Senate panel advances plastic-waste reduction bill
A bill that would vastly reduce plastic waste in New Jersey won narrow support from lawmakers amid criticism from business groups and praise from environmentalists.
The legislation, S-3398, was approved Feb. 10 by a 3-2 vote in the Senate Environment and Energy Committee, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed..
The bill would require manufacturers to reduce by half the use of single-use plastic packaging, a standby in the food and beverage industry. It would include items such as cups, bottles, and cutlery.
By 2034, all such packaging would have to be compostable or recyclable. The bill also would require that packaging be free of formaldehyde and lead, both with toxic effects on human and animal nervous systems. It also would mandate an industry surcharge to fund recycling programs.
In New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy, citing pollution and health concerns, banned single-use plastic bags in 2022 and mandated that plastic straws be available by request only starting in 2021.
A University of New Mexico study last month found that human cadaver brains contained 50% more microscopic plastic particles than brains sampled eight years earlier. The University of New Mexico report, published in the journal “Nature Medicine,” found potential evidence linking plastic to dementia and other ills. The researchers said the higher concentration of particles in human brains coincided with a rise in plastic pollution.
“If you would take the time to go to your nearest hospital and have a blood test done, you’re part plastic,” Senator Bob Smith, a Democrat from Piscataway who sponsored the bill, said at a news conference after the vote. “We now have medical studies saying that microplastics are reaching the brain barrier, getting inside the human brain.”
Critics said such a law would compromise food safety and drive up consumer prices to cover alternative packaging costs. Andy Hackman, a lobbyist who represented the Flexible Packaging Association and Ameripen, both with ties to manufacturers, said the bill contained a problematic phrase – the “incidental presence” of chemicals in packaging, without fine details.
“Formaldehyde is naturally occurring in trees and wood – therefore, paper – therefore, materials that we’re using and would be limited in the packaging space,” Hackman told the panel. Steel and aluminum, which are widely recycled, have the potential to be outlawed as packaging because of the bill’s lack of specificity, he said.
Environmentalists said the bill is a crucial step toward stemming plastics at their source. “The Packaging Product Stewardship Act is a part of achieving a reduction in physical and environmental harm, as I said, related to an overproduction of plastic and the related pollution in our landfills, waterways and particularly our incinerators,” Brooke Helmick, policy director of the New Jersey Environmental Alliance, said at a news conference.
This article is written by Madison Miller courtesy of the Statehouse News Service
