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New York’s Extended Producer Responsibility Bill Needs a Redo, Leaving Paper Out

The New York Daily News recently ran an editorial on Albany’s proposed extended producer responsibility (EPR) bill. We agree with the editorial, and its headline statement to New York lawmakers: “Recycle This Legislative Language."

Albany must revise a proposed bill on EPR, keeping paper out of it. This proposed bill would be a devastating blow to the paper and paper-based packaging industry in New York, which employs approximately 28,000 people with family-sustaining jobs.

EPR is a solution for harder to recycle products and hazardous materials, not paper.  

Paper has a consistently high recycling rate, meeting or exceeding 63 percent for over a decade.  

U.S. packaging and pulp producers are also committed to investing more than $4.1 billion in manufacturing infrastructure, from 2019-2023, to continue the best use of recovered fiber in our products. 

Albany’s EPR scheme is a regressive solution in search of a problem. EPR fees paid by producers would reduce capital available to support further investments in paper recycling.  

So please, toss this bill into the recycle bin. It needs a redo.

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) serves to advance public policies that foster economic growth, job creation and global competitiveness for a vital sector that makes the essential paper and packaging products Americans use every day. The U.S. forest products industry employs more than 925,000 people, largely in rural America, and is among the top 10 manufacturing sector employers in 44 states. Our industry accounts for approximately 4.7% of the total U.S. manufacturing GDP, manufacturing more than $435 billion in products annually. AF&PA member companies are significant producers and users of renewable biomass energy and are committed to making sustainable products for a sustainable future through the industry’s decades-long initiative — Better Practices, Better Planet 2030