Good morning, Chair Abreu and congratulations on your new position as Sanitation Chair! Thank you for using your first committee hearing to call attention to these very important topics. I want to focus today on two aspects of the hearing: Intro 055 and the city’s organics processing capacity.
Intro 055
Intro 055, which would require DSNY to accept commercial waste at the City’s Marine Transfer Stations (MTSs) beginning in 2025, is very important to me. I introduced a version of this bill when I was Sanitation Chair, and I applaud Council Member Nurse for recognizing the increased urgency of the issue by updating it from requiring a study to creating a mandate.
The goal of this legislation is simple – to get waste trucks off our streets. Thanks to advocacy by the environmental justice community in creation of the City’s 2006 Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP), the MTSs remove waste by barge, rather than long-haul truck. The more waste we can send to these facilities, the fewer dangerous and polluting long-haul trucks on our streets. Additionally, because the MTSs are operated by DSNY, we know we don’t have to worry about the usual concerns with private facilities, such as compliance with maintenance regulations and worker protections.
The timing for implementation of this bill is significant because DSNY is finally moving forward with implementing Commercial Waste Zones (CWZ) beginning later this year, having assigned 16 carters to operate across 20 zones citywide. I hope to discuss this in more detail at a later hearing, as there are many outstanding questions associated with the program’s implementation. Chief among them is where haulers will tip. However, we can speculate that as the industry consolidates, some facilities may close, while others may take on more throughput, meaning more trucks in those communities, and possibly the need for longer truck routes, which CWZ sought to avoid.
I am proud that due to the waste equity legislation we passed in 2018, no community that isn’t already there will be allowed to take on more than 10% of the city’s waste processing capacity. Still, we have already heard concerns from environmental justice communities such as Sunset Park and Red Hook that facilities there may be looking to add more capacity due to CWZ. Passing Intro 055 will give haulers more options – one in each borough except the Bronx – and importantly will provide options that support environmental justice and worker safety.
Organics processing capacity
I want to again commend Council Member Nurse, as well as Council Member Shahana Hanif, for passing Intro 244 last term, requiring DSNY to implement universal curbside organics collection. This policy, when fully implemented and functioning, will make a huge dent in the City’s efforts to send zero waste to landfills. I have a number of concerns with delays and budget cuts that I will save for next month’s budget hearing; however today I want to make three points:
- While any diversion from landfill is better than none, traditional composting is preferable to codigestion. This is because anaerobic digestion creates two byproducts: biogas and biosolids. Biogas is primarily methane, a greenhouse gas that gets burned into the atmosphere if it is not captured for reuse. I supported the pilot program at the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant that sought to capture this methane and redistribute it into the city’s heating system; however, I have been disappointed by the years of delays in implementation and failure of the system to function reliably. Biosolids are the solid byproduct of processed sludge. According to DEP, New York City produces about 1,400 tons, or 600 tuckloads, of biosolids per day at its wastewater treatment plants, and much of it ends up in landfills. If at all avoidable, we should not be adding more inputs into this system until DEP can achieve its goals of reliably capturing methane emissions and achieving 100% beneficial use of biosolids.
- 2. Again, we will visit this in more detail next month, but I want to reiterate that community composting facilities play a critical role in a comprehensive organics diversion system. These facilities:
- a. Divert millions of pounds of food waste from landfills every year;
- b. Provide free compost to the Parks Department, community organizations, street tree maintenance, school gardens, Botanical Gardens, and community gardens;
- c. Create jobs; and
- d. Play a critical role in educating youth and the public about the value and mechanics of composting.
- 3. Acknowledging the benefits of community composting, last year the City Council passed the Community Organics and Empowerment (CORE) Act, requiring DSNY to establish at least 30 organic waste drop-off sites citywide, with at least three in each borough. It is disingenuous for DSNY to argue that they can meet this bill’s mandate through use of drop-off bins that send organics to Newtown Creek, given the issues with that pilot and the benefits of community composting facilities outlined above.
Thank you again for holding this hearing today. I look forward to working with you and all the members of the Sanitation Committee over the next term.
