Nearly 150 amendments to New York’s Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act landed this week, narrowing the gap between the bill and packaging EPR frameworks already operating in other states.
State Sen. Pete Harckham and Assemblymember Deborah Glick are backing the changes, which follow stakeholder engagement and research into EPR best practices across the country. Input came from industry, municipalities, recyclers, materials manufacturers and advocacy groups.
“Through a long and engaged dialogue with stakeholders, we have forged a middle ground with these amendments to our bill,” Harckham said, adding that the legislators are now focused on securing the legislative and executive approvals needed to advance the measure.
The amended bill, SS1464A / A1749A, draws on definitions and policy frameworks from Minnesota and California, extends implementation and compliance timelines and updates post-consumer recycled content requirements to allow greater flexibility while maintaining domestic labor and industry standards.
Five substances have been removed from the toxics provisions, and the Toxic Packaging Task Force has been eliminated. The amendments also scrap the Inspector General role, consolidating enforcement authority within the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Attorney General’s Office.
Regional material mandates are out. In their place, the bill adopts Minnesota’s “responsible end markets” framework, which Harckham and Glick say gives producers clearer statewide compliance pathways. Waiver durations have been extended from one year to five.
The scope of the bill’s obligations remains intact. Producers with more than $5 million in annual net revenue and responsible for more than two tons of annual packaging waste would be required to reduce packaging 10% within three years and 30% within 12 years.
“They maintain strong protections, reduce the burden on local governments and provide the consistency with other states needed to allow industry to comply,” Glick said.
The underlying urgency, she noted, hasn’t shifted. Nearly all remaining in-state landfill capacity is expected to be exhausted within 15 years, leaving municipalities to absorb rising costs for collection, sorting and processing as waste export and incineration remain the default alternatives.
“The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act is a real solution that must be passed this year,” Glick said.
