We’re Drowning in Plastic Waste—a Bill in Albany Is a Lifesaver

Plastic is a big business. From the little plastic sleeves of ketchup and soy sauce to the plastic clamshells protecting each apple at the airport, we are drowning in plastic packaging

In 2019, I participated in a Bronx River cleanup with a group called Bronx River Alliance . Hundreds of plastic water bottles, ketchup packets and makeup wands floated to the top of a grimy yellow boom. There were about 15 of us and we worked steadily for about three hours to clean out the boom.

Many groups are working to clean our rivers. But what about the plastic in our bodies, in fish, in our laundry? We can't stop microplastics until we stop plastic waste.

Recycling plastic has been shown to be a dead-end. Those little numbers on the bottom of plastic give consumers a sense of feasibility, however, we know less than 6% of plastics are recycled for the single reason that there isn't a good market for most recycled plastic—it has issues with durability, has lots of toxic chemical additives, and virgin plastic is just cheaper.

Our state legislators have a responsible solution at their fingertips: The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act , if passed, would require big companies selling products in New York to cut plastic packaging by 50% over the next 12 years. The bill, introduced by Senator Pete Harckham and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, would also address plastic's human health impacts by phasing out toxic chemicals currently used to package the food and drinks we consume. And it would not allow the plastic industry's latest false solution called chemical recycling, to count as real recycling.

It is time to make the polluters pick up the cost of disposing of their waste.

We need Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins to bring this bill to the floor for a vote, and we need our representatives to vote YES! To less waste in our rivers and our bodies.

Contact your state representatives to ask them to support the bill !