I am pleased to see the State University of New York (SUNY) college system ended its outdated COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which had created confusion and frustration for students across the state. 

The decision came a day after President Joe Biden announced the official end of the nation’s emergency response, but it should not have taken nearly that long as the true emergency ended long ago. With the decision to finally align the state’s policy response with reality, we can once again allow our state’s college campuses to return to normal.

Outside of the symbolically important step of dropping the mandate, I am especially happy future New York State Pathways in Technology (NYS P-Tech) program high-school students, who have an opportunity to hone their trades at higher-education campuses, are no longer at risk of having their education disrupted by this confusing mandate. Under the SUNY COVID mandate, faculty members were allowed on campus without vaccination and high-school students were allowed in their traditional classrooms without vaccination, but P-Tech students attending on-campus instruction were prohibited.

This made little sense and created unneeded stress and anxiety for the students. In fact, after hearing many complaints from families in my district, I reached out to SUNY Chancellor John B. King to highlight the issue and encourage him to remedy this discrepancy. 

Our Assembly Minority Conference has advocated for a post-pandemic plan that mirrors the actual severity of the risk to the public. The time for emergency protocols and vaccine mandates ended many months ago, and it is unfortunate it took so long for us to get to this point. For that reason, we have also advocated for stronger protections against the abuse of emergency executive powers and for a better balance of power in the immediate aftermath of a public-health crisis. I sincerely hope the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic help shape a more effective public health plan going forward.

[The recent SUNY] announcement is welcome news for students and an important milestone in our return to pre-pandemic norms. It is also an important reminder we must do better in the future. New York was not prepared for a public-health crisis like the one we experienced in 2020. As legislators and representatives of the public’s interest, we must take this opportunity to strengthen our future responses with effective, timely, and common-sense-driven policies. Anything short of that is a disservice to those who suffered the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.       

William (Will) A. Barclay, 54, Republican, is the New York Assembly minority leader and represents the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses all of Oswego County, as well as parts of Jefferson and Cayuga counties.

New York state is well-positioned to dramatically improve its plastics-recycling rate, if its lawmakers follow the science. 

Only 10 percent of plastics get recycled and that is unacceptably low. The landfills in New York are reaching capacity and there are few options for the garbage to go. What doesn’t end up in landfills within the state is usually either incinerated or shipped to another state at great expense to New York taxpayers. Mechanical recycling helps alleviate this issue for many rigid plastics, such as soda bottles and milk jugs, but those facilities can’t handle the majority of the most common plastics we use today, like films, wraps, and bags. 

But there’s a big opportunity to turn this around thanks to technological advancements.

Science has come a long way in recent years. Cutting-edge “advanced recycling” technology is capable of recycling much of the remaining 90 percent of plastics by breaking them down to their molecular level, allowing reclaimed plastics to be repurposed into a wide range of new products.

Right now, leading plastic and packaging manufacturers are partnering with advanced recycling providers to produce products as diverse as Nalgene bottles, Tupperware, Wendy’s and McDonald’s drink cups, Herbal Essences shampoo/conditioner bottles, Warby Parker eyeglasses frames, Mattel playsets, Ethicon medical device packaging — the list goes on. And that’s not to mention growing interest in using advanced recycling in the building and construction process — like GreenMantra Technologies, which uses advanced recycling to create industrial waxes that act as performance enhancers in asphalt roofing, roads, and pipes.

Today, 22 states have recognized advanced recycling as an important part of the solution to this crisis. All told, it’s estimated that the more than $6 billion of investments announced in the United States since 2017 can divert more than 15 billion pounds of plastic waste from landfills annually. And the environmental benefits of keeping that waste out of landfills extend beyond the obvious. According to a report last year from the City College of New York (CCNY), for example, advanced recycling can reduce energy use by up to 97 percent compared to landfilling, in turn reducing carbon emissions. 

Additionally, a 2021 report from Good Company, a sustainability consulting firm, found that air emissions at typical advanced recycling facilities are about equal to or lower than those from many hospitals and colleges.

New York has an opportunity to be a leader in plastics recycling, and that could be good news for both our environment and our economy. 

Unfortunately, there are groups like Beyond Plastics, backed by billionaires, peddling misinformation to lawmakers and the public about advanced recycling. They claim it is incineration (it’s not — ash doesn’t make plastic) and carbon intensive (see CCNY report, one of many that found reduced emissions compared to other end-of-life options). It’s important to remember the goal of groups like this is to end plastics writ large, even though that would have significant environmental consequences, rather than find solutions. 

Adopting advanced recycling legislation in New York could help pave the way for some of the most important investments in the state’s green economy. Advanced recycling facilities can take thousands of tons of used plastic per year to remake into new plastics. Converting just 25 percent of recoverable plastics in New York to plastic feedstocks and other products could support 16 advanced recycling facilities — capable of processing 400,000 tons of plastics a year. 

All this recycling could create hundreds — and eventually thousands — of new green-collar jobs and upwards of $500 million in new economic activity annually. And that’s in addition to the savings for New York taxpayers, who currently pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year for the state’s existing recycling facilities. Advanced recycling centers, by contrast, would be privately funded. 

We’ve all heard a lot over the last few years about the importance of following the science. It’s time we did that when it comes to our waste crisis. Science has given us the tools we need to solve it. Let’s use them.        

Joshua Baca is VP of plastics at the American Chemistry Council.