NYC Leaders Call for the State Legislature to Pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act

NEW YORK, NY (05/14/2026) (readMedia)-- This Friday, New York City Sanitation Commissioner Gregory Anderson, along with city and state elected officials and advocates, will hold a news conference at Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport, along the East River where barges haul away city trash. The group will urge the New York state legislature to pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (PRRIA - S1464A Harckham/A1749A Glick).

Since the closure of the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island in 2001, city taxpayers have spent billions of dollars exporting waste outside the city. Last year, taxpayers spent approximately half a billion dollars trucking New York City waste to landfills in the Finger Lakes; a trash incinerator in an environmental justice community in Newark, New Jersey; and to other states. 30% of this waste is single-use packaging. But by reducing the amount of waste and requiring large companies - rather than taxpayers - to be financially responsible for waste disposal, this one bill will save New York City taxpayers $380 million every year.

**This event will be livestreamed**

Visuals for television will include examples of unnecessary wasteful plastic packaging.