ACTION ALERT: Act Now!

Support the Establishment of Extended Producer Responsibility for Consumer Packaging and Printed Paper (PPP)

RECYCLING HAS A BIG PROBLEM

Urge the NYS Legislature to support the
Extended Producer Responsibility Act (A.5801 / S.1185B)
to make Consumer Brand Owners a part of the solution and modernize NYS’s recycling system.

The State Legislature is trying to work quickly to resolve this problem!  Join the New York Product Stewardship Council, the New York State Association of Counties, the New York Association for Reduction, Reuse, and Recycling, the Product Stewardship Institute, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, New York League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Advocates of New York, New York City Department of Sanitation and other local governments and industry associations in support.

Please contact members of
the Assembly and Senate TODAY to
support S.1185-B (Kaminsky) and A.5801(Englebright).

Find your NYS Senator by visiting https://www.nysenate.gov/find-my-senator

Find your NYS Assembly Member by visiting https://nyassembly.gov/mem/search/

The Challenge:

• Local recycling programs are struggling to survive and local municipalities and recycling system rate payers are on the hook to spend tens of millions of dollars to keep local programs alive.  These municipal recycling costs are not sustainable. 

• Consumer brand-owners are disconnected from the end-of-life management of their product packaging.  They have little incentive to reduce packaging waste, make packaging easier to recycle or boost market demand for recycled content use. 

• Residents are confused about what is recyclable.  Package labeling is inconsistent and confusing, and municipalities lack funds to educate the public on how to properly recycle the brand owners’ packaging.  As a result, over 700,000 tons of potentially recyclable materials are estimated to be trashed annually in NYS.

The Solution: (A.5801/S.1185-B)

• EPR shifts responsibility for the recovery of materials in curbside recycling program from local governments and taxpayers to producers and brand owners.  In doing so, EPR aligns recycling costs with those who benefit from the sale of consumer goods and decouples the financial risk for municipalities. 

• Packaging EPR will incentivize producers to reduce packaging waste, increase recycled content, and make their packaging easier to recycle.

• In addition to dramatically increasing the state’s recycling rate, EPR has the potential to create over 1,000 new green sector jobs statewide and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 2.3 million metric tons.
  
  
• Packaging EPR WORKS! Canada, Europe and Asia have successfully implemented programs for decades.  Recycling rates in British Columbia have reached 78% and research has found no increase in the price of consumer goods.

MISSION

The New York Product Stewardship Council works to implement the principles of product stewardship in New York State and nationally. These policies have many benefits:

• Shift waste management costs off taxpayers and into the cost of the product
• Reduced waste destined for landfills and waste to energy facilities
• Improved product and packaging design for recycling and materials recovery
• Economic development in new industries and job growth within New York State