The Business Council of New York State, Inc., on Tuesday, delivered a legislative memo in support of the "Affordable Waste Reduction Act" (S.5062 (Martinez)/A.6191 (Jackson)) on behalf of nearly 40 businesses and business associations from across the state, as well as various national groups. The supporting groups have all worked on expanded producer responsibility (EPR) legislation in multiple states.
Modeled on recently adopted Minnesota legislation and informed by programs adopted in other states, this legislation creates a workable approach to increasing the recycling of post-consumer packaging and paper products, diverting materials from disposal, and promoting the reduction and reuse of products, resulting in significant environmental benefits to New York State.
"Many businesses and trade associations support concepts of an enhanced producer responsibility bill. However, we insist that any state-level program is well designed, implementable, and affordable," said Ken Pokalsky, Business Council Vice President of Government Affairs. "We see the 'Affordable Waste Reduction Act' (AWRA) as meeting our key criteria for defining a workable program."
Benefits of the AWRA bill include a focus on improving recycling, a materials- and technology-neutral approach, and a central role for producers in setting up and implementing the program. The bill also requires that producers, working through a state-approved producer responsibility organization, assume most of the costs of collecting and processing post-consumer materials, providing cost relief to municipalities and homeowners.
The Business Council continues to add supporters to the AWRA advocacy efforts and will periodically issue updated memos listing additional supporters.
"Talking to legislators over the past several sessions, we continued to hear that they wanted to consider an alternative to earlier EPR proposals. We applaud Senator Martinez and Assemblywoman Jackson for taking the lead in advancing this new approach," Pokalsky said. "Despite some recent amendments, business continues to see other proposals costly and overly restrictive, going well beyond EPR laws in other states."
Pokalsky added that there continues to be broad business opposition to S.1464 (Harckham)/A.1749 (Glick), an EPR bill that was first proposed in 2023.