To the Editor:
Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposal for Extended Producer Responsibility to reduce packaging and paper has serious flaws. EPR for packaging should be part of the solution to our growing packaging waste and plastics crisis, but only if it includes requirements for reduction, recyclability, recycled content, and banning priority toxic chemicals.

Businesses can and should reduce their packaging by 50 percent in the next decade. The governor’s bill puts the companies who created the packaging mess in the driver’s seat. We would not let the fossil-fuel industry decide when and how they will reduce their deadly emissions that caused our climate crisis.

The state does not have time to watch a failed EPR system play out. Every year, up to 15 million more tons of plastic enters our oceans. People are demanding solutions to the ubiquitous problem of plastic pollution.

A recent global survey by IPSOS [Institut de Publique Sondage d’Opinion Secteur] found that 75 percent of people want single-use plastics banned.

The governor and legislature need to fully address packaging pollution with a strong EPR bill and an expansion of the bottle bill deposit law, which after 40 years of success should cover more beverages, such as alcohol bottles, and the deposit should be increased from a nickel to a dime.

Assemblymember Steve Englebright has very good proposals on both EPR and the bottle bill that should be passed during this legislative session.

Elaine Doremus

Albany