S1463A

The New York State Senate passed legislation establishing an Extended Producer Responsibility program for used mattresses, with the mattress industry bearing recycling costs rather than consumers paying a point-of-purchase fee. The bill, S1463A, passed 39-23 on a largely party-line vote, with Sen. Kavanagh defending the industry-funded approach as more efficient and consistent with New York's existing EPR programs for electronics, carpets, and e-mobility batteries. Sen. Borrello led Republican opposition, arguing the state should follow Connecticut, California, Rhode Island, and Oregon in charging consumers a fixed fee of approximately $20 per mattress, contending this approach would be simpler to enforce and would protect New York mattress manufacturers from bearing costs of recycling imported mattresses. Kavanagh countered that private industry can minimize costs more effectively than government-mandated fees and noted that Connecticut's program achieves 90 percent collection rates. He also argued that enforcement of out-of-state producers has not been problematic under New York's existing electronics recycling program, which has operated for two decades. Borrello expressed concern that the industry-funded model would disadvantage American-made, high-quality mattresses by allowing cheap imported alternatives to avoid the recycling cost burden. The bill was restored to the noncontroversial calendar before the final vote.