Enlisting Producers To Help Reduce Trash In A 'Make, Take, Toss' World

NEW YORK — More than 18 million tons of trash is generated in New York every year — municipal solid waste costing taxpayers a ton of money to have hauled to landfills and incinerators — and a third of that is due to consumer goods and their packaging.

A bill to address the issue is under consideration by state lawmakers in Albany as the session winds down.

“We need to immediately address one of the dire problems of our age: the tremendous amount of waste, much of it recyclable, that we create each day,” said bill sponsor State Sen. Pete Harckham (D-Westchester). “Right now, municipalities and taxpayers are footing practically all of the enormous costs of product packaging pollution and recycling, and that’s neither fair nor viable in the long run.”

Moreover, at least 80 percent of the material sent to landfills or combustion facilities has monetary value — either directly as material that could be used to produce goods or other beneficial uses, or indirectly through the creation of recycling sector jobs, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

The bill, known as the Waste Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, would require companies with a net annual income of over $1 million to reduce consumer packaging, improve recycling efforts of their product packaging and help update recycling infrastructure. Additionally, companies would be expected to create and/or maintain reusable and refill infrastructure, financially support municipal recycling programs and reduce the toxins in their packaging.

“We need the third leg of the stool,” DEC Deputy Commissioner Dereth Glance told Patch, pointing out that neither consumers nor local municipalities decide how products are packaged or recycled. “I don’t think it’s solely the consumer’s responsibility. The third leg is the producers. They have to help.”

It's part of the DEC's new plan available on the department's website, “New York State Solid Waste Management Plan: Building the Circular Economy Through Sustainable Materials Management,” that's a milestone in the history of the state’s efforts to rethink waste.

Per person, Long Islanders generate 4.5 lbs. of trash a day. Hudson Valley residents are a little lighter: 4.06 lbs. per person, per day.

“Reduce, reuse, recycle” is a robust supply chain, she said. However, it’s a mistake to think individual consumers can change the system. “Manufacturers have a stake in the entire life of their product.”

Now, the cost of waste management is externalized onto taxpayers.

“Producers need to take responsibility for the products they create,” Mark Lichtenstein, chief sustainability officer for the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, said in an op-ed on Syracuse.com, citing the city of Syracuse, which spends $2.9 million a year to recycle packaging and printed paper.

Then there's plastic.

“While plastic has provided tremendous benefits in our everyday lives, it comes with costs,” said Assemblyman Chris Burdick of Westchester, who is co-sponsor of a companion bill in the state Assembly. “Municipalities are bearing much of the burden on handling discarded plastic products, either through recycling those which may be recycled and handling the disposal through trash collection of those that cannot be recycled. This legislation shifts the onus of recycling from municipalities and ensures that producers of products are serving our interests by establishing solutions to sustainable packaging.”

WRRIA would establish aggressive minimum recycling rates, recovery rates, post-consumer recycled content rates, and source reduction rates for producers to achieve, as well as set forth enforcement provisions and penalties for noncompliance.

“While New Yorkers understand the importance of reducing their waste, reusing what we can and recycling, our current system is not meeting our environmental demands,” Harckham said. “Local governments continue to struggle with recycling costs and infrastructure, evidenced through increased taxes or significantly limited materials that can be collected.”

Environmental leaders say manufacturers and retailers have done it for years in Canada and Europe.

The bill’s timeline calls for producers to reduce their packaging by 10 percent of weight within three years, 20 percent by five years, 30 percent by eight years, 40 percent by 10 years and 50 percent by 12 years.

There would be specific standards for post-consumer recycled material for packaging. Glass should be at least 35 percent post-consumer recycled content, paper carry out bags should be 40 percent and plastic bags should be 20 percent.

That way, materials with value can remain within the economy and continue to provide value instead of ending up in landfills or combustors.

The bill dovetails with the state's long term goal, a “circular economy” that helps conserve natural resources, reduce energy consumption, prevent pollution, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect the health of communities and limit economic loss.

“We have to bend that curve,” Glance said. “There needs to be the right system for the right product so we can move from 'make it, take it, toss it.”

But municipal recycling rates have stagnated, she said. Take, for example, juice packs, she said. “Capri Sun packages are completely recyclable — but not in the system we have now.”

The new New York State Solid Waste Management Plan is in draft form, and the public may comment until June 14.

Following the plan, DEC experts anticipate New York will be able to divert 85 percent of its waste, Glance said. “But we need to have real policy changes to get there.”

The Solid Waste Management Plan is a roadmap focusing on reducing waste at its source, returning materials back to productive use, and diverting waste from landfills so that harmful greenhouse gas emissions will be avoided while sustaining the supply chain.

Examples of the plan's goals include, but are not limited to:

Waste Prevention, Reduction, and Reuse

• Increase opportunities for New York residents, businesses, and institutions to participate in waste prevention, reduction, and reuse; and
• Foster community resiliency by developing programs, supporting communities and organizations, and supporting proposals and initiatives that prevent and reduce waste and promote reuse.

Product Stewardship and Extended Producer Responsibility

• Promote the development and passage of EPR legislation for packaging and paper products; and
• Promote the development and passage of EPR framework legislation, as well as EPR legislation for priority products, including textiles, furniture, solar panels, wind turbine blades, and electric vehicle batteries.

Recycling and Recycling Market Development and Resiliency

• Support commercial, industrial, and institutional waste generators to improve recycling practices through education and technical assistance; and
• Support efforts in New York and the Northeast to build capacity for processing secondary material commodities collected for recycling

Organics Reduction and Recycling

• Prioritize wasted food reduction, food donation, and food scraps recycling programs and initiatives in the commercial, industrial, and institutional sectors; and
• Engage the farming and agriculture community in food donation, recycling organics waste, and using waste-derived organics products.

Design and Operation of Solid Waste Management Facilities and Related Activities

• Minimize GHG emissions from solid waste management facilities; and
• Investigate innovative means of reducing environmental impacts from solid waste management activities.

See the draft plan on DEC’s website. Comments should be sent to NYSSolidWastePlan@dec.ny.gov (using “Comments on SSWMP” in the subject line) by June 14