TRENTON, NJ– New Jersey is committed to drastically reducing the amount of packaging material – especially plastic – that is thrown away after the package is opened.
From bubble wrap to puffy, air-filled plastic bags to those foam peanuts that seem to immediately spill all over the floor, much of what keeps items safe in transit often ends up in landfills or as pollution into the environment.
A bill set to be debated in the state Legislature Thursday would require all such materials used in the state to be recyclable or compostable by 2034. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says containers and packaging materials from shopping approx 28% of municipal waste sent to landfills in the US
The New Jersey bill seeks to phase out plastics and imposes fees on manufacturers and distributors into a $120 million fund to encourage recycling and reduce solid waste.
According to the environmental group Beyond Plastics, California, Colorado, Oregon, Maine and Minnesota have already passed similar bills.
New Jersey’s bill, as proposed, would be the strongest in the country, according to Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey.
“Our waterways are literally swimming in plastic,” he said. “We cannot recycle our way out of this crisis.”
Peter Blair, director of policy and advocacy at environmental group Just Zero, said the bill aims to shift the financial responsibility for dealing with the end-of-life of plastic packaging from taxpayers, who pay to send it to landfills to be sent to the producers of the material.
Business groups oppose the legislation.
Ray Cantor, an official with the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, said companies are continually working to reduce the amount of packaging they use and increase the amount of recyclables they use. He called the bill ‘unrealistic’ and ‘not workable’.
“It completely ignores the 40 years of work and systems that have made New Jersey one of the most successful recycling states in the country,” he said. “It bans a large number of chemicals without any scientific basis. And it would ban advanced recycling of plastics, the most promising new technology for recycling materials currently thrown away.”
His organization defined advanced recycling as “the use of high temperatures and pressure to break down the chemicals in plastics and convert them back to their base chemicals, allowing them to be reused to make new plastics as if they were new materials.”
Brooke Helmick, policy director for the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, said advanced recycling can be “very, very dangerous.” It can lead to the release of toxic chemicals, cause fires, create the risk of chemical spills and create large amounts of hazardous materials, including benzene, which are then burned, she said.
The bill would require the state Department of Environmental Protection to study the state’s recycling market and calculate the cost of upgrading it to handle increased recycling of packaging materials.
It would require a 25% reduction in the amount of single-use packaging products used in the state by 2032, with at least 10% of that coming from the shift to reusable products or eliminating plastic components.
By 2034, all packaging products used in the state should be compostable or recyclable, and by 2036, New Jersey’s packaging product recycling rate should be at least 65%.
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