Hey New Yorkers: tired of all that litter, plastic trash, and excessive packaging?
New York is on the verge of passing a groundbreaking bill that would reduce waste, tackle the plastic problem, protect our public health by banning toxic chemicals in everyday items, hold corporations accountable for their pollution, and save taxpayer money.
The Packaging Reduction & Recycling Infrastructure Act (A1749/S1464) has already passed in the NY State Senate. Now it’s time to tell your Assemblymember to vote YES!
We have momentum and grassroots support, but Big Plastic and Big Oil are coming out in full force against this bill. Lobbyists are spending Washington D.C. sized dollars to kill this proposed state bill right before the finish line. We need your voice. Can you message your reps today?
Use this tool to send a message with a click. Your state representative's districts are determined by address. We won't use your address for anything else.
The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act would:
- Require companies to reduce their single-use packaging by 30% in 12 years.
- Set standards for packaging recycling and boost reusables, by requiring all packaging to be recycled at a rate of 75%, with a minimum of 20% being refilled.
- Ban 16 of the most toxic chemicals commonly used in packaging, including PFAs, bisphenols, phthalates, heavy metals, formaldehyde, toluene, and benzene.
- Prohibit polluting chemical recycling from counting as recycling.
- Make companies legally and financially responsible for their pollution and discarded product packaging, instead of leaving taxpayers to foot the bill as we currently do; This would provide much-needed taxpayer relief and funding for New York's municipal recycling and composting programs and infrastructure.
Why is single-use plastic packaging waste such an issue in New York?
- Plastic is a major climate change polluter at every stage of its life cycle. In fact, if plastic were a country it would be the world's fifth largest greenhouse gas polluter.
- 40% of plastic production is to make single-use items that clog our landfills, pollute our air, water and soil when burned in incinerators, or end up littering our environment.
- New York has a whopping 10 municipal waste incinerators, tied with Florida for the most incinerators in any U.S. state. These facilities produce hundreds of thousands of tons of greenhouse gases, air pollution and toxic ash each year. The ash from incinerators is so toxic that it has to be stored in yet another landfill known as a toxic ash dump.
- New York City spends $429 million each year to export roughly 5 million tons of its waste to incinerators and landfills in other states or to the Finger Lakes in upstate NY.
