organizations – including the NAACP, Hispanic Federation and Hip Hop Caucus – signed onto a letter sent to legislative leaders calling for the bill’s passage. “Environmental justice communities are exposed to greater risks to their health and livelihoods from plastic litter and microplastic exposure and consumption,” the letter reads. “High levels of exposure to plastic pollution have been linked to everything from infertility to cancer in humans, with front-line communities being particularly impacted.”

Signatories of the letter also stated their opposition to a different bill, backed by the plastics industry, that they argue is far too weak to have an impact. “This legislation is a cynical attempt, backed by the plastics and chemical industry, to derail meaningful progress,” the letter reads. “It is a wolf in sheep’s clothing that does not deserve your support.”

The plastics bill has faced intense opposition from business interests, plastics companies and the fossil fuel industry. New York Focus recently reported that the American Chemistry Council, which represents a number of fossil fuel companies and other major corporations, spent nearly $1 million to lobby against the legislation last year. That placed it among the state’s biggest spenders on lobbyists, and opponents of the bill have only continued to double down. The Plastics Industry Association engaged in a legislative “fly-in” day in Albany to espouse the benefits of plastic packaging and to push their preferred version of an extended producer responsibility bill. “I think they fear that we’re getting closer,” Enck said.

For Westchester environmental activist Courtney Williams, the bill is personal. She lives in the community of Peekskill, which is home to a large-scale trash incinerator where much of Westchester County’s garbage is burned. “We are a frontline community in Peekskill, and this bill could go a long way into alleviating that burden that we're facing,” she told City & State. “Not only like the financial burden on the county to try and manage all of that plastic and packaging, but frankly, the health impacts that my community faces.” 

While nothing is final until legislators vote, odds seem good that Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie will allow the bill to come to the floor before the end of the legislative session. “We kind of just ran out of time last year,” he told reporters last week when asked about the measure. “So I think that should be fine.”