The New York State Legislature is expected to adjourn on Friday, with a series of waste and recycling bills failing to come up for a vote during the session. The Legislature, originally scheduled to adjourn on Thursday, added a session day on Friday to handle a final batch of items. Compared to other last-minute measures, bills aimed at establishing extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging, updating the state bottle bill, and facilitating curbside collection of street-sweeping debris were not prioritized.

According to Spectrum News, New York state lawmakers gradually returned to business in the days after passing the state budget, which took five months to craft and was ultimately approved two months late.

Packaging EPR and bottle bill fail to advance

The New York State Legislature is not expected to pass the more controversial packaging extended producer responsibility bill in the final days of the session. The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act faced intense scrutiny and lobbying again this session, undergoing more than 30 amendments. Previous versions of the bill passed the Senate in both 2024 and 2025 but failed to come to a vote in the Assembly before the end of the session.

This year, SB 1464A / A1749, introduced by State Senator Pete Harckham and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, would require certain packaging producers to join and pay fees to participate in an EPR program. The bill also set recycling and reuse rate targets for packaging: 35% by 2032, rising to 75% by 2052. The bill also required the phase-out of packaging containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) four years after the EPR program rules take effect.

Producers with annual net income exceeding $5 million and generating more than two tons of packaging waste per year would also need to meet specific packaging reduction requirements.

Supporters, including Beyond Plastics and a coalition of 19 environmental justice organizations, argued the bill would help protect communities from pollution. But opponents—including a range of businesses, some recyclers, and numerous packaging industry groups—said the bill would drive up already high grocery prices.

Kirstie Pecci, executive director of Just Zero, a bill supporter, called the outcome "deeply disappointing" but noted that collaboration among supporters could help advance the bill in the future. In a statement, she said: "The strong coalition behind this bill has fundamentally changed the conversation about plastic pollution in New York."

Glick, who has led the push for the bill over the past several years, is retiring. In previous years, she also co-led efforts with Senator Rachel May to update the state's beverage container deposit system, known as the "Bigger, Better Bottle Bill" plan.

The bottle bill failed to advance in 2026. The proposal would have raised the deposit from 5 cents to 10 cents and expanded the program to cover more container types, along with several other updates.

Another separate deposit return bill, introduced late in the session by Senator Patricia Fahy, would have included wine and spirits containers in the state deposit program.