Most Plastics Still End Up in Landfills

A recent (and stunning) report by Beyond Plastics highlights how Starbucks launched a recycling program with Waste Management for its plastic cups. Touting in February, “recycling your Starbucks cold cups just got easier,”–if only this were true.

Unfortunately, less than six percent of plastic is recycled today due to the cost, complexity and difficulty to do so. A three month study tracked 53 Starbucks cups, and not a single one ended up in a recycling center. Instead, taxpayers are bearing the burden of paying to dispose of these cups in landfills and incinerators. The greatest distance was traveled by a Brooklyn cup to a landfill 463 miles away in Amsterdam, OH.

Currently NYC taxpayers fund the close to $600 million NYC is paying to dispose of its waste, of which over 40 percent is unnecessary, unrecyclable plastic that consumers never asked for. Currently, our packaging is full of toxic chemicals that travel into our food, the environment, and our bodies. (In fact, Good Morning America just aired this segment, “What” to Know about the Impact of Microplastics on the Body”).

Our state Assembly members have a strong and powerful solution of EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) legislation, The Packaging Reduction & Recycling Infrastructure Act (A1749-A/S1464) ready to pass in NY State. The bill would push and incentivize larger companies to rethink the way they package some of their products, particularly with plastic, and make them more responsible for what happens to that waste down the line.

Introduced by Westchester NYS Sen. Pete Harckham and Manhattan Assemblymember Debra Glick, the bill would also limit plastics’ harmful health impacts by banning the use of 12 highly toxic chemicals, including PFAS, bisphenols, formaldehyde, mercury, lead, and cadmium in packaging. It would also save New Yorkers $1.3 billion in 10 years by shifting the cost of dealing with wasteful, polluting single-use plastic packaging from taxpayers to the companies responsible for creating it. (this savings does NOT include the additional fees producers would start paying to offset the cost to dispose of the packaging). This is very very good for New York City and New York State.

Starbucks has given us a compelling reason to enact change with their misleading and ineffective “recycling” program. We can act now to reduce this waste that harms our health, pollutes our environment, and speeds climate change–the Legislature must pass this critical bill to put NY’s people and our planet over plastic now. It is time to let your Assembly Members and State Senators know that the amount of non recyclable single use packaging is unacceptable and that we don’t want our food packaged in toxic containers. I am urging my state representatives, Senator Kristen Gonzalez (a co-sponsor of PRRIA) and Assembly Member Keith Powers to push this bill forward and vote YES to PRRIA.

Manhattan resident Kristin Shevis is a member of the Beyond Plastics speakers’ bureau and is an active member of St. Francis Xavier church’s environmental ministry.