it's the planet versus plastic this Earth Day with organizers in New Jersey and across the country calling to cut plastic production by 60% in the next 20 years partly because single-use Plastics are everywhere but also because researchers and scientists have now spent years documenting their harmful effect on humans and the environment eventually breaking down into tiny particles that enter our bloodstream through drinking water food and even the air we breathe that's caused some lawmakers in New Jersey to go back to basics when it comes to eliminating the pervasiveness of plastics holding a rare joint session of the Senate and assembly environment committees today to figure out what else New Jersey can do to rid itself of plastic pollution senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports recycling is not working for plastic Senator Bob Smith says testimony today about plastic pollution's devastating impact on planet Earth and human health helped convince him Jersey needs to take drastic measures and that includes resurrecting the controversial bottle Bill where folks collect on a refundable deposit when they return cans and bottles for recycling it's a battle that's raged in New Jersey since the 1980s but I think we're going to have to consider the bottle Bill the 10% deposit sounds like the right thing to do recycling is real except for Plastics Smith spoke after a panel of experts told a rare double hearing of Senate and assembly environment committees that the Plastic industry is trashing the planet making 450 million tons of plastic a year currently unlike glass bottles or aluminum cans most Plastics too chemically complex to properly recycle says former EPA regional administrator Judith ank for 40 years the Plastics industry has said don't worry about the massive amount of plastics we are producing we can just recycle it that turns out not to be true less than 10% of plastics are actually recycled she says New Jersey should keep collecting recyclables curbside but also enact a bottle bill it reduces Street litter and raises the recycling rate in Bottle Bill states to 57% compared to just 177% in states without refundable container laws but a recycling industry rep argued hard against it saying a model bills too inconvenient for most folks and would siphon off revenues from recycling centers imagine running any business and you have taken away from you 40% of your Revenue what you're going to do is put in Jeopardy the entire recycling infrastructure of the state we have put in place a very strong platform for total recycling a bottle bill would would take us backward but scientists researching the impact of plastics on on human health told lawmakers they find it everywhere as millions of nanop particles invisible to the human eye these microplastics have been connected to cardiac issues plastic particles have been identified in the human lung human liver human kidney urine feces heart placenta blood and breast milk researchers also claim certain plastic chemicals impact human hormones increasing the chances of breast cancer and human infertility Problems by reducing sperm counts they are disrupting our hormones and increasing our health risks a bottle bills only one piece of these legislative reforms in the renewed war on Plastics pollution others include waste reduction we need to have a broad strategy on reducing litterin waste including evaluation of a bottle Bill a group of environmental Advocates want New Jersey to enact a skip the St law like New York cities requiring diners to request take out plastic wear and to truthfully label Plastics that are in fact unrecyclable there are solutions here today we don't always have to wait for legislation to kick in but we are going to fight all of us together to fight for those big state laws as well as skipping the stuff lawmakers hope to meet again on these issues later this summer in Trenton I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight news [Music]