Environmental Groups Eye a Potential Win with New York Packaging Bill
New York lawmakers appear poised to pass a new packaging reduction and recycling bill that would fundamentally reshape how single-use plastic waste is managed in the state. It’s meant to take a big bite out of 20 million New Yorkers’ contributions to the global plight of pollution from single-use plastics, which constitute about 40 percent of all plastic waste.
Opinion: Can Recycling’s Problems Be Fixed?
Americans are increasingly aware that over 94 percent of the plastics they use are not recycled, because they’re not recyclable. There are too many different colors and different polymers, and thousands of different chemical additives that make it very difficult to recycle plastics. The plastics industry has known this for years, but it has plowed millions of dollars into advertising designed to deceive consumers.
Opinion: Recycling Bill Will Address New York's Plastics Pollution Problem
Opinion: Recycling Bill Will Address New York's Plastics Pollution Problem
Chemical Recycling Aims To Scale Fast in Effort To Manage Plastic Waste, Even as Questions Remain
Chemical recycling proponents are investing in major projects to scale up the technology. Yet lingering policy and business factors will affect the trajectory of this fast-developing recycling sector.
How Plastics Are Poisoning Us
Eventually, though, like Franklin-Wallis, Schaub comes to see that she’s been living a lie. Midway through her experiment, she signs up for an online course called Beyond Plastic Pollution, offered by Judith Enck, a former regional administrator for the E.P.A. Only containers labelled No. 1 (pet) and No. 2 (high-density polyethylene) get melted down with any regularity, Schaub learns, and to refashion the resulting nurdles into anything useful usually requires the addition of lots of new material. “No matter what your garbage service provider is telling you, numbers 3, 4, 6 and 7 are not getting recycled,” Schaub writes. (The italics are hers.) “Number 5 is a veeeery dubious maybe.”
New York Packaging Reduction Bill Faces Ticking Clock
New York’s long-debated and many-times-revised Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act is the center focus again, with days left to move to the Senate and Assembly before the legislative session ends. Proponents say the legislation would address an out-of-control waste problem while providing economic payoffs.
Toothpaste Tablets and Syrup on Tap: Us Refill Shops Cut the Container
At Mason & Greens in Washington, the lack of packaging is the point -- the small shop selling household goods and groceries is among dozens of zero-waste refill stores sprouting up in US cities from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. Such stores are emblematic of what experts say is a necessary culture shift in one of the world's largest consumer economies, where the average person generates 4.9 pounds of waste per day, according to government statistics.
3M, Green Groups Push Back on Hochul’s NY Waste Reduction Bill
New York business groups and environmental advocates are pushing back on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to require businesses like Amazon.com Inc., 3M Co., and Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. to reduce and pay for the disposal of paper and packaging products. Environmentalists say the plan doesn’t go far enough, and the complex issue should be handled outside of the state budget process.
Advocates Call for a 50% Reduction in Excess Packaging
Advocates for plastic waste reduction and an expanded bottle bill rallied at the Capitol Wednesday for the state to reduce excess packaging on retail items by 50% by 2033. They say a plan by Governor Kathy Hochul to reduce packaging falls short.