ATTENTION NEW YORKERS! URGENT!
ALL HANDS ON DECK TO PASS THE PACKAGING REDUCTION AND RECYCLING INFRASTRUCTURE ACT
- REQUIRE big plastic polluters to cut plastic packaging in New York by 50% in 12 years
- Reuse or recycle the remaining packaging
- Get toxic chemicals OUT of packaging - like PFOA, formaldehyde, bisphenols, phthalates, benzene, and heavy metals
- Prevent greenwashed, toxic processes like “chemical recycling” or incineration and count it toward recycling
- Make companies pay to clean up their packaging waste, by reimbursing municipalities for waste management and investing in recycling infrastructure
Some of New York’s biggest consumer brands are also the world’s largest plastic polluters. It's a familiar story: polluters keep the profits and leave the mess for taxpayers to clean up. We are on the cusp of passing this bill in New York State, but we need to make our voices loud and clear so that state lawmakers address the waste crisis NOW. We need YOUR help to seize the moment by helping us pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S.4246b/A.5322b)
THIS BILL MUST BE PASSED IN 2024:
- Plastic is warming the planet 4x faster than air travel
- An average of 6.8 million tons of packaging waste is produced each year in New York, constituting 40% of the total waste stream. Most of this packaging is sent to landfills, burned in incinerators, or ends up as litter on our streets and beaches, and particulates in our lungs.
- New York City taxpayers alone currently pay nearly half a billion dollars to export NYC waste to other communities to deal with, like the Seneca Meadows Landfill in the Finger Lakes, the Niagara Falls Covanta incinerator, and the Newark, NJ incinerator.
- 33 billion pounds of plastic pollution enters the ocean each year worldwide, the equivalent of 1-2 garbage trucks dumped into the ocean every minute.
- Plastic production is a major environmental justice, climate change, and human health problem. In 2020, 35.7 million tons of plastic was made in the United States, and plastic production is slated to double in the next 20 years, with most of it being manufactured in communities of color in Louisiana, Texas, and Appalachia. Microplastics have been found in the air we breathe and the water we drink. Plastic waste persists in the environment for centuries, harming wildlife and breaking down into microplastics that disrupt the food chain and enter human bodies.
- Only 5-6% of plastic is recycled and it is often downcycled rather than being turned back into products or materials of equal value. The cost of disposal, litter clean-up, and recycling is currently shouldered by taxpayers, not by the companies that make packaging decisions.
ENOUGH!
The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S.4246b/A.5322b) will put responsibility for this growing problem where it belongs -- with the producers - and finally address the root cause of plastic pollution!
We need all hands on deck to urge ou elected representatives to pass these bills before it’s too late.
Join us, the leaders of Beyond Plastics, our co-sponsors, concerned citizens plus special guests from across the state to learn about this critical legislation and TAKE ACTION to pass strong packaging reduction.
About Our Featured Guests
Judith Enck, President of Beyond Plastics. A dynamic community leader who has spent her expansive career working to protect public health and the environment, Judith began as an environmental advocate and has held top influential positions in state and federal government. Appointed by President Obama, Judith served as the Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overseeing environmental protection in NY, NJ, 8 Indian Nations, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Judith is a professor at Bennington College, where she teaches classes on plastic pollution and was a Visiting Scholar at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.
George Povall, Executive Director of All Our Energy, who advocate, educate, and involve the public to take action to be stewards who protect our environment.
Madeleine MacGillivray (she/her) is a lifelong climate justice advocate, an original Our Children’s Trust youth plaintiff, and microplastics-focused science communicator. As the Climate Communication and Policy Coordinator at Seeding Sovereignty, where she hosts the Supersede podcast, Madeleine organizes and activates at the intersection of climate justice, plastic, and public health.
Hannah Fine(she/her/hers) is the Senior Director of Campaigns at Only One, where she oversees all campaigning on plastics, petrochemicals, and pollution.