Heastie Wants to Protect the Environment - Pass the Plastic Reduction Act NOW

ALBANY, NY (01/07/2026) (readMedia)-- During his opening remarks of the 2026 legislative session, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie expressed strong commitment to protecting the environment and curbing climate change. Luckily, the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (PRRIA - A1749 Glick/S1464 Harckham) is already on the Assembly floor and will do just that - and save money for municipalities and taxpayers.

In his remarks, Heastie said:

"Here in New York, we stand by science. As storms surge and temperatures rise, we see the devastation of climate change the likes of which we saw on our recent humanitarian mission to Jamaica. We stand by the experts and their recommendations on keeping our communities safe. We remain committed to safeguarding measures that protect the environment and curb climate change, and will continue to fight back against Washington's attempts to rollback those policies."

In response, Judith Enck, former EPA regional administrator, president of Beyond Plastics, and co-author of the new book "The Problem with Plastic," issued the following statement:

"President Trump is launching a full-on assault on the environment, slashing regulations on the fossil fuel industry and the multibillion dollar companies that pump 16,000 different types of chemicals and microplastics into our environment and our bodies. Speaker Heastie is right that New York needs to fight back. Luckily, the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act is already on the Assembly floor. Speaker Heastie can bring the bill to a vote right now to protect the environment, fight climate change, and save taxpayers hundreds of millions."

PRRIA passed the Senate in both 2024 and 2025. It made it through all four Assembly committees last year, but did not come up for a vote. Now, we're starting 2026 with 75 co-sponsors and enough votes to pass in the Assembly. It is already on the Assembly floor and does not have to go through all 4 committees again.

BACKGROUND

The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S1464 Harckham/A1749 Glick) will transform the way our goods are packaged. It will dramatically reduce waste and ease the burden on taxpayers by making companies, not consumers, cover the cost of managing packaging. The bill will:

• Reduce plastic packaging by 30% incrementally over 12 years;
• By 2052, all packaging - including plastic, glass, cardboard, paper, and metal - must meet a recycling rate of 75% (with incremental benchmarks until then);
• Prohibit 17 of packaging's worst toxic chemicals and materials, including all PFAS chemicals, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), lead, and mercury;
• Prohibit the harmful process known as chemical recycling to be considered real recycling;
• Establish a modest fee on packaging paid by product producers, with new revenue going to local taxpayers; and
• Establish a new Office of Inspector General to ensure that companies fully comply with the new law.

A report from Beyond Plastics, "Projected Economic Benefits of the New York Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act," shows how New Yorkers would save $1.3 billion in just one decade after the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act becomes law. These savings would come from the avoided costs of waste management when there's less waste to manage, and they don't even include the funds that would be brought in after placing a fee on packaging paid by product producers.

This is David versus Goliath. Last year, there were a whopping 107 registered lobbyists working against the bill - megacorporations like ExxonMobil, Shell, McDonalds, Amazon, and Coca-Cola. Compare that to the 23 lobbyists working in favor of the bill - mostly nonprofit groups like NYPIRG, NRDC and Food & Water Watch. Read more about the lobbying around PRRIA here.

Megacorporations may be campaigning hard against the bill, but the people want to pass it. A bipartisan 73% of New York voters are in favor of the bill. Because the legislation would save tax dollars and protect our health, over 30 localities across the state have passed resolutions urging Albany leaders to pass it. The New York City Council passed a resolution in support, and the Mayor's Office released a memorandum of support in favor of the legislation. More than 300 organizations and businesses - including Beyond Plastics, Hip Hop Caucus, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, League of Women Voters, Environmental Advocates, NYPIRG, Earthjustice, Blueland, and DeliverZero - issued a memo of support stating, "This bill would save tax dollars and position New York as a global leader in reducing plastic pollution."

Plastics and Climate

Plastic production is warming the planet four times faster than air travel, and it's only going to get worse with plastic production expected to double in the next 20 years. Plastic is made from fossil fuels and contains 16,000 chemicals, many of them known to be harmful to humans and even more untested for their safety. Most plastics are made out of ethane, a byproduct of fracking. In 2020, plastic's climate impacts amounted to the equivalent of nearly 49 million cars on the road, according to a conservative estimate by Material Research L3C. And that's not including the carbon footprint associated with disposing of plastic.

Plastics and Health

Less than 6% of plastic in the United States actually gets recycled, and only 9% of all the plastic waste ever generated, globally, has been recycled. The rest ends up burned at incinerators, buried in landfills, or polluting rivers and the ocean - an estimated 33 billion pounds of plastic enter the ocean every year.

Plastic is being measured everywhere, and microplastics are entering our soil, food, water, and air. Scientists estimate people consume, on average, hundreds of thousands of microplastics per year, and these particles have been found in human placenta, breast milk, stool, blood, lungs, and more.

Scientific research continues to find that the microplastics problem is worse than previously thought: New research in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that microplastics are linked to increased heart attacks, strokes and premature deaths. Another study from Columbia University found that bottled water can contain hundreds of thousands of plastic fragments.

Why Chemical Recycling Isn't a Solution

Because plastics recycling is a failure, the plastics and petrochemical industries are now pushing a pseudo-solution: chemical recycling, or "advanced recycling." This is a polluting process that uses high heat or chemicals to turn plastic waste into fossil fuels or feedstocks to produce new plastic products. It's a dangerous distraction that's allowing companies to exponentially increase the amount of plastic - and greenhouse gases - they put into the world. Learn more from Beyond Plastics's report, "Chemical Recycling: A Dangerous Deception." These New York bills do not ban chemical recycling but simply do not allow chemical recycling to count as real recycling.

About Beyond Plastics

Launched in 2019, Beyond Plastics pairs the wisdom and experience of environmental policy experts with the energy and creativity of grassroots advocates to build a vibrant and effective movement to end plastic pollution. Using deep policy and advocacy expertise, Beyond Plastics is building a well-informed, effective movement seeking to achieve the institutional, economic, and societal changes needed to save our planet and ourselves, from the negative health, climate, and environmental impacts for the production, usage, and disposal of plastics.

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