Beyond Plastics Sullivan County 

Callicoon

To the editor:

If scientists were to expose populations to a host of different chemicals without their consent, it would be considered extremely unethical. Yet that is what is happening to all of us every day of our lives, starting even before we are born. 

That’s because we are surrounded by plastic. The amount of plastic we’ve made in the past 70 years now outweighs all animals on Earth. 

And plastics are not inert. The chemicals that give different plastics their various attributes, such as rigidity, flexibility and softness, are not tightly bound to the resin at a molecular level, so they leach readily. Disorders that are on the rise —ADHD, autism, cancer, diabetes, fertility issues, obesity, thyroid disease and more — have all been linked to chemicals that leach from plastic. 

A bill currently before the NY state legislature aims to reverse this trend. The Packaging Reduction & Recycling Infrastructure Act (A5322/S4246) would get known toxins out of plastic packaging, which constitutes 40 percent of the plastic produced today. The bill would also reduce the amount of packaging by half over 12 years. 

Critically, it would also prohibit technologies like advanced, chemical or polymer-to-polymer recycling, which require vast amounts of energy, release pollutants and perpetuate plastics production. 

A companion bill, the Bigger Better Bottle Bill (A6353/S237) would expand the state’s 40-year-old beverage deposit law to cover more containers. It would also increase the deposit amount for the first time ever, from five cents to 10. 

The legislature needs to pass these bills before they adjourn for the year on June 8. The plastics crisis can’t wait.