With the number of post-budget days to get any number of big-ticket items done before the end of the scheduled session waning, legislators and environmental advocates are once again pushing to pass the stalled packaging reduction bill. After the governor\u2019s successful push to roll back New York\u2019s climate law as part of the budget, legislators are especially keen to get marquee environmental bills like this one passed.<\/p>\n
The bill\u2019s sponsors, Assembly Member Deborah Glick and state Sen. Pete Harckham, recently introduced a series of amendments to the legislation in hopes of finally getting it over the finish line after years of near-misses. But powerful opposition forces in big business and the plastics industry still aren\u2019t on board with the measure.<\/p>\n
The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act aims to reduce single-use packaging in the state by 30% over 12 years. The state Senate has passed PRRIA in past years, but the measure has stalled in the Assembly. It came close to passing<\/a> in the lower chamber last year, but lawmakers ran out of time before Speaker Carl Heastie sent them home for the year.<\/p>\n Legislators feel strongly that this must be the year it passes in the Assembly. The rollbacks to the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act loom large in the conversation this year as well. \u201cAfter the drawn-out struggle over the climate law, the Legislature needs to pass positive climate bills this year,\u201d Assembly Member Al Stirpe said in a statement to City & State. \u201cThe Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act is the perfect candidate. \u2026 We ran out of time to pass it last year and the year before, and we can\u2019t let New Yorkers lose out again just because the governor dragged out the budget process as long as she could.\u201d<\/p>\n PRRIA has been the subject of significant opposition lobbying, with state data<\/a> showing the bill among the top 10 most lobbied measures in 2025. It was also one of only two non-budget bills to hold a spot in the top 10. Preliminary data<\/a> for the first two months of this year showed PRRIA still held the No. 6 spot for top-lobbied bills as well. Groups including the New York State Business Council and the American Chemical Council (which represents the plastics industry) have spent big to combat the bill, and since last year, have pushed for their own alternative, closely modeled after so-called extended producer responsibility laws in other states.<\/p>\n Glick and Harckham have made a number of changes to the legislation over the years in hopes of combatting the well-funded opposition. (Even their 30% reduction is a concession \u2013 their original measure<\/a> from years ago would have reduced packaging by 50% over 12 years.) Late in April, they made dozens of additional amendments meant to help get the bill passed. But speaking at a rally for PRRIA on Monday in Albany, Glick didn\u2019t express optimism that business groups would come around. \u00a0\u201cMake no mistake, no matter how much we try to address the concerns of industry \u2013 which we have done at every turn \u2013 they simply do not want to change how they operate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n