Skip to Navigation

New York is Not Disposable • In-Person Rally & Advocacy Day

Tuesday, May 14, 2024 • 10:30 AM to 4:00 PM

Push NYS’s Packaging Reduction Act and Bigger Better Bottle Bill Over the Finish Line!

Please join the New York is NOT Disposable Coalition to meet with your state representatives in Albany to help get two critical bills — the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S4246-b/A5322-b) and the Bigger Better Bottle Bill (S237/A6353) — to reduce single-use plastics and increase reuse, refill and recycling over the finish line this spring!

At 10:00 AM, we will gather at the 3rd Floor Terrace of the Legislative Office Building at 198 State Street, Albany, 12210 for a short briefing and to get everyone into their groups and distribute meeting schedules and talking points. Groups will then meet with legislators until noon when we’ll break for an empowering outdoor rally (weather permitting) in West Capitol Park, just across the State Street from the Legislative Office Building. After eating a quick lunch on the go, groups will continue to meet with legislators until 4:00 PM.

Please RSVP by Wednesday, May 8.

If you live in New York City, please see the website for information on taking a bus to Albany for the event.

We welcome first-time participants! If you’ve never participated in an advocacy day or rally before, please don’t let that stop you. We’ll hold an event briefing via Zoom on Thursday, May 9 at 6pm (we’ll email you the link when you register) that will cover both of the bills and explain how to make your meetings with your legislators effective and give you a chance to ask questions. Each meeting will have a team leader and you will be well supported, we promise!

Why is it important to help pass these two bills this spring?

  • Massive grassroots advocacy is the firewall against Big Plastic’s influence. The American Chemistry Council, fossil fuel companies, and consumer brands are in Albany opposing this bill and talking to legislators – we need YOU to add your voice to pass these two major climate and environmental justice bills!
  • Plastic packaging is made from fossil fuels and chemicals, thousands of which are known to be toxic to humans including BPA, BPS, phthalates, PFAS, heavy metals, perchlorates, vinyl chloride, styrene, and more.
  • The U.S. is the world’s largest plastic polluter.
  • Plastics are speeding up the climate crisis. If plastic were a country it would be the world’s fifth biggest greenhouse gas polluter.
  • Plastic recycling is a myth; just 5-6% of plastic is recycled in the U.S. each year and it’s actually “downcycled” rather than recycled.
  • Plastic never biodegrades, it just breaks up into smaller pieces called microplastics that have been found in human blood, hearts, lungs, placentas, and breastmilk.
  • The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act reduces plastic at the source and makes packaging far less toxic.
  • The Bigger Better Bottle Bill modernizes New York’s existing container deposit law to help cover more types of bottles and increase the incentive for returning them for recycling and refilling.

For information and to register, please scan the QR code or go to the website: https://www.beyondplastics.org/events/nys-2024-in-person-advocacy-day-5-14-24