Dear Mr. Speaker: Call for a Vote on the Packaging Reduction & Recycling Infrastructure Act A1749
The Honorable Carl Heastie, Speaker of the NY State Assembly
Add your name to the letter to New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to schedule a vote!
Right now, most products come in massive amounts of packaging — much of it single-use plastic. Although New Yorkers have no control over how much single-use packaging is pumped into the market by companies, we are the ones footing the bill to deal with all that packaging waste, most of which ends up being landfilled or incinerated and some of which ends up as harmful pollution in our waterways, where it can kill wildlife, break into tiny microplastics that infiltrate our food chain, and leach toxic chemicals.
That's why we must pass the Packaging Reduction & Recycling Infrastructure Act (PRRIA) a critical bill to protect human health, reduce plastic packaging waste, save taxpayer dollars, protect environmental justice communities, and more.
PRRIA would:
- Require large companies to reduce their single-use packaging by 30% over 12 years and make 75% of the remaining packaging either reusable or truly recyclable.
- Shift the burden of paying for dealing with packaging waste from taxpayers to the companies who create the packaging in the first place, saving taxpayer dollars.
- Ban 17 of the most toxic chemicals and substances from use in packaging, including poisonous heavy metals like lead and cadmium, "forever chemicals" like PFAS, endocrine disruptors like BPA and BPS, and carcinogens like vinyl chloride.
- Prevent polluting incineration and so-called "chemical recycling" -- a false solution to the plastics crisis that's being pushed by the plastics and packaging industries -- from counting as recycling.
- Help meet the goals in the state's landmark climate law.
This critical, popular, commonsense bill has passed out of the NY State Senate for the past two years and has also cleared all the committee hurdles in the Assembly where it has a majority of co-sponsors. All that is left to do to pass it is for Speaker Heastie to schedule it for a floor vote in the Assembly.
Please sign the open letter urging Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to schedule a vote on PRRIA without delay.
Our goal is to gather 10,000 signatures by Earth Day, April 22 when we'll deliver this letter to Speaker Heastie.
Sponsored by
To:
The Honorable Carl Heastie, Speaker of the NY State Assembly
From:
[Your Name]
April 22, 2026
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie
Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12248
Dear Mr. Speaker,
We urge you to bring the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, Assembly bill 1749, to the Assembly floor for a vote.
This is a transformational bill that will save tax dollars, protect our health and our environment. It has passed the Senate two years in a row and is now on the Assembly floor, calendar number 68.
This legislation would take critical steps toward solving New York’s solid waste crisis by:
- Requiring companies to reduce their single-use packaging by 30%
- Ensuring that the remaining packaging is either reusable or truly recyclable
- Ensuring that incineration and “chemical recycling” are not considered recycling
- Phasing out 17 of the most toxic chemicals and substances from being used in packaging, including PFAS, bisphenols, and heavy metals
- Shifting the financial responsibility for dealing with packaging waste from taxpayers to the large companies releasing the packaging into the market
New York has 10 polluting garbage incinerators and twenty-five municipal solid waste landfills, with many slated to close in the next few years. Other than this bill, there are not comprehensive proposals to REDUCE the amount and the toxicity of waste produced in New York.
Residents of low-income communities and communities of color are harmed the most by single-use packaging. They suffer from air pollution, toxic landfill leachate, high asthma rates, reduced property values, and an overall diminished quality of life. Packaging releases toxic microplastics into our food, increasing the public health risk for stroke, heart attack, infertility, cancer, dementia, and early death.
While the companies producing this packaging are creating these expensive negative impacts, they are not being held accountable for the associated costs. Instead, taxpayers and local governments are paying the price for plastic packaging.
New Yorkers deserve a packaging system that protects our communities, safeguards public health, and reduces plastic pollution at its source. We urge you to bring the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Act (Assembly Bill A1749) to a vote as soon as possible.
Thank you for your consideration.