On Monday, February 9, please join us in Albany to help pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act in the state Assembly. This landmark waste reduction bill will address the largest stream of waste going to landfills and incinerators: single-use packaging. It will make packaging safer by getting toxic chemicals out, make big brands pay to clean up their trash, and invest in robust and equitable reuse and recycling infrastructure. And, it will reduce emissions by addressing wasteful single-use plastics that are made of oil and gas!​

• During this event, participants will be put in meetings with their legislators, but no prior experience is necessary.
• There will be a briefing on the event that covers the bill, talking points, and the legislative process. RSVP to get the briefing link
• Free buses from Suffolk, Nassau, Manhattan, Bronx, Westchester, and New Paltz! We may add a shuttle from Western NY if there is enough interest.
• Coffee, tea, snacks will be provided and a delicious lunch catered by Honest Weight Food Co-op
• There will also be a rally with news media to amplify the environmental justice imperative of this bill

More details on the RSVP page – please click the link to RSVP now.

The plastics and beverage industries are dead set against Packaging Reduction and are roaming the halls of the state Capitol in Albany, pressuring your legislators to reject this key bill to address plastic pollution, toxic chemicals in packaging, and solid waste.

We must demonstrate massive grassroots support to counter these well-paid industry lobbyists and get this bill passed.

Right now when you buy products at a store or online, they come with lots and lots of packaging — much of it single-use plastic. Although New Yorkers have no control over how much single-use packaging is pumped into the market by companies, we still foot the bill for dealing with it once it’s thrown away. Packaging waste also becomes unsightly pollution in our waterways, parks, gutters, and roadsides, where it harms wildlife, breaks into tiny microplastics, and leaches toxic chemicals.

But the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (A1749/S1464) pending in the New York Legislature could change all that. It would require companies to:

• Reduce their plastic packaging by 30% in 12 years.
• Make the remaining packaging truly reusable or recyclable.
• Ban the most toxic chemicals currently used in packaging.
• Pay to clean up their packaging waste by reimbursing municipalities and taxpayers for the collection and processing of those materials.
• Prohibit incineration and so-called “chemical recycling” from counting as recycling.

Please RSVP today to join us in Albany on February 9.

For more information or if you have any questions, please contact Alexis Goldsmith at Beyond Plastics at alexisgoldsmith@bennington.edu.
Thank you for being part of the solution to the plastic pollution crisis.

With generous support from Surfrider and other organizational partners, we’re able to offer 2 free buses with stops in Long Island, Manhattan, Bronx, Westchester, and New Paltz. Each bus can seat 57 people. These advocacy days are fun and well attended – and we’re hoping that we can empower more people from the Bronx and Long Island to attend, especially those affected by the environmental justice issues of waste transport, burning, and landfilling.

Can you help us spread the word to fill the Long Island & Bronx bus seats? The bus will pick up passengers here:

• Suffolk: 525 Wicks Rd, Brentwood at 7am
• Nassau: 500 Searingtown Rd, Roslyn (Christopher Morley Park) approx. 7:30 am
• Bronx: Lehman College Gate 8 approx. 8:15 am