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With a strong PRRIA, New York has an opportunity to address the monumental scourge of plastic pollution and lead the nation in reducing wasteful single use packaging, which accounts for 40% of all plastic production, said Camilla Calhoun, Co-Chair, with Liz Silverstein, of the Beyond Plastics Chapter.
Legislative assistants in Albany gave the group a sober assessment of the industry muscle it is up against. According to Judith Enck, Beyond Plastics President and former EPA Regional Administrator, “Our major problem is just the army of lobbyists that are opposing it.”
However, New York Focus just broke the news that the American Chemistry Council, which represents major corporations like DuPont, 3M, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and other corporate giants, poured \$250,000 into the reelection campaigns of lawmakers across the state, from Long Island to Syracuse.
The Chemistry Council gave the money to an independent expenditure committee, Jobs New York, managed by the Business Council, a lobbying group. Most of the money funded election-related mailers in support of nine candidates, three of whom voted against the Packaging Bill. State law requires committees to submit copies of any ads, on which they spend money, as part of their campaign finance disclosures. But the group failed to do so, in essence, skirting of the law. The Chemistry Council is the bill’s fiercest opponent and has spent \$930,000 to lobby against the bill, waging a lopsided war against environmentalists and proponents.
The ground-breaking legislation was introduced in 2023 and recently reintroduced by its sponsors, Senator Pete Harckham, Senate District 40, and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, Assembly District 66. Glick called plastic pollution a solid waste crisis. Harckham believes the Bill will change business behavior because companies would be required to reduce packaging and increase recyclability... or pay a fee.
Along with the pending Bigger Better Bottle Bill, the bills address plastic pollution, the threat to oceans from microplastics, overflowing landfills, toxic emissions from incinerators, and dire threats to human health, all exacerbated by single-use plastics. The bill would reduce plastic pollution at the source while saving taxpayers an estimated at \$1.3 billion over 10 years that will provide funds for recycling and reuse efforts. It would ban 17 of the most toxic chemicals (out of the 16,000 chemicals) used in the production of plastics. These include PFAS (Forever Chemicals), vinyl chloride, lead, mercury, formaldehyde, bisphenols, and toluene.
Since PRRIA would shift the fiscal responsibility for waste management onto the polluters, industry forces are fighting it tooth and nail. Early this year, PRRIA was Albany’s most lobbied-on bill outside of the budget, drawing the firepower of household name brands including Coca Cola, Target, L’Oréal, and Kraft Heinz. PepsiCo, headquartered in Harrison, NY, is the fifth largest producer of plastic waste globally and is one of 56 companies responsible for 50% of global plastic pollution.
A new Siena poll shows that New York residents overwhelmingly support state policies to reduce single-use plastic packaging in New York. Seventy-three percent think big companies should be required to reduce plastic packaging -- as proposed in PRRIA -- and 61% want the beverage container deposit increased from five to ten cents, as proposed in the Bigger Better Bottle Bill.
New Yorkers have a lot at stake because plastics leach harmful chemicals into the air, water, and soil and take centuries to decompose; it takes 450 years for a plastic water bottle to degrade. Hastings-on-Hudson resident Dr. Sandra Selikson, a family medicine and geriatric specialist, is concerned about the amount of microplastics found in the brain (the equivalent of five plastic bottle caps) and about new research from the University of New Mexico suggesting a link between microplastics and dementia.
On April 29, 2025, the New York Times ran the story: *A New Study Raises Alarms About Plastics and Heart Disease. Here’s What to Know.* The study linked phthalates, commonly found in plastics, to 350,000 deaths globally in 2018. The statistic came from a study published in the journal *eBioMedicine*. The authors, researchers at NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine, estimated that roughly 13% of cardiovascular deaths among those aged 55-64 worldwide could be attributed to phthalates, which are also linked to metabolic risk factors like obesity.
PRRIA must pass before the legislative session ends in mid-June. The bill has 30 cosponsors in the State Senate and 77 cosponsors in the Assembly. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has indicated the bill will come to a floor vote in the Assembly this year. PRRIA will come up for a vote in the Senate Finance Committee on May 20th.
Encouraged by the day of lobbying, the Beyond Plastics group will continue asking the public to call district legislators and urge them to vote YES on the two bills. It remains to be seen if the exposure of lobbyist’s campaign finance wrongdoings will influence the votes on the bills.
When asked why she was so passionate about this issue, Dobbs Ferry High School freshman Cleo Reisinger answered: Simply put, we want to Live.
About the Author
Harriet Cheney, a Dobbs Ferry resident, is a fiber artist and a member of both the Rivertowns League of Women Voters and the Lower Westchester Chapter of Beyond Plastics. She is also a NY State licensed peer specialist, working with Jewish Family Services. Cheney is a former creative director and copywriter.
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