Earth Month Resolution: Solve the Hazards of Single-Use Plastics

By some estimates there are currently eight gigatons of accumulated plastic on Earth, two times as much weight of all existing animal life on our planet.

This fact should be an urgent call to action from our leaders. We cannot recycle our way out of this mess. New York State produces 6.8 million tons of packaging waste, which is 40 percent of our total waste stream.

Our state is poised to lead our nation in protecting our health and our environment by passing a strong Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure (PRRIA) bill, which is sponsored by Sen. Peter Harckham (S4246a) and Assemblywoman Deborah Glick (5322a).

The bill, which has more than a majority of co-sponsors in the legislature, would cut packaging and single-use plastics by 50 percent over 12 years and would remove 15 of the most toxic compounds found in plastics – formaldehyde, mercury, toluene, PFAS (“forever chemicals”), phthalates, bisphenol A (endocrine disruptors that interfere with our hormones) and vinyl chloride among them.

A recent Columbia University study found that on average a quarter-million nanoplastic particles are contained in one liter of plastic bottled water. Nanoplastics are breaching our blood-brain barrier, and have been discovered in patients with dementia and Parkinson’s disease. Although we need more information about the health effects of our plastic addiction, the latest research behooves us to urgently change our packaging practices and single-use consumption of plastics. This bill would be a start, making producers of our waste, rather than consumers, responsible.

We call on Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to bring the PRRIA to the floor for a vote. Its passage would be a precious Earth Day gift to us all.

Thank you,

Camilla Calhoun
Tarrytown

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