As NYC Reopens, Here Are Four Solid Waste Reforms We Need Now
As Covid-19 hit New York City last spring, composting, recycling, and commercial waste reforms were suspended, stymying progress toward the de Blasio administration’s vital – but increasingly challenging – goal of Zero Waste by 2030.
Over the past year, residential recycling rates remained abysmally low. Truck crashes and safety violations in the notorious commercial waste industry increased in 2020 (despite decreased customers and volume). And community composters trying to rebuild their operations had to fight evictions by the City's Parks Department. All this, as the climate crisis worsened.
Now, helped by Federal stimulus funds and a vaccine-fueled economic re-opening, our city has some financial breathing room. That provides immediate opportunities to build back Zero Waste programs with better planning, better public engagement, and a heightened commitment to equity and environmental justice.
Here are four actions the mayor, City Council, and State Legislature can take right now to reduce local air pollution and greenhouse emissions and sustain employment in our waste and recycling sectors - a proven "green jobs" generator - especially in communities hardest hit by Covid, poverty, and unemployment during the terrible past year.
First, use the Commercial Waste Zones program to set high standards for private haulers.
This summer, the landmark Commercial Waste Zones program will finally move forward. A request for proposals (RFP) for commercial waste services in 20 zones will go out, and funding for the agency staff needed to implement the new system is included in the Fiscal Year 2022 budget due for approval next month.
The forthcoming 10-year contracts for each zone present a huge opportunity to make lasting improvements in efficiency, safety, waste reduction, and customer service in an industry notorious for corruption, pollution, and dangerous working conditions. That must include far more consistent, transparent, and affordable recycling and composting services for businesses; major private investments in green infrastructure including electric truck fleets and organic waste processing facilities; and ensuring that workers are treated fairly. The new system must provide incentives for businesses to reduce and recycle far more commercial waste by, for example, ensuring that businesses receive meaningful price discounts for recycling and composting. Similarly, the City's contracts with waste haulers should incentivize companies to comprehensively reduce waste disposal in each zone.
Second, center equity in every solid waste program and reform.
Unless government acts, reopening restaurants, stadiums, and office buildings will inevitably mean more garbage trucked into low-income communities and communities of color that now disproportionately host waste transfer stations and truck yards. Private truck-based transfer station owners are already trying to expand or alter their permits to haul more waste into impacted communities like Sunset Park and Southeast Queens.
City officials cannot capitulate to these efforts. That means building on the City's Solid Waste Management Plan and the hard-won Waste Equity Law of 2018 to direct more waste to relatively clean marine- and rail-based transfer stations in each borough. An important first step would be signing the long-delayed paperwork required to build a marine transfer station on Manhattan's West Side that would substantially reduce truck traffic to the City's recycling facility in Sunset Park (pictured above).
Third, don't just restart composting programs; plan for innovation and expansion.
The mayor has committed to restoring the organic recycling budget to roughly its pre-pandemic levels (about $30 million). While this is welcome news, it also recreates a voluntary, opt-in approach that was inefficient and inequitable before the pandemic. That puts composting at jeopardy for future rollbacks and failure the next time we face tough economic times.
Successful recycling programs require long-term commitments to public education and community buy-in. The mayor and City Council should immediately pass legislation setting a timeline and a plan for a universal organics recycling program comparable to those in Seattle and San Francisco, where residents and businesses are required to separate food scraps (just as we do with other recyclables). This will enable the City to scale up participation and eventually offset costs with reductions in garbage collection routes and export fees. In particular, we need a robust pilot program to test various models for collecting food scraps in and near multi-family buildings, which pose a particular challenge.
The City and State should also support community composters and low-emissions micro-haulers who run public-facing recycling and education programs, including on small parcels of parkland. A bill now before the State Legislature (S6282) would affirm the environmental and educational value of these community-scale composting operations by eliminating the Parks Department's spurious concerns about parkland alienation.
Fourth, shrink the waste stream with Extended Producer Responsibility.
We also need a commitment by State and City legislators to tackle the underlying problem: the massive quantities of single-use plastics, construction debris, and food waste our economy produces, much of which cannot be cost-effectively recycled.
While the City has been fighting lengthy piecemeal battles over unnecessary products like single-use bags and plastic straws, the State can transform the consumer packaging economy by passing the groundbreaking Extended Producer Responsibility bill (S1185B) before the legislative session ends in June. It would require consumer packaging producers to develop and fund "end of life" plans for every item they sell or distribute in New York. Over time, it would provide strong incentives for manufacturers and retailers to implement reusable or recyclable packaging and provide financial support for municipal recycling programs that struggle to collect and market materials, such as glass and many plastics, that currently have limited end uses.