Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer. Bar-B-Qs, picnics, vacationing, Americans will want to be outdoors. And at events large and small, in parks or backyards, Americans bring with them the foods and beverages that are easiest to transport. When it comes to beverages, coolers full of soft drinks, beer and wine are often the drinks of choice. For most, that means single use beverage containers consumed, in plastics or glass bottles, or aluminum cans. And, of course, this collection of containers requires disposal.
But where?
When it comes to single use beverage containers, some are returned to the manufacturer (for example Pepsi) to be recycled or otherwise disposed of. And many others end up dumped in landfills or incinerators at your expense.
When one examines which beverage containers are returned or which are dumped, there is really no rhyme or reason. For example, the next time you’re looking at soft drink beverages, “Mountain Dew” is likely recycled, while “Brisk Iced Tea” is not. Both are in identical plastic bottles and both are made by PepsiCo, but their disposal is handled differently.
But why? The answer is that it’s a quirk of New York law.
New York’s “Bottle Bill” is the law that requires consumers to place a nickel deposit for the purchase of a covered beverage container. That law covers carbonated beverages and water containers but does not cover anything else. So, soda and beer are in, while iced teas and sports drinks are out. Which means that the beverage companies that produce beer, soda and water are responsible for disposal of returned used containers, while taxpayers are on the hook for the disposal of everything else.
Identical containers being treated differently. It might be humorous, but it contributes to New York’s solid waste crisis. Right now, the number one place that residential trash goes to is a landfill; number two is export for disposal; number three is burning; and the last is to be recycled. To make matters worse, the state’s residential recycling rate has been dropping over the past decade. So you pay for more landfilling and burning.
The state’s capacity to tackle this problem is dwindling. According to the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), “New York’s 25 municipal solid waste landfills have a combined landfill capacity of between 16 and 25 years.” If the state’s landfills are filled to capacity in a decade or so, what will happen?
Two and a half years ago the DEC issued its “New York State Solid Waste Management Plan” to tackle that emerging problem. Among its recommendations, the DEC argued that the state should reduce or recycle its solid wastes at the rate of 85 percent and do so by embracing a “circular economy” approach, one that relies on ensuring that the producer of the waste is responsible for its fate – not the taxpayers. The plan urged action to, among other things, expand the state’s bottle deposit law and reduce packaging wastes.
So far, however, nothing has been done. The expected budget agreement is unlikely to tackle this problem and so the garbage will keep piling up – and used beverage containers will either get recycled or dumped in a landfill.
Some of us may remember the old advertising campaign to “take the Pepsi challenge,” a taste-taking competition. This summer New Yorkers should take the “Bottle Bill” challenge: Take a look at your picnic drinks and see if you can identify which are recycled through the Bottle Bill and which are dumped at taxpayers’ expense. What you’ll see are the exact same containers being treated differently.
Ask your state elected officials why.
Now well over a month late, it appears that Governor Hochul and state lawmakers are on a path to finish off the budget, which was due on April 1st. Since the final budget agreement will be the latest since 2010, the tardiness will squeeze the time available to tackle non-budget topics.
State lawmakers typically finish the official legislative session in the first half of June. This year, they are scheduled to head for the exits on June 4th. Normally, they do a lot of work after the budget is completed. After last year’s late state budget, 537 bills were approved, or nearly two-thirds of the total number of bills that passed both houses in 2025 (856 bills).
So far this year, 152 bills have passed the State Senate and Assembly. To keep on pace with last year’s bill passage productivity, the Legislature has its work cut out. And this year, lawmakers will have less time to act than last year.
With so little time to do so much work, it will be hard for the Legislature to tackle the big controversial issues – the issues that most impact New Yorkers. However, there is one big issue that they are most surely going to take on – redistricting.
You heard that right, the once-in-a-decade, right after the census, redrawing of political boundaries. The Democrat majorities in both houses will accelerate the timetable for the redrawing of Congressional lines. It is widely expected that both houses will advance first passage of a state Constitutional amendment allowing a mid-decade change. They will then move second passagehave during the 2027 legislative session and could it ready for voter consideration in a November 2027 referendum.
Why the urgency? New York is a “blue state,” meaning controlled by Democrats. Democrats across the country are scrambling to redraw Congressional boundaries in reaction to President Trump and Republicans in “red states” rush to redraw Congressional lines in those states. This mid-decade effort was triggered by President Trump’s maneuvers to enhance the political prospects for Republicans to hold the majority in the House of Representatives.
Those efforts will help boost the electoral prospects of a Republican razor-thin majority, a majority surely in trouble given the widespread public unpopularity of the President and the historical trend that the party in power loses House seats in the mid-term election.
Thus, in New York, the Democrats’ legislative majorities are trying to do what they can to bolster Democrat ballot box success, but given the state’s Constitution, their moves can only impact the 2028 election. A state Constitutional amendment has been advanced to allow for a mid-decade redistricting process to be triggered if another state makes such a move. Which has happened.
There is a case to be made to change New York’s redistricting process. The current system is a mess and some reformers opposed the creation of the current system when then-Governor Cuomo advocated for it in 2014. The key problem is that the current system relies on the two major political parties to agree on the new boundaries, which is – and has been – a recipe for gridlock.
If changes are to be made, they should fix redistricting in this state by removing the political parties from mapmaking and set boundaries that focus on the best interests of the public, not partisan schemes. If that move also allows New York’s process to begin mid-decade, so be it. At least New York would have a fair system.
New York will hear a lot of cries of foul by the state’s Republican lawmakers, both Congressional and legislative. Remember, however, that none did anything meaningful to stop the actions of President Trump in the first place. The New York Republican Congressional delegation had a lot of leverage given their razor-thin majority but did not use it to stop the President.
A nationwide solution is needed. The Congress should immediately take up legislation to stop gerrymandering. Let’s have elections in districts that are about communities and who they want to represent them, not rigged elections in which the dominant political party picks the winner by having decided who will be voting in each district.
