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Recycling Before Exporting: Turning Garbage into Dollars


Amidst all of the turmoil accompanying the City's long overdue closure of its Fresh Kills Landfill, one bit of good news has been overshadowed: in late 1999, the City's diversion rate of recyclables - the most commonly accepted measure of recycling success - surpassed 21% of the City's residential waste. In three boroughs, over 25% of all garbage is now being recycled.

Local Law 19, requiring mandatory recycling, has come a long way since its passage ten years ago. Still a 21% diversion rate is but prelude to two significant challenges still facing the City. First, we must boost diversion rates even higher, so that the existing infrastructure for collecting and processing recyclables is being fully utilized. Second, the City should take maximum advantage of the economic value of what is collected and marketed - by attracting and developing local businesses that create jobs and economic activity.

It's worth noting that the City is exporting not only enormous quantities of residential and commercial trash - more than six million tons each year - but an increasingly large amount of cash, to national waste management and transportation companies, as well as communities that host landfills. Similarly, the bulk of the city's recyclables are also exported - to factories and mills located elsewhere in North America and in the world. These materials then create products that the City's businesses and residents turn around, import and buy.

So what can be done to boost recycling? Several things. First, improve collection of currently targeted materials. Much like the Police Department used ComStat as a tool to identify and target pockets of crime, the Department of Sanitation (DOS) has the data, but not the commitment or resources, to target poor-performing community districts. Returning to weekly collection has helped - nine districts now divert over 30% of their waste. But four districts still languish at 10% or below.

Second, expand the materials targeted for recycling. Look around the country. Other cities are targeting additional "discards" for which economic markets exist, or are developing. From residences, those materials include textiles (used clothing) and electronics; Seattle just added additional plastic containers, such as butter tubs and yogurt cups. Notwithstanding the City's failure to enforce existing commercial recycling rules, used commercial carpeting is on the cusp of being economically viable as a recyclable and should be so designated.

Third, expand recycling collection to public spaces - the last frontier. Currently, New York City Transit flaunts state and local law by refusing to collect recyclables throughout the subway system, and recycling containers should be included in the City's much-delayed plans for new street furniture.

Fourth, although more of a waste prevention initiative, food waste can now easily be eliminated from the City's residential garbage - through an aggressive program to install food waste disposers, i.e., garbage grinders, in residences. Although legal for over two years, disposers have not yet caught on in New York - in part because new housing construction is at historic lows. Yet, food waste is approximately 15% of the city's collected garbage - twice the national average. Reducing food waste also makes sense because it is largely water-based and generates vermin, odor, and methane gas problems at every stop along the way.

As to the economic development potential of recyclables, the City does have one flagship project: the development of the Visy Paper corrugated cardboard mill on Staten Island, which now consumes a good portion of our wastepaper. Unfortunately, the Visy mill is the exception that proves the rule. While New York is the "Saudi Arabia" of recyclables, it has failed to be creative and aggressive in capturing their value.

In fact, New York's enormous volume of wastepaper could supply several more urban-sized mills (for which at least one project is on the drawing board). Other cities are spurring and supporting businesses based on the recycling of tires, computers, carpets, wood, and other materials. Why isn't New York?

The problem isn't lack of studies; previous Sanitation and economic development czars have researched and advocated seizing this opportunity. We also don't lack models for programs; dozens of state and city-supported models exist elsewhere. Perhaps it's a matter of scale: when compared to Wall Street and Silicon Alley, recycling-related opportunities seem small. But for the City's dwindling manufacturing sector, and its residents who rely on those job opportunities, creating recycling-related jobs makes enormous good sense. After all, the raw materials already are here, as are the markets for the new products they can make!

As the debate sharpens over the City's management of solid waste for the coming decades, the opportunities for expanding and benefiting from recycling deserve serious consideration. In the face of estimates of $300 million or more annually in increased waste handling costs once Fresh Kills is closed, it makes no sense to continue unnecessary exports of trash - and hard-earned cash - to economies outside of our border, when they could much more beneficially be recycled and reused here.

Steve Hammer is Co-Chairperson, Citywide Recycling Advisory Board

Transfer Station Siting and Community Quality of Life: The Red Hook Story


In less than two years, Staten Island's Fresh Kills landfill, the last in New York City, will close. Creating an alternative system that will manage the post-Fresh Kills disposal of the 13,000 tons of residential garbage the City generates each day presents a tremendous opportunity to rationalize its solid waste management and create opportunity where now there are only problems.

Unfortunately, the Giuliani Administration has not taken advantage of the opportunities this transition offers. There has been no attempt to reduce the waste stream through aggressive recycling, nor to minimize the creation of neighborhood-disrupting new garbage facilities by converting to new uses the existing Marine Transfer Stations that will no longer have a purpose once Fresh Kills closes. Nor has there been any serious exploration of new waste management technologies which might, for instance, convert garbage to pollution reducing ethanol. Instead, the City has allowed a siting process to go forward that does not minimize community impacts, but rather shifts the burden of garbage management from Staten Island residents to poorer, minority neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the South Bronx.

For years, the City has ignored the law and refused to obey siting regulations designed to prevent this conflict producing opportunism. Even after losing in State courts on two occasions, there is still no genuine City compliance with either the specifics or intent of the law. As a result, garbage transfer stations, with their foul odors, noise and vermin, continue to be located next to parks, residences and churches in poor communities. In addition, the number of such facilities that can operate in a given area remains unrestricted.

I live in one of these communities, Red Hook, Brooklyn, which is now targeted for one of the largest waste facilities on the East Coast.

Red Hook is an old waterfront community with a rich, working class history. First settled by the Dutch in 1636, Red Hook was home to tide mills (mills which depended on the ebb and flow of the tide to turn the mill wheels) and later to ships and their support industries. By the Civil War, Red Hook was a thriving community of industrial and residential uses with a population of approximately 23,000. The factories and homes of the mid-19th century, are the housing stock and commercial/industrial spaces that exist today, which make Red Hook attractive for both residential and industrial uses.

Today, Red Hook is a one square mile peninsula, cut off from the rest of the City by the physical barrier of the Gowanus Elevated Expressway and the Brooklyn Battery tunnel, and isolated by the lack of subway service. Its current population is 12,000, with a median income of $10,500. Its residents are ninety percent African-American and Hispanic. Low income housing is 87% of the total housing stock. Red Hook already has five waste transfer stations, including a City municipal marine transfer station (MTS) with a capacity of 4800 tons of garbage per day. It is also the location for waste industry support facilities and other noxious uses such as an oil depot, chemical plants, impound lots, and bus depots (many of which are unpaved) The air shaft for the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, through which 70,000 vehicles travel each day, vents into the neighborhood. A number of brownfields are a further burden on neighborhood quality of life. Industrial zoning that was foisted upon the community in 1961 has decimated neighborhoods and produced large tracts of vacant land that make the community a prime candidate when a site for a noxious use is needed.

In recent years, the Red Hook community has struggled to revitalize itself by getting rid of such noxious uses and by gaining access to its own waterfront, a hitherto undiscovered treasure and the one place from which the Statue of Liberty can be viewed face-on. A pier was recently renovated for public access and several waterfront esplanades have been opened. Red Hook also boasts New York's only working trolleys. Red Hook is a diamond in the rough. It has some of the most stunning waterfront in the region with its commanding views not only of Lady Liberty, but also of the Manhattan Skyline and New York Bay. It is home to the Civil War Era waterfront warehouses and it is less than 1000 feet from Governor's Island.

At a time of growing national consensus about the need to control sprawl, it is critical that communities such as Red Hook are redeveloped to their fullest potential. They can offer a quality of urban life that can compete with the lure of the suburbs. Not to recognize and foster this potential would be a profound failure of civic imagination, one that would present major issues of environmental justice as well.

Working in concert with other communities through The Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods (OWN), major environmental groups and elected officials, the Red Hook Civic Association and the Red Hook community intends to see that this opportunity is not missed and the interests of the community, which are the interests of the City, shall prevail.

John McGutrick is a member of the Red Hook Civic Association

In The News: Waterfront Primer


The City's waterways are a maritime crossroads for a varied group of users and uses. These can generally be divided into six categories: organizational, economic and commercial, historic, environmental, communal, recreational.

Organizational -- Though the City's political process is sure-footed on land, offshore, it is chaotic. Overlapping jurisdictions and uncertain responsibilities make waterfront politics murky at best. More than twenty different federal, regional, state and city agencies share responsibility for the harbor. Labor unions, and civic, recreational, environmental organizations and business also enter the mix. No one entity is in charge, because everyone is.

Economic and commercial Commerce was the harbor's raison d'Ætre, and NYC's pre-eminence owes greatly to maritime activity. New Amsterdam was established for its fine harbor and abundant supply of export furs. Industrial innovation included Fulton's steamship, the Erie Canal, the Brooklyn Bridge, and containerization established New York among the world's great port cities.

Since containerization and a move toward integrated water and land shipping, cargo ports have moved to the New Jersey side of the harbor where space and geography facilitate road and rail links. Today, New York's remaining shipping terminals -- Howland Hook in Staten Island and Red Hook and South Brooklyn Marine in Brooklyn -- vie with ferry terminals and tourist attractions for harbor related income.

Congressman Nadler's rail tunnel proposal is rooted in the Empire State's tradition of large industrial innovations. His plan would connect terminals throughout the harbor, and would link East of Hudson rail lines to rail networks nationwide. His vision is a modern variation of a 1927 Port Authority plan.

Historic -- Historic sites are scattered throughout the harbor. They include popular sites like Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty and less well known sites like Castle Clinton at the Battery, Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, Fort Schuyler at Throgs Neck, and New Jersey's Sandy Hook Lighthouse. At Fort Schuyler, hidden within the SUNY Maritime College campus, is a well-preserved example of early nineteenth century military architecture with an extraordinary view. And the 1764 Sandy Hook lighthouse was already old when its much better known cousin, the Little Red Lighthouse under the George Washington Bridge was built in 1920 on the Hudson River. Few buildings or landmarks in NYC or in the nation have seen as much history drift past.

Environmental -- These days, less bad stuff floats in the waters of New York harbor. The 1972 Clean Water Act eventually forced NYC to process and treat all of its solid waste. Other local area governments also complied. While wastewater treatment does not always happen satisfactorily, particularly after significant storm events, water quality improvements have been widely noted.

Law, in concert with the acts of individuals and advocacy groups, has pushed government agencies to improve area waters and shores. Successes include the restoration of salt marshes, increases in harbor heron and striped bass populations, and safer water at bathing beaches.

The struggle for environmental improvement in this heavily used metropolis continues. A recent decline in the western Long Island Sound lobster population is attributed to water quality. Combined sewer overflows still release untreated sewage during heavy rains. Piers are crumbling due to marine borer infestation, a condition caused by cleaner waters. Each wave of ecological progress unveils the need for further action.

Communal -- Throughout the harbor, communities, individuals and organizations fight for access to the water, seeking improvements to the quality of their shores and esplanades, opening boat clubs, and promoting environmental awareness. In the South Bronx, where half a million people currently have no access to their encircling shoreline; residents protest further municipal encroachment. These Hunts Point residents want a waterfront that includes greenways, and boating - not garbage transfer.

Community efforts lead to conflict as well as to access. A ban on spoils dumping restricts dredging options, which in turn threatens port-related jobs. Using the Bronx coast to move garbage facilitates the City's efforts to shut the sprawling dump at Fresh Kills. What Staten Island gains, Hunts Point loses. The political process uses the waters to transfer political pain along with garbage and sludge.

Recreational -- As recreational uses emerge, human-powered craft are returning to harbor waters. In 1999, Tribeca's Downtown Boathouse sponsored thousands of free Hudson River kayak trips. On the East River, local youth row specially designed Whitehall gigs built in NYC. Intercollegiate crew brings pomp and regalia to the waters of Pelham Bay.

Currently, Mayor Giuliani is seeking to bring minor league baseball to Staten Island's north shore and to Brooklyn's Coney Island, incorporating the waterfront as a key element of design and transport. The Mayor's mostly-dormant proposal to move the Yankees to Manhattan's west side assumed that ferries would be a major means of transport for fans. The proposed $200M sports center on Randalls' Island and the plans for 2012 Olympics in NYC both include water transport as an integral component.

Finally, NYC has dozens of waterside parks where people push strollers, jog, fish, and seek sunsets. Open space at the waterfront is a source of inspiration and freedom in a crowded city. The air is better and there is elbowroom. At water's edge, there are places to relax, explore and escape.

Peter Sounds Off:

Only in NYC could 578 miles of waterfront be both heavily underutilized and insufficient for all users. Despite this skewing of supply and demand, today's harbor has tremendous latent possibility. While the waterfront is not likely to regain its status as the main focus for jobs and economic activity, it could become the nexus for recreation, open space and improved quality of life.

A few points are essential:

1) The environmental improvement of recent years must be nurtured and extended. Investments in water quality must continue in all watersheds that drain to the harbor from the upper Hudson River to the open ocean.

2) Pioneering efforts that increase access should receive bureaucratic and financial support. Zoning should facilitate recreational access in manufacturing zones. Piers should be stabilized and opened to the public. Bulkheads should be made safe or repaired.

3) The City's youth should be educated about the waterfront and taught to swim. The swimming pool on a barge concept should be realized.

4) The waterways are now being shared by more and more users; each user must respect the rights of the others.

5) Ferry service should be expanded for tourism, recreational access and commutation. Ferries and other vessels should be subject to appropriate air pollution and wake guidelines.

Peter B. Fleischer, currently writing a book on the New York City waterfront, was formerly a transportation and environment policy advisor to New York City Mayors David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani.



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