Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I’m a high school student concerned about the growing presence of litter, particularly plastic waste, in Rockland County. As a Keep Rockland Beautiful litter clean-up volunteer, I can attest to the astounding number of garbage bags filled in a short period containing single-use plastic water bottles, to-go food containers and bags. 

New York faces a growing plastic pollution crisis. We produce 6.8 million tons of packaging waste each year. Most of this packaging is sent to landfills, burned in incinerators or becomes litter in our streets, parks and waterways. Plastic waste harms our health, pollutes our environment and speeds climate change. Less than 6% of all U.S. plastic is actually recycled as new plastic is so much cheaper to produce than processing used plastic. 

To do something about plastic pollution, I joined Beyond Plastics Rockland. Several Rockland citizens, including Rockland youth, are advocating for the NY Assembly to pass The Packaging Reduction & Recycling Infrastructure Act (A1749/S1464), or PRRIA, which would shift the burden of reducing plastic packaging waste from consumers to the companies that sell their products in plastic containers. 

PRRIA would require major companies to cut plastic packaging by 30% over 12 years. The bill would also limit plastics’ harmful health impacts by banning the use of 17 highly toxic chemicals, including PFAs, bisphenols, formaldehyde, mercury, lead and cadmium in packaging. It would save New Yorkers $1.3 billion in 10 years by shifting the cost of managing this wasteful, polluting single-use plastic packaging from taxpayers to the companies responsible for creating it. 

I write to invite Rockland County Times readers to get involved with the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act by attending the People Over Plastic Rally and Advocacy Day in Albany from 10 am-4 pm on Monday, February 9. Free bus service is available from Tarrytown. Contact Beyond Plastics Rockland Co-chair Laura Graves at lauragraves@earthlink.net to join our group. And, check out Instagram page to learn more about our monthly meetings. The Legislature must pass this important bill to put NY’s people and our planet over plastic now. 

Sincerely, 

Josie Brooks