lot<\/em> of room to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhile the trash picture is lousy, it is getting worse. One of the major destinations for the nation\u2019s plastic trash had been China. That all changed in 2018, when China put an end to importing the world’s waste. The policy, called National Sword, has created a serious trash problem in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now the question is: Where is the nation\u2019s trash going to go?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her State of the State address this year, Governor Hochul advanced a plan. She called for the establishment of an \u201cExtender Producer Responsibility program\u201d (EPR), which she said would require \u201cproducers, not taxpayers, to cover the cost of recycling.\u201d The governor looked at the waste issue through the prism of climate change and pointed out that the waste industry accounts for about 12% of the state\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EPR is the environmental principle that focuses on the entire lifecycle<\/em> of impacts resulting from a product \u2013 including its packaging. EPR makes the producer of a product responsible for the waste generated from the extraction of raw materials to the production and distribution of the product, to when the product is discarded.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGovernor Hochul did advance an EPR plan, but it went nowhere in the Legislature since it relied too heavily on industry to self-regulate<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe governor also ignored New York\u2019s best EPR program \u2013 its Bottle Deposit Law. That 40-year-old law requires consumers of certain beverage containers (by and large carbonated beverages and drinking water) to pay a nickel deposit. When the consumer returns the empty container to the retailer, the consumer redeems their nickel deposit. It\u2019s worked well over the decades with about two-thirds<\/em> of covered containers being redeemed \u2013 a far better performance than the state\u2019s anemic recycling rate. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe nation\u2019s \u2013 and the state\u2019s \u2013 solid waste problem, however, isn\u2019t going anywhere. Dumping the waste in landfills threatens drinking water supplies and fouls the land; burning the trash increases air pollution, creates toxic ash and contributes to global warming; sending it somewhere else doesn\u2019t work anymore \u2013 who wants it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, New York and the nation should look toward developing a \u201ccircular economy.\u201d A circular economy is based on three principles: (1) Eliminate waste and pollution; (2) Circulate products and materials (at their highest value) through reuse and recycling; and (3) Regenerate nature, which is the product of the first two principles. A key component to any EPR program is a firm statutory goal, such as reducing packaging waste by 50% over a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to developing a system in which \u201cproducers, not taxpayers\u201d are on the hook for the costs of dealing with packaging waste, New York lawmakers should build upon an existing successful program \u2013 its Bottle Deposit law \u2013 by expanding it to include all alcohol and non-carbonated beverage containers. And they should establish a strong EPR program to further reduce non-beverage container packaging wastes. The mounting solid waste crisis is not going away, and lawmakers must quickly move to address it when they return to Albany in January. Smart solid waste policy will save money, improve the environment and advance its climate goals. There is no time to waste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Americans generate a lot of trash. According to the EPA, in 2018 the United States produced nearly 300 million tons of waste. \u00a0Unfortunately, most of that waste ends up in the nation\u2019s landfills.\u00a0 Americans recycled or composted 93 million tons for a nationwide recycling rate of only 32%. And the U.S. ranks quite low when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2799,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798\/revisions\/2799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}