The familiar tug of war surrounding the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act is unfolding once again at the state Capitol, and one of the most heavily lobbied pieces of legislation in Albany is once again pitting environmental advocates against the plastics industry.<\/p>\n
The extended producer responsibility legislation, or EPR, aims to curb the use of several toxic chemicals used in packaging and reduce overall packaging use by 30% over 12 years with advocates pointing to the dangers of microplastics to the human body along with environmental impacts. Those opposed say\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0too tight of a squeeze on businesses.<\/p>\n
After passing in the state Senate two years in a row but\u00a0failing to make\u00a0it to the Assembly floor at the last minute in both cases, those behind the push are hoping to avoid the same fate this year.<\/p>\n
Judith Enck, former EPA regional administrator under President Barack Obama and president of Beyond Plastics, is a driving force behind the legislation, which is carried by state Sen. Pete\u00a0Harckham\u00a0and Assemblymember Deborah Glick.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All three are contending with sustained industry opposition which last year\u00a0reportedly scared\u00a0away enough \u2018yes\u2019\u00a0votes to discourage Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie from brining the bill up for a vote as hope for passage dwindled in the final hours of the legislative session.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year that the Legislature fails to act means that the problem gets harder and harder to solve in a big state like New York,\u201d Enck said. \u201cOur plea to the speaker is to bring it up and let\u2019s see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heastie reminded reporters that \u201ccontrary to popular belief,\u201d the votes\u00a0weren\u2019t\u00a0there\u00a0last session, and there is still work to do this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the best vote counter in the Assembly and we\u2019ll\u00a0see\u00a0and we\u2019ll continue to talk \u2014 people are making their point but if the votes are there to pass a\u00a0bill,\u00a0we\u2019ll pass it,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A source familiar with conversations in the Assembly told Spectrum News 1 there is confidence that the bill will\u00a0ultimately pass\u00a0in the lower chamber this year, and there is an expectation that\u00a0additional\u00a0amendments to the bill will be coming\u00a0in the near future\u00a0to\u00a0assist\u00a0in that outcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the Senate side, the bill\u00a0appears\u00a0poised to pass once again, but the upper chamber will\u00a0likely give\u00a0the Assembly time to sort things out with the potential for early discussions with Gov.\u00a0Kathy Hochul\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Given the stance of\u00a0advocates\u00a0on what changes they are willing to make,\u00a0it’s\u00a0unlikely that any amendments will stave off the onslaught of industry lobbying, even if they are\u00a0ultimately able\u00a0convince reluctant yes votes in the assembly.<\/p>\n
Those in the plastics industry like Chris Layton,\u00a0sustainability\u00a0director for chemical giant Eastman, stress that there is support for extended producer responsibility policy in general, but the current bill stifles economic growth both through bans on certain chemicals which they argue are necessary to keep production costs down, as well as an attempt to restrict the use of molecular recycling technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u00a0is\u00a0a lot of positives but there are still things that need to be fixed,\u201d Layton said. \u201cFor us the key part is to make sure there is a pathway in these bills to allow for these\u00a0material to material\u00a0recycling technologies, it strikes a balance between achieving the environmental\u00a0objectives\u00a0but we have to do it in a responsible way.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a sign of the impasse, Enck said there is an openness to making changes, but not when it comes to the innovation piece.<\/p>\n
\u201cA line in the sand for us is no chemical recycling,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As the legislative session ticks away, Enck is hoping to get support in her fight from one of the\u00a0bills\u00a0former\u00a0Assembly sponsors, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a cosponsor of this bill when he was in the Assembly, and we\u2019re hoping he will put his full political influence behind getting this bill through the\u00a0Assembly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mamdani\u2019s\u00a0team\u00a0is still reviewing the current legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis administration supports EPR policies,\u00a0including for\u00a0packaging,\u201d a spokesperson told Spectrum News 1.<\/p>\n
The bill was previously supported by the Adams\u00a0administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The familiar tug of war surrounding the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act is unfolding once again at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[206,109,116,295,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,112,87,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-134123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-albany-capital-region","9":"tag-app-local-state-politics","10":"tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","11":"tag-jack-arpey","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-new-york-state","16":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-state-news","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-ny-state-of-politics","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}