Most of us have pretty easy access to recycling. In fact, 97-98% of New York residents have curbside or other convenient ways to recycle. But City and county officials across New York that deal with our waste are having trouble getting the most out of recycling. The New York Association of Reduction, Reuse and Recycling, NYSAR3, also found only 15% of waste gets recycled.
“Eighty five percent is lost. And it’s not like 85 % of the material is not recyclable. There’s material there that is; we’re not doing a good enough job capturing it, said Dawn Timm, Director of Solid Waste for Niagara County. “We have the infrastructure to go after it. We just don’t have the strength as local government to do it.”
Timm was one of dozens of solid waste management officials at the NYSAR annual conference earlier this month where a big topic of conversation was a bill calling for extended producer responsibility or EPR.
Timm explains the bill would, for packaging materials, require the makers and producers of goods to pay for their disposal, “by placing an obligation on a manufacturer; they are the ones that hold the key to managing it right? They’re controlling their own destiny when it comes to the expense, that’s instilled upon them through policy.”
And these EPR’s are not new. NYSAR3 Board President Dan Lilkas-Rain says manufacturers in some product areas are on the hook for managing the eventual waste, “things like the rechargeable battery act, and we’ve got the electronics recycling EPR and the Paint Care (program). The carpet bill has passed and it’s being phased in.”
The EPR’s can be incentive for producers to change their materials or packaging to reduce the amount of waste. The laws can also persuade producers to help recycle products or package, or pay to help manage it. Either way, Lilkas-Rain says this latest bill could help over-stressed local waste agencies.
“One of the biggest things we’d like to see come out of the paper and packaging EPR is some relief for the recycling costs for our municipal members,” added Lilkas-Rain
Which identifies another problem: the cost of city and county recycling programs is often two-to-four times what the recycled goods ever return.
The paper and packaging EPR bill passed the State Senate this past session, but it never came up for a vote in the Assembly. In addition to producer responsibility on paper and other packaging, it would set plastic reduction goals and ban certain chemicals in packaging.
The measure will be reintroduced in Albany this session. It faces opposition by some industry groups, and support from environmentalists – with changes sought to improve the recycling and waste-reduction outcomes.