Page 44 - Plastics News May 2018

internAtionAL news

US Plastic Industry launches New York Governor introduces

effort to turn employees into bill to ban plastic bags
ambassadors

ew York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has embraced
Na statewide ban on single-use plastic bags and
he plastics industry is using NPE2018 to unveil a new
Teffort to enlist its nearly 1 million U.S. employees as has introduced a bill to outlaw them by next year.
foot soldiers in efforts to boost the image of the industry According to reports the three-page bill, introduced
and better answer critics. The Plastics Industry Association, by the governor comes a little more than a year after
he blocked a 5-cent surcharge that New York city had
the organizer of NPE, used the show's opening day news
conference May 7 to unveil a new website, thisisplastics.
com, aimed at turning employees into ambassadors. It
provides talking points on some more controversial topics
facing the industry, like the role of plastics in marine litter,
plastic bag bans and taxes on plastic products.

The campaign has an interactive exhibit in the South Hall
concourse at NPE2018, and it will be highlighted at other
locations around the show floor. Wylie Royce, chairman
of the association and president of additive maker Royce
Associates, said the idea is to give employees tools and sought to place on single-use plastic bags. Cuomo
discussion points to persuasively make its points. "These described the measure as an effort to counteract the
are real facts actually being shared by friends and "blight of plastic bags" that is taking "a devastating toll
neighbors, and we hope it gains some traction," he said. on our streets, our water and our natural resources".
"It's not going to happen overnight. It's going to take time." The second-term Governor seeking a re-election later
He said the group hopes that it's seen as better information this year said: "We did not inherit the earth, we are
than that coming from companies or trade associations: merely borrowing it from our children." If the bill
"If the information is put out there by a corporation, it's passes, New York would join California, which approved
immediately suspect." The association has spent more than a statewide ban of plastic bags in 2016. Hawaii has a
a year developing the materials, which includes articles, de facto ban on plastic bags. The recent proposal came
as a result of a report in January by a task force that
Cuomoconvened last year after blocking the city bill,
The New York Times reported.

A ban was one of eight options entertained by that
report, though it also outlined a number of drawbacks,
including the fact that paper bags, an alternative to
plastic, cost retailers "three to five times as much
as single-use plastic bags". Under Cuomo's proposal,
a variety of bags would be exempted from the ban,
including those that contains raw meat, fish or poultry;

shareable images, video and interactive quizzes. The bags sold in bulk; those used in bulk packages of
group said it wants to provide "easily digestible" pieces fruit and dried goods; those used for deli products;
of information around five industry topics: plastics 101, newspaper bags; trash, food storageand garment bags;
safety, economic impact, environment and innovation. and takeout food bags.

Plastics News May 2018 44