The only Federal legislation passed to date to regulate plastic pollution has its roots in Western New York. The Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 was passed after groundbreaking research led by then-SUNY Fredonia professor Dr. Sherri Mason. Her team’s research in the Great Lakes found the first documented evidence of microplastics in fresh water, with a large proportion of microbeads (plastic beads added to cosmetics and other products as scrubbing agents) included in their collections.
Future Federal regulations on plastic are unlikely with the current administration. Proposals, like the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, include everything that could possibly reduce plastic pollution, making it difficult to gather a majority of support in Congress. This is why it is important for NY State to take action first!
There are three bills to reduce and regulate plastics that need your support:
Packaging Reduction & Recycling Infrastructure Act (2024 bill numbers S4246-D (Harckham)/A5322-D (Glick)) – the bill would require companies selling, offering for sale, or distributing covered packaging materials and products to reduce consumer packaging, improve recycling and recycling infrastructure, including supporting reusable and refill infrastructure, financially support municipal recycling programs, reduce toxins in packaging and require producers of products to bear the onus for end of life solutions to product packaging.
Expansion of the NYS Container Deposit Law aka The Bigger Better Bottle Bill (2024 bill numbers S237-C (May)/A6353-A (Glick)) – the bill would update the state’s most successful action to control pollution. Two key provisions would be to adjust the deposit to account for 40 years of inflation and to include beverage types like sports drinks and bottled teas and coffees that didn’t exist when the original Bottle Bill was passed in 1982.
- Restrictions/Bans on Single Use Plastic Utensils – State legislation included the NY Plastic Free Act (2024 bill number S7345 (Parker)), which would ban the purchase of certain single-use plastics by all agencies and departments fully or partially funded by the State of New York. Expect to see a proposal in 2025 State Legislature to mirror a New York City Skip the Stuff law. The law, enacted in 2023, requires consumers to ask for plastic utensils and condiments, eliminating the mountains of unwanted extras at the bottom of takeout orders.