New Jersey Environmental Groups Call for Passage of State Plastics Reduction Bill

Urgent Need for Bill’s Passage to Save Tax Dollars,

Protect Public Health and New Jersey’s Environment

For Immediate Release: February 10, 2025 [Beyond Plastics]

Contacts:

Judith Enck, Beyond Plastics — judithenck@bennington.edu, (518) 605-1770
Doug O’Malley, Environment New Jersey — domalley@environmentnewjersey.org, (917)-449-6812
Brooke Helmick, New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance — brooke@njeja.org, (909) 919-4318

TRENTON, New Jersey — Leading environmental groups held a news conference at the New Jersey State Capital in Trenton, New Jersey, urging the state legislature to pass the Packaging Product Stewardship Act (S3398/ A5009), introduced by Senator Bob Smith and Assemblywoman Alixon Collazos-Gill. The news conference immediately followed a New Jersey Senate Environment and Energy Committee meeting.

Speakers included Beyond Plastics founder and former EPA regional administrator Judith Enck, Environment New Jersey director Doug O’Malley, Clean Ocean Action executive director Cindy Zipf, Beyond Plastics advisory board member Brian Thompson, New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance policy director Brooke Helmick, Clean Water Action New Jersey state director Amy Goldsmith, Beyond Plastics NJ Youth lead and Sierra Club New Jersey Youth Committee Communications and Outreach Coordinator Shirin Sood.

Watch the Facebook Livestream here.

New Jersey has a growing plastic pollution crisis — 82% of items collected on local beaches were plastic in Clean Ocean Action’s 2022 annual report — and residents are paying with their health (in addition to their taxes). As plastic polluters increase plastic production, pollution will only grow while environmental justice communities around New Jersey’s landfills and incinerators suffer.

The Packaging Product Stewardship Act will require:

Companies selling products in New Jersey to cut plastic packaging by 50% over the next 10 years;
Prohibit some of the worst toxic chemicals known to science to be used in packaging, including PFAS, lead, mercury, vinyl chloride, and formaldehyde;
Provide new revenue to local governments to improve local recycling and waste reduction programs; and
Prohibit the plastics industry’s latest false solution, known as chemical recycling, from counting as real recycling.

“The issues plaguing EJ communities — toxic air quality, disproportionate health impacts, siting of industry in EJ communities, and the dumping of plastic waste, among others – are all connected back to a root cause: an overproduction of plastic materials and waste. A product stewardship bill can decrease unnecessary plastic packaging which can reduce plastic pollution as well as the associated air emissions and energy consumption. These outcomes decrease the disproportionate burden of waste and air pollution that EJ communities experience,” said Brooke Helmick, director of policy at New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance.

“Tax relief, tax relief, tax relief, that’s what this promises — if you reduce the trash then you reduce the ‘tipping fees’ your town pays to get rid of it. And that reduces your tax burden so what’s not to like?” said Brian Thompson, retired NBC New York journalist, Monmouth Beach Environmental Commission member, and Beyond Plastics advisory board member.

“During Black History Month, it needs to be highlighted that environmental justice communities are exposed to a disproportionate amount of pollution. That said, everyone is affected by the toxics of plastic. Most plastic is made from reconstructing fossil fuels — oil, natural gas, and coal — which causes it not to be biodegradable. Instead, plastic breaks down into tiny micro- and nanoparticles. There are over 16,000 different chemicals that make up plastic that can leach toxic chemicals into the foods we eat, beverages we consume, and air we breathe. Micro- and nanoplastic pollution has been found in the most remote places on Earth and throughout the human body. Toxics from plastic have been linked to metabolic disorders and endocrine disruption leading to cancers, diabetes, reduced fertility, impaired brain development, birth defects, and mutations. The burden should be on the manufacturer to reduce our exposure to an unnecessary amount of poisons,” said Marta Young, New Jersey zero-waste specialist at Clean Water Action.

“We can’t recycle our way out of the plastics crisis — our waterways and our bodies are literally swimming in plastics. More than two and a half years after the ban of single-use plastic bags, the Senate Environment Committee’s passage today of a program to reduce plastic packaging is the next critical step to stop this wave of plastics swamping our environment,” said Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey. “Extended producer responsibility is a simple concept of requiring the companies that produce plastic waste to take responsibility for their products — and reduce the amount of plastic packaging that ends up in our environment and our bodies. We want to thank Chairman Bob Smith for his leadership and we urge Senate President Scutari to move forward on this bill to reduce plastic waste.”

“The Packaging Product Stewardship Act is a vital step toward reducing plastic waste and protecting public health. With a strong, comprehensive approach, this legislation holds companies accountable and tackles the growing plastic pollution crisis. No longer should taxpayers bear the burden of managing packaging waste — it’s time for corporations to take responsibility. We urge its swift passage,” said Jennifer Coffey, executive director at Association of NJ Environmental Commissions.

“Recycling simply can’t keep up with the production of single-use plastic packaging. That is why we need to focus on measures to reduce plastic production at its source, limit the use of single-use plastic, and embrace reusable packaging solutions. The legislation asks manufacturers to pay and innovate to solve the enormous waste problems created by producing and selling their own products. This is a vital initiative because packaging forms a large category of waste material—28% in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency,” said Taylor McFarland, conservation program manager for the NJ Sierra Club. “This legislation, at its strongest, is essential to mitigating New Jersey’s plastic waste problem, and we urge the New Jersey Legislature to support it.”

NJ nonprofits cannot sustain high health care costs. Trenton must act

Jennifer M. Coffey

Special to the USA TODAY Network

February 7,2025

As the executive director of a small nonprofit, each year I hold my breath as I open the spreadsheet with the health insurance pricing for the year ahead. I prepare my budget for board approval at the end of the calendar year, but don’t see health insurance rates until February, meaning at the end of the year I have to gaze into a crystal ball and try to predict what the rate hikes will be. It is never a question of if prices will go up, it is only a matter of how big of an increase we’ll be facing.

With only 12 employees, the health insurance rate increases aren’t the starting point for negotiations, as it can be for larger employers, it is simply a set menu of higher costs versus reduced coverage that I have to choose from for my coworkers. If I’m lucky, prices inch up and we’re able to shift money around to cover it, but the large jumps like we’ve seen in recent years present bigger challenges. I’m often left pouring over budget documents, searching for dollars that just aren’t there, reluctant to consider cutting coverage, reducing employer contributions, or cutting services core to advancing our mission. The reality is, the increases we are seeing to health care costs are not sustainable. Whether you’re a large employer, a business owner or a small nonprofit like us, the exponential growth in health insurance costs are putting pressure on our budgets, eating into wages and leading to reductions in benefits across industries.

Increases in hospital costs are the No. 1 driver in increased insurance costs, which is why I’ve joined the Coalition for Affordable Hospitals to push for limits on health care cost growth and greater transparency surrounding hospital pricing. Nationally, between 2008 and 2023, inflation for hospital prices was nearly 100%, compared to roughly 50% for other medical care, food and housing. In New Jersey, the number of inpatient and outpatient encounters at hospitals have declined over the last five years, while the price of inpatient and outpatient care has risen by 44% and 37%, respectively. The end result is a domino effect. As hospital prices increase, they push up insurance premiums leading to higher employer contributions, leaving employers of all shapes and sizes left to grapple with the best way forward. Small nonprofits, like the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, feel these increases more acutely, given our tight budgets and little wiggle room, but if there’s anything the coalition has brought to light it’s just how broad of an issue this is.

NJ environmental groups launch new agenda

Watch video here

With a crowded field of candidates in the race to succeed Gov. Phil Murphy, environmental groups are doing their best to keep their issues at the forefront, releasing a green agenda entitled “Enviro Fix in ’26.”

“The upcoming election is an opportunity for us to ask questions like, ‘Hey, candidate for governor, what are you going to do to reduce asthma rates in Newark and throughout our state?’” said Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters.

The agenda includes investing in the state’s electric grid and keeping Murphy’s goal of 100% renewable energy by 2035, making communities more resilient to storms, preserving open space and expanding access to parks.

State Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), who has introduced several bills aimed at reducing New Jersey’s carbon footprint, joined the environmental groups as they introduced the agenda in Trenton on Thursday.

“Despite what the president of the United States says, offshore wind is a key factor in New Jersey’s clean energy transition. But it’s been taking very untruthful hits,” Smith said.

Earlier this week, President Trump issued an executive order pausing new leases for offshore wind farms, and a review of current permits.

Enviro Fix in ’26 focuses on five key policy areas:

Building and modernizing a clean energy future. New Jersey must achieve its goal of 100% clean energy by 2035 while also making essential investments to modernize our electric grid and switching to cost-saving electricity to heat our homes and power our appliances. These policies won’t just put New Jersey on the forefront of the fight against climate change, it will also lower costs for working families and improve the health of our families, particularly Black and brown residents, who breathe air polluted by dirty oil and gas.
Safeguarding New Jersey families and businesses from climate change and investing in resilient communities. The Los Angeles fires remind us of New Jersey’s recent fires, drought, and floods and highlight the fact that more frequent and extreme weather events are already impacting our communities. The next governor must lead the charge to protect our cities and towns against the threats posed by climate change, while pursuing sustainable solutions that protect sensitive ecosystems.
Ensuring that all New Jerseyans are able to breathe clean air. New Jersey has some of the worst air quality in the nation, which exacerbates health issues like asthma in children and heart disease in seniors. Black and brown communities across our state are disproportionately impacted, and the next governor must take steps that clean our air.
Preserving open spaces and expanding access to parks. As the most densely populated state in the nation, we need to double down on efforts to permanently preserve 500,000 acres of open space from development and ensure a park is accessible within one mile of where people live. Achieving this goal is crucial to protect fragile ecosystems, reduce flooding and carbon pollution, and provide places for New Jersey families to experience the outdoors.
Expanding public transportation with clean and reliable options so every New Jerseyan can get around — regardless of their ZIP code. Transportation is the single largest emitter of climate pollution in New Jersey. We need to ensure the Corporate Transit Fee funding for NJ Transit through the Corporate Business Tax (CBT) is made permanent even as we invest in innovative new clean transportation options, from electric vehicles to micro-transit solutions.
Safeguarding our statewide clean water resources. To ensure that every New Jersey family has access to safe drinking water, our next governor must prioritize funding to remove lead pipes while also addressing emerging contaminants, like PFAS and microplastics, that threaten our health. The state must also support cities and towns as they seek to address stormwater by providing investments and technical assistance that protect water quality and eliminate the release of untreated sewage into our rivers and streams.