Good morning Chair Abreu and thank you for holding this hearing today. I am here representing Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who as Chair of the City Council’s Sanitation Committee from 2014-2021 created the Commercial Waste Zones program alongside DSNY. Today, he wants to join DSNY, labor unions, commercial carters, and advocates in expressing his strong opposition to Intro 1349.
While Borough President Reynoso has voiced continued frustration with DSNY’s rollout of the CWZ program, he remains committed to its full implementation. When all 20 zones are active and operating, the city will see a dramatic reduction in truck traffic and associated emissions from the waste industry, safer streets, improved worker protections, and less waste going to landfills. These goals remain as important, if not more so, as when the CWZ bill became law in 2019.
Yet Intro 1349 would dramatically undermine these goals. This bill would change the definition of “commercial establishment” in the CWZ law, with the intent of exempting any business that generates medical waste from having to contract with a selected carter. This is simply not necessary. Medical waste is already exempted from the CWZ law due to its unique pickup and disposal regulations. It is true that medical facilities such as hospitals generate both medical and non-medical waste; however, it is not necessarily true that this means they must contract with more than one carter. Many carters within the CWZ program offer specialized medical waste services or have the ability through the CWZ program to subcontract with a hauler that can.
Changing the definition of “commercial establishment” in the law is overly broad such that it would exempt thousands of businesses citywide from complying with CWZ. According to the State Department of Environmental Conservation, regulated businesses that generate medical waste include: hospitals, clinical laboratories, veterinarians, funeral homes, nursing homes, home health providers, physicians’ offices, research laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, colleges and universities, blood banks, company infirmaries, and correctional facilities. This bill would create a dangerous precedent for carving out businesses from complying with the CWZ law unnecessarily, leading to more vehicle miles traveled, more greenhouse gas emissions, less oversight of worker safety and safe driving practices, and more waste in our landfills.
Borough President Reynoso encourages the Council NOT to move forward with Intro 1349, and to instead work together to ensure that the CWZ program continues its rollout to all five boroughs quickly and efficiently. Thank you.