New Jersey targets plastic packaging that fills landfills and pollutes

New Jersey is aiming to drastically reduce the amount of packaging material — particularly plastic — that is thrown away after the package is opened.

From bubble wrap to puffy air-filled plastic pockets to those foam peanuts that seem to immediately spill all over the floor, lots of what keeps items safe during shipping often ends up in landfills, or in the environment as pollution.

A bill to be discussed Thursday in the state Legislature would require all such materials used in the state to be recyclable or compostable by 2034. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says containers and packaging materials from shopping account for about 28% of municipal waste sent to landfills in the U.S.

The New Jersey bill seeks to move away from plastics and imposes fees on manufacturers and distributors for a $120 million fund to bolster recycling and reduce solid waste.

California, Colorado, Oregon, Maine, and Minnesota have already passed similar bills, according to the environmental group Beyond Plastics.

New Jersey’s bill as proposed would be the strongest in the nation, according to Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey.

“Our waterways are literally swimming in plastics,” he said. “We can’t recycle our way out of this crisis.”

Peter Blair, policy and advocacy director at the environmental group Just Zero, said the bill aims to shift financial responsibility for dealing with the “end-of-life” of plastic packaging from taxpayers, who pay to have it sent to landfills, to the producers of the material.

Business groups oppose the legislation.

Ray Cantor, an official with the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, said businesses are constantly working to reduce the amount of packing materials they use, and to increase the amount of recyclables they utilize. He called the bill “unrealistic” and “not workable.”

“It totally ignores the 40 years of work and systems that has made New Jersey one of the most successful recycling states in the nation,” he said. “It bans a host of chemicals without any scientific basis. And it would ban the advanced recycling of plastics, the most promising new technology to recycle materials that currently are thrown away.”

His organization defined advanced recycling as “using high temperatures and pressure, breaking down the chemicals in plastics and turning them back into their base chemicals, thus allowing them to be reused to make new plastics as if they were virgin materials.”

Brooke Helmick, policy director for the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, said advanced recycling can be “very, very dangerous.” It can lead to the release of toxic chemicals, cause fires, create the risk of chemical leaks, and create large volumes of hazardous materials including benzene that are then incinerated, she said.

The bill would require the state Department of Environmental Protection to study the state’s recycling market and calculate the cost of upgrading it to handle the increased recycling of packaging materials.

It would require that by 2032, the amount of single-use packaging products used in the state be reduced by 25%, at least 10% of which would have to come from shifting to reusable products or eliminating plastic components.

By 2034, all packaging products used in the state would have to be compostable or recyclable, and by 2036, the recycling rate of packaging products in New Jersey would have to be at least 65%.