Attention New York State residents! Join our Online Action Party on Thurs, 5/25 at noon ET to make calls to help NYS pass landmark legislation to cut packaging waste by 50%, stem plastic pollution, slow climate change, and support recycling and composting programs. Time is of the essence as the legislative session will end on June 8 so we need all hands on deck!
Please join us and our co-sponsors, Climate Action Now, All Our Energy, OnlyOne, Bedford 2030, League of Women Voters NYS, Surfrider Foundation and NYPIRG in calling on the New York State Legislature to pass the Packaging Reduction & Recycling Infrastructure Act during this legislative session.
Please note: you will also need to download the Climate Action Now app here or by scanning this QR code.
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 have a chance to change this in New York State but time is very short as the legislative session ends on June 8. We need YOUR help to seize the moment by helping us pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S.4246/A.5322).
That's also true when it comes to plastic pollution. 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 spent $432 million in 2020, exporting NYC waste to the Finger Lakes and to out-of-state incinerators and landfills. 33 billion pounds of plastic pollution enters the ocean each year worldwide, the equivalent of a garbage truck dumping its load into the ocean every minute.
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. These facilities are on track to produce more greenhouse gas emissions than coal plants by 2030. Plastic production is a major environmental justice, climate change, and human health problem.
Plastic waste persists in the environment for centuries, harming wildlife and breaking down into microplastics that disrupt the food chain and enter human bodies. Microplastics have been found in our bodies, including in human blood, lungs, breast milk and the human placenta. Microplastics have been found in the air we breathe and the water we drink.
When burned in incinerators or processed in chemical recycling facilities, plastic waste releases toxic chemicals. Only 5-6% of plastic is actually 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.4246/A.5322) will put responsibility for this growing problem where it belongs -- with the producers. it will save tax dollars, reduce packaging, and ban certain toxic chemicals, leading to improved public health.
But we have a very short window of time left to pass this critical bill as the legislature will adjourn on June 8th. We need all hands on deck to urge their elected representatives to pass this bill before it’s too late.
About Our Featured Guest
Judith Enck is the President of Beyond Plastics and a Bennington College faculty member and senior advisor. Prior to founding Beyond Plastics, Judith was appointed by President Obama to serve as EPA regional administrator for New York, eight Indian Nations in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.
About Our Moderator
Jennifer Congdon is the Deputy Director of Beyond Plastics and previously served as the Assistant Secretary for the Environment in the New York Governor's Office.
About Our Sponsors
Beyond Plastic's mission is to end plastic pollution everywhere.
All Our Energy advocates, educates, and involves the public to fight for the climate with renewable energy and zero waste living and empowers them to be stewards who protect our environment.
Bedford 2030 is leading a community-wide effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2040.
League of Women Voters of New York encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.
Only One harnesses the power of collective action to tackle the entire life cycle of plastics, from production to pollution, and move us toward a plastic-free future.
Surfrider Foundation protects our oceans, waves, and beaches for all people.
The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) is a non-partisan, nonprofit, research and public education organization working on issues of environmental protection, public health, transit, higher education, and consumer justice.
Climate Action Now is the creator and publisher of Climate Action Now, the leading app for citizen climate advocacy. App users take exponentially more action than users of conventional climate advocacy tools. The average app user takes 10 actions a day. In the last two years, CAN app users have sent over 1,100,000 messages to political and business leaders demanding climate action.
Register now for this free event on Thursday, May 25, 2023 at 12:00 PM ET.