A coalition of some 300 environmental and civic groups is using Black History Month to highlight a discrimination aspect in the fight to reduce the use of plastics. Beyond Plastics released a map showing most of the landfills and garbage incinerators in the state are located within or adjacent to disadvantaged areas or communities of color.
The fight for a law to make a dent in the mountains of plastic waste produced in New York has been going on for years. But the impacts the entire plastics business has on communities of color is being called an environmental justice problem.
Alexis Goldsmith, organizing director with Beyond Plastics, explained the manufacturing process for plastic film and bags uses ethane, “which is a fracked gas. And fracking has immense impacts on the planet, on water quality, on environmental justice communities. Where the gas is produced into plastic, … petrochemical facilities have massive impacts on the communities where they are located, massive amounts of emissions.”
Those emissions have been linked to respiratory problems, such as asthma in children and inhibited brain development. The environmental concerns include the spread of microplastics, which make their way into soil and even food.
"Black, Indigenous, and Brown folks in communities like mine all across New York have to breathe and drink toxic pollution from incinerators and landfills,” said Monique Fitzgerald, co-founder, Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group. "We are fighting for our lives. The only way to help communities like mine is to reduce waste and ban toxic chemicals in plastic, so that we can stop exporting and burning our waste."
The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (PRRIA - S1464 Harckham/A1749 Glick) would force companies to clean up the processes and ban certain harmful chemicals in plastic. “The science is definitely clear that we are ingesting microplastics and toxic chemicals from our packaging,” said Goldsmith. Who added that the threats go on to impact “the climate, water quality, public health, wildlife, you name it. Plastics are warming the planet four times faster than the global aviation industry. So they're having an immense impact on the climate.”
If the measure passes and is signed into law, Goldsmith expects people might also see benefits in their tax bills.
“Now the other thing this bill does is it will save taxpayers millions of dollars a year because it will place a fee on packaging that the companies will have to pay. And the point of the fee is to reimburse municipalities for what they're paying to collect, transport, sort, recycle, landfill, and incinerate packaging waste,” said Goldsmith.
But the ultimate goal of the measure is a reduction of the amount of plastics used, and thrown away. The bill also incentivizes better recycling of packaging materials.
The PRRIA has passed the State Senate twice and is about to be taken up by the assembly.
