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By MARK SCHEER - June 11, 2025
Local and statewide environmental advocates are extremely concerned New York state assembly leaders are going to leave Albany next week without approving a packaging reduction bill that they say would cut plastic waste, improve public health and reduce costs for taxpayers.
Members of several advocacy groups, including the Niagara Falls NAACP, participated in a press conference on Wednesday where they encouraged assembly leaders, specifically Buffalo Democratic Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, to move the bill out of committee and bring it up for a vote.
The push comes as state lawmakers are expected to end this year’s legislative, possibly as early as Tuesday or Wednesday.
The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act has already been approved by the state senate. Assembly passage is needed for it to be considered for final authorization by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“We have the votes to get this passed. We just need assembly leadership to put it to the floor for a vote,” said Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics, a group based at Bennington College that advocates for putting an end to plastic pollution.
The proposed packing reduction bill, which has been staunchly opposed by lobbyists representing the plastics industry, would impose a 30% reduction on packaging statewide over the next 12 years. It also calls for the phasing out of 17 toxic chemicals currently found in various forms of packaging.
Supporters of the bill said plastic waste is particularly harmful to the environment, especially the Great Lakes, including Lake Ontario.
They also said remnants from plastic waste impact health and wellness, resulting in higher costs of care borne by New York residents and local governments.
Advocates say such impacts are higher in “environmental justice” communities, places like Niagara Falls and Buffalo where there is a disproportionate distribution of pollutants as a result of current and legacy manufacturing and industrial operations.
Renae Kimble, president of the local chapter of the NAACP, said the impact is especially acute among minorities in the Falls, a community that continues to deal with the lingering impacts of one of the nation’s highest-profile environmental disasters.
“Love Canal is a poster child for what happens to marginalized, disabled and working-class members of a community when they suffer from a major environmental industrial catastrophe,” Kimble said. “People get sick, die, have children born with major birth defects and are relocated from their homes. The human cost of toxic pollution and the need for laws to regulate environmental injustice cries out for justice. We have an opportunity to learn from our past and make a positive difference in the lives of those who suffer the most when environmental disasters occur.”
Environmental advocates noted that the bill has the support of doctors, scientists and organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics. They also highlighted existing state and local policies, such as the State Agency Green Purchasing Executive Order, and retailer programs, such as Walmart, that already avoiding the use of high-hazard toxic chemicals in packaging and products.
Advocates say the bill would remove 17 toxic chemicals in product packaging out of 70,000 used in America, helping to address solid waste and pollution problems threatening thousands of New Yorkers.
They say the bill would also reduce and partially detoxify the solid waste stream going to the state’s 10 incinerators, including Reworld, formerly known as Covanta, in Niagara Falls.
“High-hazard chemicals that are known to cause cancer, birth defects, or classified as persistent and bio-accumulative require immediate and strategic policy action,” said Sara Sara Schultz, vice-chair of the Sierra Club Niagara Group.
Earlier this week, the bill received an endorsement from the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Offices, the New York State Association of Counties and the New York Association of Towns who issued a joint statement, calling it “essential that New York take bold, decisive action” where reducing packaging is concerned.
“The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act would represent a comprehensive, cost-effective, and environmentally responsible strategy that will strengthen local waste systems, support municipal budgets, and advance our shared goals of sustainability and environmental justice,” the groups said in their statement.
Not everyone agrees.
Opponents of the bill, including state Sen. Minority Leader Rob Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, argue it would impose costly new mandates and additional burdensome red tape for New York businesses by forcing them to register with a packaging reduction organization and setting unrealistic timelines for the elimination of certain materials for packaging purposes.
Echoing lobbyists who oppose the bill, Ortt said it would further drive up the cost of doing business in the state, leading to more job losses and businesses leaving New York. Ortt said it would also drive up consumer costs at a time when New York’s economy is already struggling and outmigration is at an all-time high.
“In reality, this bill will have very little impact on saving the Earth, but a very big, very devastating real-life impact on hardworking New Yorkers and businesses,” Ortt said. “This is nothing more than a crushing mandate that will make it more expensive to do business in New York and lead to higher costs on consumer goods at a time when so many New Yorkers are struggling.”
Enck said she and other supporters of the bill met recently with Peoples-Stokes in Albany and said the minority leader was “very generous with her time.” Enck also said it remains unclear where the assembly’s majority leader stands on the bill itself, adding that she remains hopeful the bill will make it to the assembly floor in the coming days.
“I think she was really listening and really impacted,” Enck said of Peoples-Stokes.
Failing that, Enck and other environmental advocates say they will continue to fight for the bill’s passage even if it doesn’t happen until next year.
“We are not going away. We are not giving up,” she said.
Brian Smith, associate executive director at Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said much of what’s in the bill mirrors reduction measures and purchasing standards that have already been adopted by local governments across New York. He said components of the bill also support the state plans for addressing climate change, which he said should give state lawmakers no reason to wait.
“This is going to be part of New York’s future,” Smith said.