LeBrun: The world is choking on plastic

The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act is a way to start bringing our plastics addiction under control.

By Fred LeBrun, Columnist June 8, 2025

https://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/lebrun-world-choking-plastic-20363770.php

“Plastics. There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?”

That’s what Walter Brooke tells Dustin Hoffman in the 1967 film “The Graduate.” These lines are listed as No. 42 of the 100 top movie quotes by the American Film Institute.

Prophetic lines for sure, and chilling. The future of plastics, in its many forms, has proved to be undeniably great, as in colossal and pervasive, but not necessarily always great as in terrific.

For all of its positives that help shape modern life, there’s also the unwanted, unasked-for gargantuan amounts of plastic packaging waste those profiting from it inflict on us — 30% of the state’s waste stream.

It’s glutting our landfills and poisoning our oceans, and you and I are paying to get rid of it. Not the companies making the plastics or the manufacturers imposing them on consumers. They get a free ride and high profits. We get the ever-increasing bill for managing waste that shouldn’t even exist.

What we need and haven’t had is accountability from industry and business for the harm they’ve done and continue to do. We have a history in New York of “polluter pays.” A far gentler version but in the same spirit are what are called EPR laws, "extended producer responsibility." Our Department of Environmental Conservation has been encouraging an EPR approach for sustainable waste management for the past 15 years.

A stellar example is the New York Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, which is wending its way again through the legislative process, and it is badly needed. Last year it passed the Senate but never came up for an Assembly vote. Last week, an updated version handily passed the Senate by eight votes and now awaits Assembly action by close of session.

I strongly urge the Assembly to pass this. It is thoughtful, specific, undreamy and entirely reasonable public policy. Applause for sponsors Sen. Pete Harckham and Assemblymember Deborah Glick.

It would finally begin to bring our immense plastic pollution problem under control by state law, regulated and enforced by the DEC, and also scrutinized by an independent inspector general.

Businesses that sell consumer products and make at least $5 million and create two or more tons of packaging annually would be required to gradually reduce single-use plastic packaging by 30% over the next 12 years. Seventeen toxic chemicals and heavy metals would be outright banned from packaging, where they just don’t belong. And applicable businesses would have to reimburse municipalities for waste management costs and fund, through a modest fee, a rejuvenated and enhanced recycling infrastructure. Gradually, by 2052, 75% of remaining packaging would have to be recyclable.

Currently, very little of any plastic gets recycled, which is crazy. Five or six percent total. In states with no deposit bottle systems, which is 40 of them, make that one percent. I was surprised to learn that only plastics with a 1 or 2 on them are recycled; the rest generally wind up in the landfill, or polluting incinerators, or randomly strewn all over the planet. The recycling capability just isn’t there, and without having to pay for managing the waste they create, it’s cheaper to make new plastic than recycle. A pretty sweet deal for the plastics industry, which is also the petrochemical industry.

Not surprisingly, they loathe this bill and are again spending around $1 million on an army of lobbyists, direct contributions to legislators, attack ads and whatever else they can get away with to kill this bill.

Including promoting an alternative bill, which is going nowhere. The Affordable Waste Reduction Act is also technically an EPR bill, but does not include any ban on toxic chemicals, exempts commercial waste, and generally leaves industry in charge of setting its own goals. A slightly glorified version of what we already have. The past 60 years tell us why that doesn’t work. The Affordable Waste Reduction Act does give the illusion of a viable alternative. Plus, there’s an impressive lobbying effort going on by a seasoned bunch, which on planet Albany should never be taken lightly.

The main point lobbyists are hammering is affordability, using it as scare tactic. The claim is prices will go up for consumers as the result of all these changes. Consumer Reports, the gold-standard evaluators of just about everything, has proclaimed the good bill will have no affect on consumer costs.

Regardless, getting this passed and signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul should not be taken for granted, even with a friendly huge Democratic majority in the Assembly. Judith Enck, former regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency and an avid supporter of the good bill, told New York Focus, “This is the biggest environmental fight since fracking,” referring to the environmentally devastating hydraulic drilling into fractured shale the state eventually banned in 2014, but not before a ferocious lobbying effort otherwise.

So within a matter of days, the Assembly will or won’t act. Then it’s up to the governor, who has given no clue how she feels about it. Rather annoying, actually.

“It’s time to consider our vision for the Finger Lakes: Are we a world class tourist destination, or are we the dumping ground for New York? Because we can’t be both. Let’s embrace the beauty we have been recognized for, and work toward a future where our natural beauty and our economy work hand-in-hand.

Seneca Meadows is at capacity — and the time has come for it to close. The last thing Seneca County needs is for it to grow for another 15 years.”

- Doug Hazlitt is co-owner of Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards, and member of a seventh generation farm and wine producing family in the Finger Lakes.