![]() Enck said they’ve been fighting the bill. Opposition includes large companies, including Amazon, McDonald’s and Mars Candy Co., as well as the American Chemistry Council, a plastics manufacturing lobby group. Supporters believe that the combined market share of New York and California would likely result in companies reducing their packaging for other states and nations as well. It would also ban toxins, including heavy metals and PFAS chemicals, in all packaging.įour other states already have similar laws on the books, including California. It would also ban a practice sought by the industry - the burning of some plastic packaging items that are not able to reach overcapacity recycling markets. ![]() The bill would gradually phase in the 50% packaging reduction requirement over a period of 12 years. They're not going to change unless the law changes.” “Amazon would save money by just sending it perhaps in a little recyclable cardboard box. “Why do we need this level of packaging for wooden highlighters?” Enck said. In all, she unwrapped two plastic envelopes, a glassine envelope and a paper one, and finally a clear plastic wrapper containing the pens. The wood-made alternative to a plastic highlighter pen that she ordered came wrapped in several packaging layers like a Russian nesting doll. Enck used as an example a package that her colleague received from Amazon. “They can get it done if it's a priority for the speaker and the majority leader.”Įnck said plastic pollution is so insidious that traces of plastics are found in drinking water and in the human body, including in some newborn babies. And two weeks at the end of the legislative session is really like two months,” Enck said. “This is a moment for the New York State Legislature to provide vital leadership in the next two weeks. She said the chairs of the environmental committees in the Senate and Assembly are the bill’s prime sponsors, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins have expressed interest in advancing the measure over the next two weeks. Environmental Protection Agency who is now head of Beyond Plastics at Bennington College. Judith Enck is the former regional administrator of the U.S. They hope it could become law before lawmakers are set to adjourn for the summer on June 8. With just seven working days left of the official 2023 legislative session, advocates for a measure that would reduce plastic packaging by half say their bill is gaining momentum. Lawmakers were off for the long holiday weekend before resuming session Tuesday for a two-week sprint to adjournment. They delivered a petition including 13,000 e-signatures to the Assembly and Senate leadership offices. Advocates say polls show that the public is on their side.
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