NEW YORK — In the eleventh hour of his administration, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is leaving a transformative mark on a part of city life that is often overlooked — the waste we produce every day.
By pushing for the composting of organic waste — such as food scraps — through a pilot program and supporting other innovative recycling efforts, the mayor is posing a challenge to his successor: Will the person who succeeds him make New York City a truly sustainable city that finally recycles more than it throws away?
No matter who becomes mayor, organic waste recycling has a strong ally: the City Council. The Council passed legislation on Thursday that would mandate continuation of the organi waste pilot project for another two years.
The bill, sponsored by Councilwoman Deborah Rose of Staten Island, also requires the sanitation commissioner to issue a report in October 2015 that includes a “plan for implementing a citywide residential organic collection program and a schedule for expanding the program to additional areas in the city.”
The question of whether — and how — to expand organic waste recycling citywide is a key question facing the next administration. And the next mayor will face other challenges with the trash the city produces — such as how to assert more authority over the city’s massive commercial waste stream, which is not directly controlled by the Department of Sanitation.
In spite of the hurdles, environmentalists and waste policy experts have praised the moves by the mayor and the Council to embrace organic waste recycling.
“This is the opening of what could be a very dramatic change in how we deal with a large portion of our waste,” said Eric Goldstein, New York City environment director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “On the issue of solid waste and recycling, the administration started slowly but it’s finishing strongly.”
“All eyes are on New York,” said Samantha MacBride, the city’s former deputy director of recycling and now assistant public policy professor at Baruch College. Organic waste recycling, she said, is the “holy grail of sustainable waste management in my view.” But there are substantial barriers and challenges to getting it right, she said. “New York City is so much denser than any other city in the country.”
The introduction of the organic waste recycling program into New York City households this May is part of an effort to double the city’s recycling rate to 30 percent by 2017. According to the city, this follows the “largest expansion of the recycling program in 25 years with the processing of all rigid plastics that began last spring.”
While the city has been criticized for its 15 percent recycling rate relative to cities like San Francisco, MacBride said that New York compares favorably to other post-industrial cities like Chicago and Philadelphia. She also argued that when San Francisco’s recycling rate is calculated in the same manner as New York’s — by looking at residential recycling only — San Francisco currently stands at 30 percent.
The mayor’s office says organic waste (food scraps, paper towels and napkins, yard material, etc.) is a significant part — over 35 percent — of New York City’s residential waste stream. The city has also launched recycling programs for materials (metal, glass, paper, plastic, food waste, textiles and electronics) which account for 80 percent of the total residential waste stream.
To date, only metal, glass, paper and plastic have citywide, curbside pick-up. This, along with the fact that New Yorkers recycle about half of what the city will pick up from their homes, helps to explain the city’s overall 15 percent recycling rate, MacBride said. Expanded recycling of food waste, textiles and electronics recycling could help increase that overall percentage significantly.
“The ultimate vision is to provide New Yorkers with the infrastructure and a convenient way to recycle everything in their home,” Deputy Commissioner for Recycling and Sustainability Ron Gonen said. “We should be able to divert 80 percent of our waste stream. By October, some areas of the city will have the infrastructure and resources to do this.”
In late September and October, the city plans to expand curbside organics collection to ten additional neighborhoods in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island.
The city is also encouraging apartment buildings with 10 units or more to sign up for on-site collection of electronics, clothing and textiles. The city describes e-cycleNYC, its electronics recycling initiative, as “the most expansive electronics waste recycling collection service in the United States.”
For smaller buildings, the city organizes annual drop-off events in every borough for various types of hazardous waste, including electronics. Starting in 2015, it will be illegal to discard electronics in the trash. Likewise, drop-off sites for clothing and textiles exist at 26 of the city’s Greenmarkets.
Gonen added that it will be equally important to find alternatives for materials sold and used in New York City — like polystyrene foam — that cannot be recycled and must go to a landfill.
A large part of the city’s motivation is economic. Gonen said that landfill costs had become prohibitive. Last year, it cost New York City taxpayers $336 million to deposit their residential waste in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina landfills. Gonen explained that it currently costs $86 per ton to send paper to a landfill, as opposed to $10 per ton to recycle it. Metal, glass and plastic are also cheaper to recycle than bury, he said.
There is also the potential to use organic waste for energy production. The city already turns sewage sludge into methane, or natural gas, at its Newtown Creek wastewater treatment plant in Brooklyn. The same process used at that plant, called anaerobic digestion, could be applied to organic food and yard waste, Gonen said.
“The economic benefits are very obvious. But you have to do it at scale,” he added.
Goldstein said the city was acting now to “get control of future sanitation costs.” But city taxpayers will need to make an upfront investment first.
“In their pilot stages they [the Department of Sanitation] collect tiny amounts that cost a great deal … on a per ton basis,” MacBride noted. She said that the quantity of organic material collected by the city had to be increased so that costs were “comparable for those that are charged for refuse and recycling collections.” Otherwise, she said, “the organics program will never be more than a symbolic little project”.
According to budget documents prepared by the Department of Sanitation, the export of the city’s waste is second only to trash collection and street cleaning as the department’s greatest expense. Export costs were projected to increase by almost $27 million between 2013 and 2014. At the same time, the city allocated $36.7 million for waste prevention, re-use and recycling in fiscal year 2014, which represents 3 percent of the department’s $1.4 billion budget.
Some critics have said that widespread expansion of organics recycling will cost the city in higher labor costs, but the head of the Uniformed Sanitation Men’s Association, Harry Nespoli, said that the city’s need to transport solid waste would drop as organics collection expanded. Nespoli, who represents over 6,000 city sanitation workers, said that, overall, the program “was working very well.”
After starting as a pilot project in 90 public schools, the organic waste recycling program is now being tested in the Westerleigh section of Staten Island, and in two Manhattan high-rise developments, the Helena and Morningside Gardens.
The Department of Sanitation has reported a 50 percent voluntary participation rate in Westerleigh since residents began recycling food waste in May. In Morningside Gardens, a 980-unit complex, the city says the total weight of trash has dropped by 35 percent and households are recycling about one pound of food scraps each day.
By 2014, the program is to have expanded into 19 more neighborhoods — covering 100,000 households — in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island.
MacBride said that the real challenge for the program is whether it can be successfully implemented in high-rise buildings. “It’s very hard to get this to work in an apartment building,” she said, adding that the “anonymity of apartment life” had proven to be a deterrence.” She also questioned whether there would be cultural resistance to separating and handling food waste amongst residents.
But at Morningside Gardens, “the general sense of the residents is very supportive,” said Russell Jermyn, the six-building complex’s general manager. He said that an outside area had been set up at the complex where residents could drop off their food waste at any point. Jermyn estimated that 55 to 60 percent of the units were participating and he was hopeful that percentage would increase.
Gonen said that it was too early to think about mandating all New Yorkers separate their organic waste, as is done with glass, metal, paper and plastic, in order to make it cost-effective.
“We need to give the program two years,” he said, adding that, “We also expect the next administration to look at the dollars and cents.” There are, he said, “tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars to be saved, and jobs to be created.” An example of the type of jobs that could be created can be found in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where anew recycling facility will create 100 permanent jobs, for instance, the city’s Economic Development Corporation said.
Nespoli agreed that requiring New Yorkers recycle organic waste was not the right strategy at present. “You’re going to have real cooperation from certain areas,” he said. “None from other areas.”
And despite the challenges involved, MacBride said that the long-term benefits of expanding organics recycling were too great for the city to ignore. “The more recycling there is, the less the cost. The upfront investment in collection is something that can be moved through. You can’t just go from zero to 10 — you have to be willing to bear the upfront costs,” she said.
If the city is able to significantly reduce the amount of residential waste heading to landfills, can the next mayor push the commercial sector in the same direction? After all, city residents generate 11,000 to 12,000 tons of trash per day; private businesses produce roughly twice that amount.
Put another way, roughly two-thirds (over 20,000 tons daily) of the waste produced in New York City comes from private businesses. Goldstein observed that “historically, the city has had less control and knows less about what is happening” with private sector waste management.
Commercial waste is taken by private carters to waste transfer stations, which are monitored by the city, for eventual shipment to out-of-state landfills. Businesses are required to separate paper, metal and some types of construction waste from their trash, and food service companies are also supposed to separate glass and plastic. Gonen said that the city was completing an analysis of the commercial waste stream this fall, including an estimate of how much of it is recycled.
The last analysis, which was released in 2004, found that the lion’s share of the city’s commercial waste stream was building and construction-related material .
Gonen said that the city was encouraging the commercial sector to follow the lead of the city’s residents as they expand what they recycle. He said that companies like Durst and Whole Foods had already moved ahead in doing so.
Goldstein observed that “it’s been easier to modify the behavior in the residential waste stream. These are hard changes to make because you’re asking everyone to modify for long-term environmental and economic benefit.” But, he added, “There’s no reason why the commercial and business sector shouldn’t be advancing in lock-step with the residential side.”
Mark Jaffe, the CEO of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, said that commercial sector organics recycling was not unimaginable. “This seems like something for the future,” he said, adding that, “maybe it’s time to revisit the [existing] commercial recycling law.”
Goldtsein said that the state of Massachusetts would soon be requiring businesses, like restaurants and grocery stores, to separate their organic waste. He said the same could be done in New York, especially now that a growing number of city residents and public school children are participating in the organics pilot.
The environmental justice movement is also taking a harder look at commercial recycling. Eddie Bautista, executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, said that now that the city was developing enclosed marine transfer stations that could process residential and commercial waste, local communities would start to press the city to reduce the volume of waste accepted at land-based waste transfer stations.
That capacity reduction would require an ongoing drop in commercial solid waste, he said.
The long-term goal, Bautista said, has been to reduce the impact of waste transfer stations on local communities. Bautista said that the city’s 2006 solid waste management plan anticipates that the commercial sector will start to use the marine transfer stations once a new regulatory and pricing system can be developed.
But Bautista said that an overhaul of the city’s waste management infrastructure was essential before issues like recycling could be tackled. Almost all of the city’s residential recycling waste will eventually be barged from a network of private and public marine transfer stations to a newly constructed “state of the art material recovery facility” in Sunset Park’s South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. The facility will be operated by Sims Metal Management, which processes all of the glass, metal and plastic collected by the city for re-use.
“This is not garbage — they are materials,” said Bautista. “It’s a zero-waste vision.”
MacBride argued that what will ultimately determine how much commercial waste is recycled are the markets for recycled materials. “By and large, it’s market forces that are pushing valuable materials out of the waste stream.” In terms of private sector recycling, she added, “all in all, it looks like the market is doing its job.”
She said that the city’s recent move to recycle rigid plastics was a “worthless, feel good endeavor,” arguing that the markets for these types of plastics was weak, while the markets for paper and metal were consistently strong.
While the city was not available to comment on MacBride’s assertion, a March report by Resource Recyling, Inc., found that “a robust and growing market for mixed rigid plastics had emerged in the past five years.” But the Portland, Ore.-based publisher of recycling industry journals also highlighted concerns about the consistency and stability of end markets for rigid plastics.
Nespoli and Gonen said those who question the future viability of the city’s recycling programs only have to look at the “organized” theft of materials set out for recycling to see the economic potential that exists. Nespoli said that the theft of paper and metal left on the street for city collection was “widespread without a doubt.” “We don’t have enough sanitation police — we see the trucks, we take down plate numbers, and we turn it into the department,” he said.
In response, the City Council has passed legislation that increases the fines for the theft of recyclables.
Bloomberg’s approach to waste appears to have moved beyond financial calculations. The mayor’s suspension of curbside residential recycling in 2002 for city budget reasons was widely criticized at the time. Goldstein said that the city now linked waste disposal to its broader sustainability goals.
“There’s also recognition that the city’s policy of exporting waste to landfills generates a lot of greenhouse gases,” he said. But, perhaps more importantly than ever, he said, “the city is thinking about the mayor’s environmental legacy.”
NEW YORK — In an effort to cut down on waste, City Council members and environmental advocates say they want to impose a 10 cent charge on each carryout bag.
Proponents of the bill that was announced earlier today say it will create a citywide incentive to reduce the use of plastic and paper carryout bags. But an industry group said the mandatory fee was a new tax and that it was unlikely that the proposed law would benefit the environment.
Councilman Brad Lander, one of the co-lead sponsors of the bill, said he believes the legislation was based on a tried-and-tested, commonsense approach to reducing “bag waste in New York City by at least 60 percent in a way that works for the environment and works for the city.”
While several cities around the country have banned plastic bags with varying degrees of success.
Under the proposed City Council law, restaurants that rely on take-out and food delivery, as well as food stamps recipients, would be exempt. Some street vendors would also be exempt, unless they sell what a grocery store or retailer sells.
The American Progressive Bag Alliance, an industry lobbyist group, said it opposes the bill and argues that reusable bags are just as wasteful as carryout bags. Mark Daniels, chair of the APBA, said in a statement that lawmakers should “consider the facts and concentrate on meaningful legislation to boost proper reuse and disposal of grocery bags.”
In 2008, the city implemented a law that requires larger retailers and wholesale stores to establish an in-store recycling program for plastic bags; however, a state law adopted in 2009 superseded it with a similar in-store recycling program.
Speaking to those efforts at plastic bag use reduction, Landers said recycling is an ineffective solution. “We just, it turns out, don’t bring them back,” he said. “We either throw them away because it’s easier or they wind up blowing off the cart.”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a similar carryout bag fee in 2008 — for 6 cents rather than 10 — but it was defeated by the City Council. Lander said the difference between the new legislation and what the mayor proposed equated to a tax, with the city collecting the revenue rather than the stores.
The bill is co-sponsored by Councilwomen Margaret Chin, who along with Councilwoman Gale Brewer attended today’s press conference. Advocacy groups Bag It NYC, the New York League of Conservation Voters, Citizens Committee for New York City, among others, were also well represented.
Peter Kostmayer of CCNYC, one of the nation’s oldest micro-funding organizations, said he finds strong support from communities around the city.
“There’ll be some opposition and that’s to be expected,” he said
NEW YORK — Jamaica Bay, the city’s largest wetland and open space, could be critical to the ongoing sustainability of the metropolis. The Bay’s marshes help to break waves from major storms and absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The Bay is also a refuge for hundreds of local and migratory species.
While the Bay was already a focus of the city’s sustainability efforts, the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy highlighted the need to maintain and strengthen the city’s natural defenses against rising sea levels.
“Wetlands are among the most biologically productive ecosystems in the world; they also can dissipate the destructive energy of wave action during storm conditions,” Daniel Zarrilli, the city’s director of resiliency, said in an email last week. “Expected sea level rise and the increased frequency of the most intense storms associated with climate change will make this function even more important in the future.”
In recognition of the Bay’s significance, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced Aug. 12 that a new Science and Resilience Institute will focus on the 18,000-acre estuary. A consortium of academic and other institutions, led by the City University of New York, will conduct research on “resilience in urban ecosystems and their adjacent communities.”
Bloomberg made mention of the Institute in his weekly radio adress on Sunday, saying, “We expect [the] Institute’s work will do a lot to help reduce dangers to our city from future storms, and help other cities around the world confront the challenges of climate change, as well.”
The focus of the research will be the restoration of the Bay and its marshlands and islands. Hundreds of acres of intertidal marshlands in Jamaica Bay have been lost since 1974, and the rate of loss appears to be accelerating, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation. Approximately 40 acres are lost per year. Possible reasons for marshland loss include dredging and erosion, excessive nitrogen and other nutient levels, and sea level rise.
The city also said that a public-private partnership — the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy — had been created to “raise funds for the planning and development of the Jamaica Bay-area parklands and waters.”
The conservancy will be chaired by billionaire Thomas Secunda, the global head of Bloomberg Financial Products and Services and one of the founding partners of Bloomberg L.P. Secunda chairs the National Parks Conservation Association. The conservancy board is to include representatives from nonprofits, such as former Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, now with the Trust for Public Land.
As the city confronts the growing impacts of climate change, planners are taking a deeper look at the the city’s relationship with its natural environment. Technology and hard infrastructure will be able to mitigate the effects of climate change to a certain extent. But natural systems will also play a large role in protecting the city, and making it livable as conditions become more extreme.
As much as Jamaica Bay can provide coastal protection and a link to nature for New Yorkers, it is also one of the city’s connections to the global ecosystem. According to the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, the Bay is a “critical” stopover area for birds on the Atlantic flyway, an “avian superhighway” stretching from Canada to Mexico.
Jamaica Bay is also a stop for migratory butterflies, like the monarch, and supports other seasonal and year-round species like the piping plover, osprey, peregrine falcon and seabeach amaranth.
Zarrilli said the Institute will play a “central role” in advancing many of the initiatives detailed in the city’s climate change resiliency plan released in June.
“The Institute will have the scientific capabilities to provide research and analysis of many of the phase 1 coastal protection initiatives,” he said. “Our plan specifically calls out the study of innovative coastal protection techniques.”
Zarrilli said that research at the Bay would allow the city to understand the efficacy of its resilience planning going forward.
“The basic premise of using natural protections such as wetlands requires more in depth study to understand the exact parameters where those measures work best,” he said. “Successful evaluation and monitoring of our phase 1 initiatives can lead to further expansion of specific coastal protection techniques.”
Study and restoration of the Bay and its marshes will also provide valuable information on the sustainability of local ecosystems. The American Littoral Society, a nonprofit organization that works to protect coastal habitats, has called the Bay “the most intact remnant of what was once a thriving estuarine ecosystem throughout the city” despite pollutants.
Home to 91 species of fish and 325 bird species (62 of which breed locally), the Bay is also “an important habitat for many species of reptiles, amphibians and mammals, ” according to the city’s DEP.
It is also part of the greater Gateway National Recreation Area, which encompasses some 26,000 acres in New York and New Jersey.
David Avrin, chief of resources for Gateway National Recreation Area, called the Bay a “living laboratory” and “environmental oasis.”
Avrin said that the Bay’s marshes — beyond offering protection from storms and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere — also provide a nursery area and food source for fish, such as flounder and bluefish.
He said the marshes in the Bay and around the country have been deteriorating for reasons that remain undeterermined.
“Marshes have to be able to respond to sea level rise—they are restricted to the amount of water they can tolerate,” he said. “How are all the marshes in the world going to respond? In a normal situation, marshes retreat upland. [Here] there is no option. They cannot retreat. That is the kind of research that will happen at this Institute.”
At least 150 acres of Jamaica Bay’s marshland have been restored over the last eight years, but Avrin said there was “a long way to go.”
Avrin maintained that Jamaica Bay — while “operating fairly well” — feels the ongoing impact of its location next to a huge metropolitan area. He said that at least four wastewater treatment plans currently release effluent into the Bay’s waters. The area is also the planned site for a natural gas pipeline project, which will extend from the Rockaway coast, underneath the Bay, and into Brooklyn. Construction on the cross-Bay lines began in March.
Last October’s hurricane also took a toll on the ecosystem. Residents reported that large amounts of fuel oil and debris entered the Bay as a result of the storm, and that two freshwater ponds were breached. The Rockaway coastline — which shields the Bay — was slammed by a 14-foot storm surge.
The Science and Resilience Institute will be formally established by the fall, with a temporary location at Brooklyn College.