Packaging EPR Fails to Pass in New York State

During the early morning hours of June 18, 2025, the New York state legislature declined to pass a controversial extended producer responsibility (EPR) bill, the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S. 1465), when the State Assembly did not bring the bill to a vote before the formal legislative session ended. This is the second year in a row in which the New York State Senate has passed EPR legislation that subsequently stalled in the Assembly. 

The EPR law would have broadly applied to a wide variety of packaging materials, including plastic, paper, metal, and glass. Producers would have been required to register with a packaging reduction organization (PRO) within eighteen months of the bill’s enactment, though the bill included an exemption for de minimis producers that either distributed less than two tons of packaging material each year or made less than $5 million in total gross annual revenue. This exemption would have been consistent with similar packaging EPR laws that have been adopted in Colorado and Oregon. 

The bill included a packaging reduction provision, where producers would have been required to reduce the amount of all packaging materials by 10% beginning three years after implementation, with the requirement increasing to 30% after 12 years. Furthermore, the bill’s recyclability requirement would have banned all covered packaging from containing certain materials, such as pigmented polyethylene terephthalate and oxo-degradable additives. 

Notably, the bill also included toxic substance prohibitions, which would have prevented the sale of any packaging that contains intentionally added ortho-phthalates, bisphenols, PFAS, benzophenone, perchlorate, formaldehyde, toluene, halogenated flame retardants, and heavy metals.

The bill is likely to come up again in the legislative session next year. It is also possible that the measure will have to contend with competing legislation, as opponents of the bill put forth their own version of a packaging EPR bill during this past legislative session.