Of the quarter of a billion tons of municipal solid waste generated annually in the U.S., nearly one third is composed of packaging materials alone. Only ~35% of this waste is recycled, leaving the rest to ultimately end up in incinerators or landfills, or persist in the environment, where it harms wildlife and breaks down into microplastics that disrupt the food chain and enter human bodies. Manufacturers are not held responsible for recovering or recycling their products, therefore they have little incentive to reduce the packaging of those products.
Individual municipalities bear the brunt of handling the collection, transportation, sorting, and processing of waste. Many municipalities struggle with the burden of recycling, especially following China’s significant restrictions placed on the type of recyclables it will accept. In response to increased recycling costs, municipalities are faced with the decision to either increase taxes or further limit what materials they can accept. With no enforceable mandate in place to reduce the amount of packaging they use, manufacturers continue to exacerbate the global waste crisis because there is no incentive to transition to materials that are easier to recycle. Will you help New York hold manufacturers, not taxpayers, responsible for packaging waste?
The recycling market must shift the responsibility of managing packaging waste from the municipalities to the producers of that waste, by creating a producer responsibility program for packaging materials. The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (“PRRIA,” S.1464/A.1749) would require manufacturers to reduce the amount of packaging they use by 30%, improve recycling and recycling infrastructure, prohibit processes that produce toxic byproducts, ban 17 of the most toxic chemicals used in packaging, and financially support municipal recycling programs.
Managing packaging waste is a financial burden that New Yorkers have carried for too long. It’s time for companies to pay for the management and recycling of their packaging waste, rather than the taxpayers. With only a few weeks left in the 2025 Legislative Session, and the NYS Senate already passing the bill, it is now up to the NYS Assembly to take action! Send a message to Assembly leadership urging their support of The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act so New York can reduce the amount of environmental contaminants ending up in our landfills without an additional burden on taxpayers, and continue to prioritize the importance of plastic and waste pollution reduction!
