Re: Support Reducing Single Use Plastics, Make Producers Responsible for their Packaging, Modernize New York’s Returnable Container Act (“Bottle Bill”) Which Would Increase Redemption Rates, Reduce Litter, Help Reduce Solid Wastes, and Protect Jobs & Businesses

Dear Governor Hochul,

We the undersigned individuals urge you to make it one of your policy priorities to reduce the amount of trash that ends up in landfills and incinerators.  Single-use plastic waste, declining recycling rates and pollution that has devastating effects on our environment and public health have no place in New York. According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Americans now generate twice as much waste as they did 50 years ago. Micro plastics have been found in human tissue, and it’s estimated that plastic will outweigh fish in our oceans by 2050. If we do not act now our communities, waterways, and even our bodies will be overrun by plastics Last year, in their “New York State Solid Waste Management Plan: Building the Circular Economy Through Sustainable Materials Management” the DEC included BOTH the modernization of New York’s Bottle Bill and enacting the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act as solutions to New York's plastic waste crisis.

We urge your support for this important environmental and economic justice initiatives. Curbing packaging waste (S.4246-D/A.5322-D of the 2024 legislative session) and modernizing the bottle bill (S.237-C/A.6353-A of the 2024 legislative session) must be among your top priorities for the 2025 session.  In doing so, you will bolster the state’s efforts to reduce trash waste, extent the life of current waste disposals systems, help clean up litter, enhance recycling, and create jobs.