Former Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Judith Enck says customers often end up with lots of extra paper, cardboard and plastic because companies that deliver online orders, like Amazon, have no financial responsibility to deal with waste management.
“You and I have all had the experience of, you order something online, it arrives at your house, just layer after layer of excess packaging and you鈥檙e kind of scratching your head thinking, 鈥榳hy did it have to be so over-packaged,鈥�” Enck said.
The New York State Legislature is considering a bill that would shift some of those costs from local governments and waste haulers to those companies if they don’t reduce the amount of packaging material they use. “In this economic climate with so much economic uncertainty, this is an opportunity to save money by having less excess packaging,” Enck said.