Brickbat: It's Not Easy Being Cheesy

A leading environmentalist says one of the goals of New York's proposed Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act is to end individually wrapped single slices of cheese. "We have to do something about the plastic crisis," said Judith Enck, president of  Beyond Plastics and former Environmental Protection Agency administrator. "These companies have to take responsibility for producing the waste. They're getting a free ride right now." The bill would mandate that food producers and distributors with net incomes over $1 million reduce plastics and other packaging that ends up in landfills by 50 percent over the next 12 years. The bill would also fund recycling programs by imposing a fee on companies that use plastic packages.