The Massachusetts Senate passed a large environmental bill by a vote of 36-3 on Wednesday with numerous implications for waste, recycling and packaging policy.
The bill, S.3050, is an iteration of the Mass Ready Act proposed by Gov. Maura Healey in 2025. The more than $3.6 billion package, which would fund a wide range of environmental projects in the state, includes policy changes for extended producer responsibility and single-use packaging restrictions.
It now heads to the House of Representatives. The state’s current two-year legislative session ends July 31.
Waste and recycling policy momentum has been slow in the state legislature, which has a Democratic supermajority, for years. Massachusetts legislators tend to take a bundled approach rather than passing smaller laws, as is more common in other states.
The latest bill has many aspects that were included in a 2024 Senate bill known as the Plastics Reduction Act, but that bill did not pass the House. A broader climate change and energy bill passed that year, launching a commission to study extended producer responsibility for multiple product categories. That commission, led by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, released its final report in January.
Environmental groups and other advocacy organizations view the environmental bond bill as one of the most promising opportunities to pass policy this session. Some proposals such as updating the state’s outdated container deposit law weren’t part of the conversation, but many others made it into the latest text.
EPR
The state’s commission recommended pursuing EPR policies for batteries, paint, mattress and electronics. Paint was the only one that made the cut in this bill.
Paint EPR has long been supported by local officials due to household hazardous waste management costs. The proposed program would cover architectural paint and aerosol coating products, with a goal of offering collection sites for 90% of residents within a 15-mile radius. A producer-led program plan would be submitted to MassDEP within a year of the overall law taking effect.
Battery EPR did not make the cut, despite mounting support. The National Waste & Recycling Association, WM, Casella Waste Systems, the Massachusetts Municipal Association, the Massachusetts Product Stewardship Council and others have been pushing for this policy due to fire hazards caused by lithium-ion batteries.
An amendment was proposed to add battery EPR language to the bill but then withdrawn for unspecified reasons. A separate amendment that would have directed MassDEP to develop a statewide plan for end-of-life management for solar panels and batteries was also withdrawn.
The Senate’s bill also doesn’t address packaging EPR.
The EPR commission’s final report deferred a recommendation on packaging and instead suggested that a needs assessment be conducted. At the time, commissioners said this would require legislative funding to be feasible. An amendment was proposed to provide $1.2 million in funding for such an assessment, specifically citing the EPR commission’s work, but that was rejected alongside a bundle of other amendments.
Plastic policy
Despite the lack of movement on packaging EPR, the Senate bill also has many implications for packaging products. This includes bans and restrictions on certain categories, via revived language from the 2024 Plastics Reduction Act.
The current bill would ban single-use plastic carryout bags. According to MassPirg, bag policies already exist in 163 of the state’s municipalities and cover about 70% of its population. The bill would also standardize such policies across the state.
Retailers would be required to charge at least 10 cents for offering paper bags, containing at least 50% postconsumer recycled content, or reusable bags, which could not be made out of plastic. Five cents per bag would stay with the retailers and the remainder would go into a Plastics Environmental Protection Fund managed by MassDEP.
Efforts by the chamber’s small number of Republicans to cut the paper bag fee were unsuccessful.
The bill would also require retailers to only offer foodservice ware upon request. An approved amendment stipulates that none of this material could include black plastic, unless it was used for “prepared food packaged outside the commonwealth.”
Another approved amendment would direct MassDEP to study the feasibility of banning “foam and solid polystyrene,” including a look at the material’s health effects. The agency would be required to submit this study by the end of June 2027. Another would prohibit hotels from offering personal care products in plastic containers with a volume of 9 ounces or less.
The bill directs MassDEP to promulgate regulations for all of these packaging policy changes.
It would also prohibit state agencies from buying single-use plastic water bottles of 21 ounces or less, and calls for the establishment of a statewide bulk plastic recycling program to manage children’s car seats.
Meanwhile, an amendment to ban the sale of plastic “nip” bottles for alcohol was withdrawn and another to limit the use of PFAS in food packaging was rejected.
Solid waste policy
The bill still contains $28.1 million in MassDEP funding for solid waste projects as requested by the governor. This could be used to manage pollution from existing or closed solid waste facilities, as well as for “capital expenditures associated with composting, recycling and waste reduction programs consistent with the comprehensive statewide solid waste master plan.”
Additionally, an approved amendment would direct funding to the city of Boston for an independent environmental study of impacts within a one-mile radius of a select waste transfer station. This would include soil and water testing for multiple contaminants, including PFAS, as well as a review of “cumulative environmental impacts on the surrounding community.” The address listed is for a site owned by Republic Services.
New language from the Senate would also require the agency to publish a progress report about its 2023 organics action plan. This is part of the agency’s broader goal to reduce organic waste disposal by 2030. So far it has set policies requiring diversion for certain commercial generators and is now considering a future residential policy.
The required report would cover “any recommended legislative changes or resources necessary to increase the rate at which food and organic waste is composted and reduce the contamination of waste and recycling streams by compostable materials.”
