NJBIA Opposes Problematic Packaging Stewardship Bill Today
February 10, 2025, 8:10 am | in
NJBIA Opposes Problematic Packaging Stewardship Bill Today
NJBIA remains opposed to a controversial bill which requires producers of packaging products, and manufacturers that use these products, to implement stewardship plans aimed at reducing the amount of packaging disposed in landfills.
NJBIA Deputy Chief Government Affairs Officer Ray Cantor said the Packaging Product Stewardship Act is overly burdensome and impractical.
The bill is scheduled for a vote in the Senate Environment and Energy Committee today, after being postponed for votes in December and January.
“While we have been working with the sponsor to make the bill something that is workable and that the business community can support, the bill remains far off from something we could support or even get to neutral on,” Cantor said.
“The legislation still sets unrealistic and costly packaging reductions, while also ignoring 40 years of systems that have made New Jersey one of the most successful recycling states in the nation.
“In short, this bill would upend those successful local recycling programs, while failing to replace them with something that can actually work to enhance recycling.”
The legislation would require certain manufacturers and distributors of products that utilize packaging to adopt and implement plans to decrease the amount of packaging that is disposed of as solid waste, and to pay an annual surcharge to the state, the proceeds of which would be used to improve the state’s recycling system.
The bill, in its definition of "recycling,” also excludes any chemical conversion process, which could effectively create a ban of the advanced recycling of plastics.
“The bill does not count advanced recycling toward recycling mandates and reductions in packaging,.” Cantor said. “By eliminating any incentive to use advanced recycling, it’s discounting the most promising new technology to recycle materials that currently are thrown away.”
Cantor also said the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection would not have the capacity to manage or enforce any recycling stewardship plan, which the bill calls for.
NJBIA, however, is supporting bill S-3815 (Gopal, D-11) today, which directs DEP to select a consultant to perform a statewide needs assessment regarding recycling of packaging products.
“Before you can change a complex system it only makes sense to study that system, understand its strengths and weaknesses, and determine what is needed to improve it,” said Cantor.
The bill also establishes a "Statewide Recycling Needs Assessment Advisory Council" in DEP.
