Albany, NY – New York State Senator Pete Harckham and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, along with other state legislators and a large group of environmental, consumer, public health and municipal advocates from across New York, called today for support of the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (PRRIA) at a press conference in the New York State Capitol. 

To see a video of the press conference, click here.

The momentum to pass—and enact—PRRIA has been building over the past several months, with residents now overwhelmingly in support (73% of registered voters, according to a Siena poll) of the legislation, just as affordability issues and environmental concerns regarding toxic chemicals continue to trouble New York residents.

PRRIA (S.1464A / A.1749) would shift the cost burden from localities to producers of waste, advancing the goal of an upgraded recycling infrastructure while reducing costs. The bill would also remove several toxic substances from packaging in New York. Right now, local governments and taxpayers are paying billions of dollars each year to transport, manage and dispose of packaging and plastic waste.

“New Yorkers could be saving hundreds of millions of dollars each year by reducing the amount of packaging waste that its municipalities have to deal with,” said Senator Harckham, chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee. “As we work through this ongoing affordability crisis, we need to look no further than the tremendous cost-saving benefits, as well as the safeguarding of public health, that the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act will provide for our residents. Let’s pass the landmark bill now!”

“New York’s solid waste and pollution crisis demands action now,” said Assemblymember Glick, chair of the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee. “Excess packaging is driving up costs for taxpayers, overwhelming municipalities, and exposing New Yorkers to toxic chemicals. The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act is a real solution. After extensive work with industry, municipalities, advocates, and states already implementing packaging EPR laws, Senator Harckham and I have crafted amendments that reflect meaningful compromises and a workable path to comply with industry while maintaining strong environmental and public health protections. New Yorkers deserve relief from the burden of paying for toxic packaging they have no control over. PRRIA must pass this year.”

The estimated cost for recycling in New York last year was $788 million, according to a report from the Center for Sustainable Materials Management). Meanwhile, PRRIA would save NYers $1.3 billion in just one decade. In fact, nine communities in the Center’s report would save $411 million annually.

And while industry notes that often its packaging is 100% recyclable, less than 6% of plastic gets recycled, and most is incinerated. There are 11 trash incinerators and 28 landfills in New York, which helps redistribute the toxins from packaging disposal into our soil and water. 

Industry also says PRRIA will raise grocery costs, which are already being passed on to consumers. PRRIA / EPR shifts financial burden to corporations and creates incentives for the utilization of sustainable, cost-effective packaging. Keep in mind that packaging only makes up 2% on average the cost of consumer goods. Reducing material waste will create lower operational costs for corporations.

After countless consultations with stakeholders and industry officials, Harckham and Glick amended PRRIA earlier this year and included over 30 changes to the legislation. It now aligns the bill with existing models in other states, adjusts timelines with extensions for program implementation and compliance, and refines provisions on toxic chemicals. The bill also provides more flexible post-consumer (PCR) content standards and expands waivers to protect small businesses and local agriculture.

Participants at the PRRIA press conference included representatives from the New York League of Conservation Voters (NYLCV), National Resource Defense Council (NRDC), New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE), Sierra Club, Riverkeeper, Beyond Plastics, Consumer Reports, Environmental Advocates – New York, Earthjustice, Save the Sound, Clean+Healthy and more. Among the legislators and elected officials speaking at the event were Senators Erik Bottcher, Brian Kavanagh and Rachel May, and Assemblymembers Chris Burdick, Dana Levenberg and MaryJane Shimsky.

Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger, Chair of the Climate Action, Energy, and Environment Committee of the NYS Association of Counties, said, “Counties across the state are united in our call to pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, which will reduce the financial burden on our communities of dealing with mountains of plastic waste and help protect us from the very real health and environmental impacts of plastics pollution. The only real opponents of this bill, unsurprisingly, are the corporations that generate this waste and bear none of the costs of disposing of it. We urge the State Legislature and Governor to stand with our communities and get this legislation over the finish line this session.”

Kate Donovan, Director, Northeast Environmental Health at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), said, “Without a comprehensive response to reduce waste and plastics, improve recycling infrastructure, and hold producers accountable for the packaging waste they create, threats to our climate and public health will continue to increase. With only a few weeks left in the legislative session, now is the time for legislators to take action on this bill. The latest version accommodates industry concerns and provides benefits to communities across the state.”

Caitlin Ferrante, Conservation Program Manager, Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, said, “New York continues to be inundated with packaging waste, and the manufacturers who created this mess have still not been held responsible and have little incentive to reduce, recover or recycle the packaging that comes with their products. Instead, municipalities bear the brunt of handling the collection, transportation, sorting, and processing of waste — materials which they had no control or influence over in the first place. Senator Harckham and Assemblymember Glick deserve tremendous credit for negotiating a comprehensive waste reduction policy for New York that, through a circular economy, will see a reduction in packaging, toxics, landfill pressure, cost burden on taxpayers, and the significant toll that our current waste system has on the climate and public health. It is high time these bills pass in both houses and are signed by Governor Hochul.”

Blair Horner, Senior Policy Analyst for the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), said, “New Yorkers are drowning in plastic trash. It contributes to the state’s growing garbage crisis with all of New York’s landfills scheduled to shut down or reach their capacity in the next decade or so. The Hochul Administration knows this, the Legislature knows this, so now is time to act. PRRIA both curbs the use of plastics and also helps slow the mounting solid waste crisis. NYPIRG applauds the work of Senator Harckham and Assemblymember Glick in advancing this critical legislation.”

Chuck Bell, Programs Director for Advocacy at Consumer Reports, said, “This bill is good for consumers and their health, and Consumer Reports is proud to support its passage. The burden to reduce plastic packaging waste should be put on the manufacturers who place these plastics into the stream of commerce in the first place. We are especially concerned because plastics like bisphenol-A and phthalates are leaching into the foods we eat. This bill offers ample opportunity for manufacturers to innovate their packaging materials to be less harmful to human health and the environment.”

Judith Enck, former EPA regional administrator, president of Beyond Plastics, and co-author of the new book The Problem with Plastic, said, “New Yorkers spend millions to collect, truck, bury, and burn harmful plastic. With New York poised to significantly weaken the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act can restore some of the damage to our health and environment that is about to unfold. This pioneering bill will save tax dollars, reduce emissions, protect our health, and clean up our environment. It is imperative that this bill come up for a vote.”

David Ansel, Vice President of the Center for Water Protection at Save the Sound, said, “Plastics and the chemicals they contain are an existential threat to Long Island Sound and New York’s other waterways. Walk along any stretch of the Bronx or Hutchinson Rivers or on any beach around Long Island Sound and you will find it littered with plastic, much of it single-use packaging. This plastic is not just an eyesore and disruptive to recreation; it is being swallowed by birds, turtles, and other animals, where it gets caught in their intestines and causes other health problems. The microplastics and chemicals sloughing off this packaging as it breaks down end up in our aquifers and inside the bodies of popular commercial fishing species. Our reliance on single-use plastics is threatening the bedrock of New York’s prosperity: our food and water. The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act would reduce single-use plastic packaging by 30% over 12 years and provide municipalities with the resources they need to ensure waste is properly managed and does not end up as litter on our shorelines. It is a crucial measure to protect our most precious natural resources.”

Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said, “Excessive packaging waste is not only adding to the high cost of living in New York, but also to the trash we find littering our roads, beaches, parks and communities. Manufacturers must take responsibility for reducing the blight and costs associated with the immense waste stream they have created. The financial and environmental burden of managing this waste has been unfairly shouldered by the taxpayer for far too long. Now is the time to act. The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act will provide financial relief and environmental protection for every New Yorker. Let’s get it passed this year! We are grateful for the leadership of Senator Pete Harckham and Assemblywoman Deborah Glick who have worked hard to craft this important bill over the last several years.”

Stephen J. Acquario, Executive Director of the New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC), said, “For too long, local governments have watched landfill capacity shrink and recycling costs rise due in part to excessive and unnecessary packaging. Thanks to the leadership of Senator Harckham and Assemblywoman Glick, we are one critical step closer to reducing the impact of this packaging on our landfills. We thank all parties engaged in these negotiations, both public and private, for bringing a resolution to a longstanding problem.”

Katherine Nadeau, Deputy Executive Director, Policy and Programs at Environmental Advocates NY, said, “PRRIA died in the final hour in last year’s session, and we can’t wait another year to pass it. It’s a simple and straightforward response to the flood of single-use packaging that fills our landfills and leaches poisons–including PFAS–into our groundwater. And it will save New York communities hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Bob Rossi, Executive Director of the New York Sustainable Business Council (NYSBC), said, “PRRIA is a pragmatic and necessary step towards a circular economy that sustains our natural resources, public health, and economy. For decades, municipalities and, therefore, taxpayers have shouldered the entire cost of managing a waste problem driven by extractive industries. PRRIA will instead engage relevant businesses to co-create waste management solutions while incentivizing manufacturing decisions that reduce waste. It will also drive innovation and level the playing field for the many New York businesses already reducing their packaging waste. We urge New York’s legislators to advance this important bill now.”
 

Patrick McClellan, Policy Director for the New York League of Conservation Voters, said, “To achieve our goal of zero waste, New York State must adopt policies to create a circular economy that prioritizes recycled and recyclable materials and incentivizes the use of less packaging in the first place, and that is exactly what the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act does. We are proud to stand with Senator Harckham and Assemblymember Glick as they lead the charge to get this measure through the State Senate and Assembly this legislative session.

Barbara Van Epps, Executive Director of the New York Conference of Mayors (NYCOM), said, “NYCOM has long supported extender producer responsibility programs as a mechanism to remove excess materials from the municipal waste stream. Cities and villages continue to face mounting costs associated with packaging waste and unstable recycling markets, placing increasing pressure on local budgets and taxpayers. By shifting the responsibility for post-consumer packaging waste back to producers, this legislation would provide meaningful financial relief and strengthen municipal recycling and waste management systems. NYCOM urges the Legislature to advance this important legislation to better support New York’s local governments and the communities they serve.”

Gregory Anderson, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY), said, “Packaging is an integral part of the products that we buy but lives a short life. In the end, it can be disposed of or recycled, and DSNY wants to help consumers to do the right thing.  An EPR for packaging bill incentivizes producers to design packaging so it does its job and has a better chance in our recycling system.”

Jeremy Cherson, Associate Director of Government Affairs for Riverkeeper, said, “New York must step up and finally pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act this legislative session to protect our greatest resource: clean water. Huge corporations and polluter industry groups, such as the American Chemistry Council, have come to Albany to do what they do best — use scare tactics to bog down legislation that protects public health and the environment. We saw the same strategy when General Electric spent decades delaying the cleanup of its toxic PCBs in the Hudson River. Time is running out on session and we can’t afford to let fear-mongering big businesses run the clock out on progress once again.”

Bobbi Wilding, Executive Director of Clean+Healthy, said, “New Yorkers need the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act: it will reduce the packaging coming into their homes, and ensure what does come is less toxic. It lifts the financial burden of managing the waste from their shoulders by cutting municipal costs and putting that burden back on the manufacturers, who are, after all, the only ones who can control this volume and how it’s made. We thank Senator Harckham and Assemblymember Glick for their determined leadership and urge both houses to pass this without further delay.”

Dr. Kathleen Nolan, President of New York State’s chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, said, “Unnecessary and pervasive exposures to plastics and plastic breakdown products such as microplastics and nanoplastics are making us sick and slowly killing us. Microplastics and nanoplastics accumulate in human organs and tissues, and as levels increase, we see evidence of increased cardiovascular disease, neurological impairments, immunologic dysfunction, and hormone disruption. Enacting the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (PRRIA) puts us on a path toward reducing harmful plastic exposures and improving our health while shifting the cost of dealing with the harmful consequences of plastics to those who put them into our food, water, and environment. Alternatives to harmful plastic packaging already exist, and the New York State Legislature and Governor Hochul should lead on this important public health intervention.”

Chris Alexander, Executive Director of the NAACP New York State Conference, said, “At a time when the federal government continues to turn a blind eye to the short- and long-term implications of refusing to address environmental concerns, the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act is more urgent than ever before. These products continue to cause lasting harm to our health and environment. New York can do something by passing this bill and taking necessary steps to reduce pollution of our air, water, and soil. New Yorkers are depending on legislators to pass this bill this year.”