It's time to get the “Packaging Product Stewardship Act" (Senate Bill 3398, Assembly bill 5009) passed.

When you buy products at a store or online, they come with massive amounts of packaging — much of it single-use plastics. New Jersey residents have no control over how much single-use packaging is pumped into the market by companies, yet we have to pay to manage all that packaging waste — or, the waste becomes unsightly pollution in our waterways, where it can choke wildlife, break up into tiny microplastics, and leach toxic chemicals.

The Packaging Packaging Product Stewardship Act (S3398/A5009), introduced by Senator Bob Smith and Assemblymember Alixon Collazos-Gill , would require companies to:

• Reduce their packaging by 50% phased in over 10 years.
• Make the remaining packaging truly reusable or recyclable.
• Ban 17 of the most toxic chemicals used in packaging including PFAS, lead, mercury and vinyl chloride toxic chemicals out of packaging.
• Save tax dollars by having big companies like Amazon and McDonalds pay for dealing with packaging disposal and not taxpayers.

The bill would also prohibit incineration and "chemical recycling" (waste-derived fuels) from counting as recycling.

Why this bill is important:

Single-use packaging pollutes environmental justice communities where plastic is made and where waste that cannot be recycled is landfilled, incinerated, or dumped. New Jersey has 4 incinerators and 12 landfills that largely burden low-income and communities of color.

Single-use packaging harms people and our planet from manufacturing through disposal. New Jersey must use this critical opportunity to pass the Packaging Product Stewardship Act.