Sierra Club, NJ Pushes for Stronger Plastic Packaging Legislation 

The Senate Environment and Energy Committee heard testimony from several environmental advocates, including the Sierra Club, New Jersey chapter on S426(Smith). The bill requires producers of packaging products sold in New Jersey to adopt and implement packaging product stewardship plans. Anjuli Ramos-Busot, New Jersey Director of the Sierra Club released the following statement: 

“New Jersey has been a leader when it comes to reducing plastics with our newly implemented plastic bag ban law and recycled content law. Extended Producer Responsibility otherwise known as EPR  is now the next logical step in order to reduce plastic packaging.

“States like Maine, Colorado, and Oregon have passed effective EPR legislation, and other states like California, New York, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Hawaii  have already introduced EPR legislation. S426 is a great start to develop a dynamic and effective EPR bill for NJ.

“In general, we believe an EPR Bill should provide a broad definition of Producers who are tasked with formulating new packaging designs and changes in the volume of virgin material content, and that Producers will research, create and finance changes in packaging therefore removing the rising cost of waste currently burdening municipalities.

“A strong EPR bill should incentivize producers with monetary rewards for the reduction of overall packaged materials used for increased recycled content, reduce the use of virgin materials, benefit the environment by decreasing toxins in the air and water, benefit Environmental Justice Communities burdened with a disproportionate number of incinerators and landfill areas, and will enforce reduce, reuse, recycle in a circular economy.”

“Ultimately, a strong EPR bill focuses and pushes for circularity and It transfers the responsibility for managing packaging waste to the companies that have caused the packaging waste problem, shifting this burden away from taxpayers.”