New York State Assembly fails to pass Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act

New York State has not passed the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, which would have required the packaging industry to pay a tax for the disposal of plastic waste. 

Tuesday marked the end of the legislative session, but for the second consecutive year, the State Assembly did not hold a vote on the proposed law, even though, according to the US NGO Beyond Plastics, a sufficient number of lawmakers would have supported the bill if it had been brought to a vote.

“The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S1464 Harckham/A1749 Glick) provides an example of an effective EPR bill,” Jackie Nuñez, advocacy and engagement manager at the Plastic Pollution Coalition and founder at The Last Plastic Straw, tells Packaging Insights.

According to the NGO Beyond Plastics, the bill faced opposition from the plastics and fossil fuel industries, as well as the Business Council of New York State, which expressed concerns about rising costs for businesses and consumers.

The Business Council vice president Ken Pokalsky told the local media that the Business Council had “done its job.”

“We have a consistent and accurate message that the bill that passed the Senate, that is on the Assembly calendar, is going to be expensive and unworkable,” he says.

Judith Enck, Beyond Plastics president and former US Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator, comments: “While President Trump is launching a full-on assault on the environment, the New York State Assembly sided with the multibillion-dollar companies pumping toxic chemicals and microplastics into our environment and our bodies.”

Prohibiting “hazardous” materials

Nuñez tells us that the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act provides an “example of an effective EPR bill.” 

For the second consecutive year, the State Assembly did not hold a vote on the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act.“It aims to reduce plastic packaging by 30% incrementally over 12 years. By 2052, all packaging — including plastic, glass, cardboard, paper, and metal — must meet a recycling rate of 75% (with incremental benchmarks until then).”

The New York State Senate outlined that if the bill is enacted, the companies “selling, offering for sale, or distributing packaging materials and products to register with a packaging reduction organization” and make over US$5 million will be required “to develop a packaging reduction and recycling plan.”

According to Nuñez, the legislation would have prohibited 17 classes of packaging’s most hazardous chemicals and materials, including all PFAS chemicals, PVC, lead, and mercury. “It would have also prohibited the harmful process known as ‘chemical recycling’ to be considered real recycling.”

“The bill would have established 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.” 

“Deeply disappointing”

Beyond Plastics’s Enck says that it is “deeply disappointing that we’re in this position again.” She argues that municipalities and taxpayers are “cheated out of hundreds of millions in cost savings” for another year.

“New Yorkers didn’t vote for any of this, and they deserve better. Our fight continues. Plastic pollution isn’t going away, and neither are we.”

According to Enck, “there has always been special interest opposition to effective environmental bills, but this year, Speaker Carl Heastie let those special interests win by not allowing the packaging-reduction bill to come up for a vote and blocking every major piece of environmental legislation.”

“During this entire legislative session, the State Senate passed many environmental bills, and the state Assembly passed only one watered-down version of the NY HEAT Act. The Trump administration is attacking our most basic environmental protections. Speaker Heastie’s response is to do nothing.”

Regulatory News, New York, New York State Assembly, Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, EPR, Plastic, Plastic Waste, Beyond Plastics, Business Council of New York State, Plastic Pollution Coalition.