TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey wants to significantly cut down on the quantity of packing materials, especially plastic, that are discarded once a box is opened.
Many of the materials used to keep things secure during shipping—such as bubble wrap, air-filled plastic pockets, and those foam peanuts that appear to fall all over the floor at once—end up in landfills or polluting the environment.
By 2034, all such materials used in the state will have to be recyclable or compostable, according to a bill that the state Legislature will consider on Thursday. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, over 28% of municipal garbage that is dumped in landfills in the United States is made up of shopping containers and packing materials.
The New Jersey bill aims to minimize the use of plastics and charges producers and distributors to contribute to a $120 million fund that will support recycling and cut down on solid waste.
The environmental group Beyond Plastics claims that identical legislation has previously been approved in California, Colorado, Oregon, Maine, and Minnesota.
According to Doug O. Malley, director of Environment New Jersey, the proposed measure from New Jersey would be the toughest in the country.
He claimed that plastics are practically swimming in our waterways. Recycling alone won’t solve this problem.
The measure intends to transfer financial responsibility for handling the end-of-life of plastic packaging from taxpayers, who pay to have it dumped in landfills, to the manufacturers of the material, according to Peter Blair, policy and advocacy director of the environmental group Just Zero.
The law is opposed by business groups.
Businesses are continuously trying to use less packing materials and more recyclables, according to Ray Cantor, a representative of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association. He referred to the bill as impractical and unreasonable.
According to him, it completely disregards the procedures and 40 years of effort that have made New Jersey one of the most prosperous recycling states in the country. Numerous substances are prohibited without any scientific justification. Additionally, the most promising new technology for recycling materials that are currently thrown away—the improved recycling of plastics—would be prohibited.
According to his group, sophisticated recycling involves employing high pressure and temperatures to break down plastics’ compounds and return them to their base forms, which enables them to be utilized again to create new plastics much like virgin materials would.
Advanced recycling can be extremely risky, according to Brooke Helmick, policy director for the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance. According to her, it can result in the discharge of harmful substances, fires, the possibility of chemical spills, and the production of substantial amounts of dangerous substances, such as benzene, which are then burned.
In order to manage the increased recycling of packaging materials, the bill would mandate that the state Department of Environmental Protection do an analysis of the state’s recycling market and determine the cost of improving it.
It would mandate a 25% reduction in the state’s usage of single-use packaging products by 2032, with at least 10% of that reduction coming from switching to reusable items or getting rid of plastic components.
All packaging materials used in the state would need to be recyclable or compostable by 2034, and by 2036, New Jersey’s packaging product recycling rate would need to be at least 65%.
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