Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management

Good afternoon, and welcome to today's New York City Council hearing on Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management. During this time, during this today's hearing. No one may approach the dais. Please silence any electronic devices you may have. Chair, you may begin. Thank you, Roman. Good morning— oh, good afternoon, everyone. I think this is the latest start time that we've ever had to this committee.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today's Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management. I want to give all of you guys that are actually in here a round of applause. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for caring about waste equity in our city. Having said that, my name is Justin Sanchez. I am a councilmember and proud chair of this committee.

I want to thank all the members of the committee and the representatives of the admin for joining us today. The councilmembers who are here present with us are Councilmember Juang, Councilmember Lewis, Councilmember Hankerson. I'm here. I see no one on Zoom. Thank you, everyone, for your wide attendance.

Today's purpose of today's oversight hearing is to learn more about the city's implementation of the Waste Equity Law. So this was passed as Local Law 152 in 2018, and to assess our progress on reducing the negative impacts of the city's waste collection, recycling, and transfer industry on vulnerable New Yorkers. New York City's most economically disadvantaged communities and communities of color— hi, my district— tend to face disproportionate health hazards associated with waste transfer infrastructure.

Specifically Bronx 1 and 2. Hi. Exposure to heavy truck traffic and the accompanying noise, air pollution, and odor have been linked to various negative health and developmental outcomes, including— Cancer. but not limited to reduced intellectual development in children, increased incidence of asthma, and heightened risk of heart defects and low birth weights in babies when birthing parents are exposed to truck emissions during pregnancies.

I'd also like to note that we've been welcomed by Councilmember Wilson. I've been here. Oh, and a truck sounded just at that time, if you could hear that. The waste equity law's mandated reduction in private transfer station capacity are meant to help to alleviate some of these harms experienced by environmental justice communities, also commonly referred to during this hearing as EJ communities, and to encourage means of transferring waste that avoid diesel trucks.

Every waste transfer station located in 4 of the city's most burdened community districts— that includes Brooklyn Community District 1, Queens Community District 12, and Bronx Community Districts 1 and Community District 2— None in Manhattan. Were required to comply with waste capacity reductions. In order to ensure effective oversight, the Waste Equity Law imposed reporting and notification requirements on the Department of Sanitation to track the permitted capacity in different waste transfer stations, track any impacts on employment from these reductions, alert the mayor and the council in the event that a waste transfer station approaches or exceeds their total permitted capacity, and report on the feasibility of reducing truck traffic in residential neighborhoods through means other than capacity reductions.

Since 2019, DSNY has complied with the law's reporting requirements by publishing annual implementation reports and providing the relevant data for that year. The most recent Waste Equity Law Implementation Annual Report for calendar year 2025 was just released last month. We are pleased that DSNY's data shows that overall, the waste transfer station volume is approximately 16,083 tons per day, which represents a 15% decrease in the waste transfer volume citywide.

I want to underscore that, citywide, in the law's passage. However, that being said, we are concerned that none, zero, of the 4 designated community districts slated for the mandated reductions in permitted private transfer station capacity have achieved full compliance with the reduction of the requirements of the Waste Equity Law. Additionally, we are worried that the permitted capacity reductions we have seen targeted mostly unused capacity at waste transfer stations, and that 2 stations appear to have not gone any reduction whatsoever.

And just so that everyone is on the same page, so out of the 4 community districts that we spoke about, Brooklyn CD1, Queens CD12, Brooklyn CD1. Bronx CD1 and Bronx CD2. Brooklyn CD1 was supposed to have a 50% reduction in capacity, whereas Queens CD12, Bronx 1, and Bronx 2 were supposed to have a 33% reduction in capacity, and none of those targets have been hit.

So having said that, despite progress on the waste equity laws, we want to be clear that we have seen a 15% reduction in the citywide So there has been progress. Despite that progress, the city is far from achieving its equitable distribution of the burdens of waste transfer infrastructure citywide. To date, approximately 74% of citywide throughput, the average daily amount of solid waste delivered from a solid waste transfer station, remains concentrated in the 4 designated community districts.

We look forward to hearing from DSNY and advocates about the implementation challenges and the shortcomings of the Waste Equity Law and the city's plans to fulfill the law's requirements as soon as possible. We also look forward to discussing proposals to improve waste infrastructure inequities borne by these communities.

In addition to the oversight, we will be hearing 5 bills today. First, Intro Number 30. Oh. Before I start that, we've been welcomed by Councilmember Epstein. First, Intro Number 30, sponsored by Majority Leader Abreu and Councilmember Lewis, would require the city to create a program that would mandate city-owned nonresidential buildings to dispose of their waste in stationary on-street containers.

Intro Number 987, also sponsored by Majority Leader Abreu and Councilmember Ressler, would allow block associations and nonprofit associations to request stationary on-street waste containers for the storage and collection of waste. Next up, Intro Number 352, sponsored by Councilmember Nurse, which would require DSNY to develop a plan for ensuring proper disposal of rechargeable batteries used for powered mobility devices such as motorized bicycles and scooters.

We are also hearing Intro 401, sponsored by Councilmember Ressler, which would require DSNY to install a minimum number of public organic waste receptacles in every community district. Finally, Intro Number 1041, sponsored by Council Member Hankerson. This bill would bar DSNY from removing public litter baskets solely on the basis that they were used for illegal dumping, requiring notification to council members and community boards when a removal is proposed, and publishing data around why baskets were removed and why.

I now pass the floor and the mic to Councilmember Hankerson to discuss his bill.

Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. For years, New Yorkers have been calling for cleaner streets and better sanitation services to improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods. Residents have continuously pushed for more public litter baskets, and councilmembers have even allocated funding to DSNY to bring more baskets into their districts. Yet despite these efforts, there never seem to be enough.

Part of the reason is a shameful practice by DSNY, at least I think it's shameful, of routinely removing public litter baskets in response to illegal dumping or the disposal of household garbage, which the department categorizes as improper use of these baskets. In doing so, entire neighborhoods of thousands of residents are being punished for the actions of a few bad actors.

And instead of addressing the people responsible for the dumping, we are taking away a service that the rest of the community is in so desperate need of. In Southeast Queens, where I represent, we have spent a great deal of time fighting to get our streets clean, uh, and to keep them clean. I understand the frustration that comes with repeatedly cleaning the same location, only to return the next morning and find it covered in improper waste again.

But removing a litter basket does very little to address the behavior. Now, the DSNY has stated that it no longer engages in this practice, and I welcome that change. Thank you. But I believe it is in our best interest, Mr. Chair, for our communities to codify that protection into law so that it remains the standard regardless of who is leading the agency or the city.

Under Intro 1041, DSNY would no longer be permitted to remove a public litter basket solely on the grounds of illegal dumping. The bill would require the department to notify the local council member and community board before removing the basket and give them 10 business days to respond. Our local community boards and elected officials hear directly from residents about the situation— I'm sorry, about the sanitation conditions in their neighborhoods.

They should have an opportunity to weigh in before service is taken away from the very people that they represent. The legislation will require reporting on basket removals and subsequent litter complaints. giving us a better understanding of whether these decisions are actually improving the conditions of the neighborhoods that we represent and live in day after day. New Yorkers pay taxes for sanitation services, and they have every right to expect those services to be maintained.

If someone is abusing a litter basket, then our attention should be directed to the person responsible. We should be increasing enforcement against illegal dumping and working with communities to address these problem locations. rather than reducing the very services residents have fought to receive. I am proud to sponsor this legislation and look forward to working with my colleagues to get it passed.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Hankerson. I look forward to the dialogue regarding these bills today. I would also like to thank everyone and my team, especially my legislative director, River Alexander, for all of the work in getting this together, and the Sanitation Committee staff, especially Samia Shell. And, um, last time we shouted out Samia, but this time I really want to make sure that we're shouting out Natasha Bynum, who is also our, uh, co-counsel, uh, at— on this committee.

And we are so excited by the work. And, um, I want to make sure before we continue that we have also been joined by the amazing Councilmember Hanif via Zoom. Thank you, Councilmember Hanif. And with that, I want to make sure I'm not forgetting anything. We will start by hearing testimony from the Department of Sanitation, followed by some questions to the agency, and then we will hear testimony from the public.

I will now turn it over to committee counsel to administer the oath. Good afternoon. Please raise your right hand. Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in your testimony before the council members and to respond honestly to council member questions? I do. You may begin.

Good afternoon, Chair Sanchez and members of the City Council Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management. I'm Gregory Anderson, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Sanitation, and I am joined by Jen McDonnell, our Deputy Commissioner for Solid Waste Management. The Department of Sanitation has equity baked into our functions at the deepest structural level, in that we provide a free, unlimited service to all New Yorkers.

There's no sign-up, there's no opt-in, there's no fee for collection or limit on how much you can set out. Just put your waste at the curb, properly sorted and in a container, and we'll come get it. And sanitation serves everyone without question and is committed to fairness. We also acknowledge that our waste management and export system reflects longstanding injustices and inequities.

To begin to correct these, we have implemented the city's landmark 2006 Solid Waste Management Plan, which called for a move away from truck export of solid waste from New York City to more sustainable and equitable rail and barge export. The facilities and system built as a result of that plan represent billions of dollars in investment, both public and private, in equitable, sustainable waste management systems and have reduced truck traffic in historically overburdened communities by hundreds of trips per per day.

We did not stop there. Local Law 152 of 2018, which DSNY spent more than a decade working with the City Council on prior to its enactment, required a reduction in the permitted capacity of putrescible and non-putrescible transfer stations in 4 historically overburdened community districts, by 50% in Brooklyn District 1, and by 33% in Queens District 12 and Bronx Districts 1 and 2.

The law also allowed for certain exemptions to those reductions in permitted capacity for activities consistent with the city's sustainability goals, including the processing of recyclables and organic waste, for diverting construction and demolition debris to beneficial use, and for facilities that export waste by rail. Local Law 152 represented the culmination of years of advocacy and organizing that began decades ago, as the city began to close its own disposal facilities.

Today, the law has been fully implemented, and we have not— and we have reduced not only permitted capacity, but also actual throughput and actual truck traffic in these historically overburdened communities. And the ongoing implementation of commercial waste zones will continue to reduce truck traffic in these neighborhoods. The commercial waste zone program is being implemented under Local Law 199 of 2019.

To reform the commercial waste hauling system by establishing new safety standards for workers in the, in the industry, improving service for businesses, increasing diversion rates, reducing vehicle miles traveled, as well as the harmful emissions that come from waste hauling trucks. When fully implemented, we expect that commercial waste zones will result in a 63% reduction in truck traffic associated with commercial waste collection, more than 18 million miles per year.

And the fiscal year '26 commercial waste zones annual report was released just 2 weeks ago, covering the expansion from just 1 initial zone to 6 fully operational zones as of the end of June of this year. DSNY has continued to strengthen the oversight framework, including monitoring awardee compliance, collecting and reviewing required operational data, conducting enforcement activities, supporting worker safety initiatives, and engaging businesses and other stakeholders throughout every phase of implementation.

There's a substantial amount of data and information in that report, including information on the 192,000 outreach activities we've conducted by sanitation and our partners, 2,581 individual employee trainings conducted by Carters. There's collection tonnage by zone and by stream, enforcement actions, and much, much more. And I'll note that that data is all available in machine-readable, manipulatable format, not just a PDF.

When Local Law 199 was enacted, some opponents projected that the program would cause massive disruption for businesses, drive up costs, and reduce the quality of service. To date, the opposite has been true. Pricing and service quality have both improved, and the city's The streets are both cleaner and safer as a result. We are proud of our implementation of this historic program, and we look forward to celebrating its full implementation at the end of next year.

DSNY is also proud to have contributed to New York City's first citywide racial equity plan mandated by voters in a 2022 ballot initiative. In this plan, we acknowledge that our operations are deeply connected with structural issues that affect New Yorkers of color, and that our mission includes a responsibility to address inequities in service levels and neighborhood cleanliness.

As we work to strengthen our efforts, we are committed to ensuring that our sanitation programs promote equity and serve all New Yorkers, especially those in historically underserved communities. In this report, we commit to continuously improving programs and service delivery to New Yorkers through ongoing evaluation of data analytics, stakeholder feedback, and operational enhancements that are responsive to community needs.

And in the coming years, we will publish neighborhood-level datasets to measure key outcomes around diversion, containerization, and commercial waste reform at the neighborhood level. These will include measures such as commercial and residential diversion rates, rat sightings, vehicle miles traveled, diversion participation, and we'll use those to identify disparities and target improvements in our services. We will also use this data to inform outreach, enforcement, and resource allocation.

Turning now to the legislation on today's agenda, Intro 30, sponsored by Councilmember Breiu, would require Sanitation, in consultation with DCAS and DOE, to create a program requiring city-owned buildings to dispose of waste in stationary on-street containers. DSNY agrees that we should move aggressively to containerize the city's trash. And in fact, trash containerization has been required for all city agencies for nearly 2 years.

Trash containerization is imperative for New York City, but we must take a thoughtful and strategic approach that accounts for density and efficiency. This bill would require all city agency facilities, including small schools and offices, to use Empire bins, which may not be appropriate in all cases. Moreover, all city buildings, as I said before, are already required to use some form of trash containerization, whether through tilt trucks, NYC bins, or off-street containerized collection.

In developing the plan for the citywide rollout of Empire Bins, we have focused on residential properties with 10 or more units not currently covered by our containerization requirements to maximize the impact of our investments in getting trash bags off the sidewalk. Empire Bins now serve large residential buildings in West Harlem and are rolling out this fall in Brooklyn Community District 2, including downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene.

And as the mayor announced this spring, we are on an aggressive timeline to achieve full trash containerization by 2031, faster than ever previously envisioned. Adding Empire Bins at every city facility important focus on residential trash and delay the full rollout. There are certainly some municipal buildings for which Empire Bin Service is appropriate, and we will pursue installation at the appropriate time.

We would be happy to continue conversations with the council as we expand our revolutionary trash containerization programs.

Sponsored by Councilmember Nurse, would require DSNY to develop a plan to increase the number of plan for ensuring proper disposal of rechargeable batteries from powered mobility devices. These batteries represent a major problem for sanitation and our partners, causing fires in our trucks and our facilities when they are improperly disposed of. DSNY currently offers services aligned with the spirit of this legislation.

We recently expanded the operating hours of our special waste drop-off sites and now have one location in every borough that accepts rechargeable batteries, electronics, paint, and automotive products 5 days a week, Tuesday to Saturday, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Adding a second site in each borough and further expanding those hours would require substantial additional resources. The proposed bill also calls for DSNY to accept these items at any disposal or collection event organized by the department.

And while we do collect them at our SAFE events, one per borough per year, including one coming up this weekend on Staten Island, it would be impractical to collect them at all department-sponsored events without additional funding or material support from the rechargeable battery industry. And we do believe that battery manufacturers should be primarily responsible for the cost of collecting unwanted batteries and educating the public on safe use and disposal.

Many rechargeable batteries, but importantly excluding those in e-mobility devices, are already covered by a New York State extended producer responsibility and retailer take-back program. This law requires that all stores that sell rechargeable batteries or items that contain them must also collect them for recycling, and the cost of that program is borne by battery manufacturers. The state recently enacted legislation to expand this producer responsibility program to include e-mobility batteries, but retailer take-back and recycling of those items remains voluntary in the updated state law.

We are currently working with DEC, FDNY, and the producers— or the program's producer responsibility organization, the Battery Network, to ensure that the producer responsibility program implemented pursuant to this law provides for sufficiently safe and convenient collection options for New York City residents, including by providing funding for city-operated collection sites and events. We appreciate the council's strong interest in this topic and will keep the council informed as these discussions progress.

Intro 401, sponsored by Councilmember Ressler, would require DSNY to install 25 public organic waste receptacles in every community district. We currently have a network of approximately 400 smart compost bins installed citywide, and that program was established before the implementation of our nation-leading mandatory universal curbside composting program. which is our primary approach for providing composting service for New Yorkers.

Since the mandatory program has been fully implemented and we have actually been enforcing it, utilization of the smart compost bins has declined significantly. And given this fact and the added cost to install and service the additional organic waste receptacles this bill would require, we cannot support this bill at this time. would require DSNY to establish a process for block associations and nonprofits to request shared stationary on-street containers.

We have already established an application process for shared Empire bins for small, 1 to 9 unit, and medium, 10 to 30 unit buildings located in Brooklyn District 2 as we roll out this fall. And we are actively seeking applicants to test that approach. We look forward to further discussions with the council about this legislation as we continue to implement our containerization program.

Lastly, Intro 1041, sponsored by Councilmember Hankerson, would change how the department considers litter basket removals. We understand that the department's past practice of removing chronically misused litter baskets was frustrating to elected officials and New Yorkers alike, and today several factors make such removals rare. And when exercised, the last possible resort. First, the department has the highest level of baseline-funded litter basket service in recorded history, meaning that we are able to service every basket currently on the street more frequently all across the city.

Second, the department adjusts service levels more thoughtfully and proactively than in the past, changing the frequency and time of day of collection to best optimize service to a neighborhood's need. Third, our network of community partners has grown in both size and scope, including BIDs, local mutual aid groups, and supplemental service providers. And finally, thanks to action by the City Council several years ago, we have stronger enforcement tools to hold those who misuse our litter baskets for disposal of household and commercial waste accountable.

In cases— in rare cases of clear recurring misuse that leads to consistent unmanageable overflow, sanitation may determine that a basket must be removed or relocated. Any such removals are subject to my own personal review, and it is an action that I do not take lightly. And in fact, we have not yet removed a litter basket since I have been commissioner.

But it is critical that we retain this tool as an option of last resort to address chronic misuse and improper disposal that affects our city's neighborhoods. And on reporting, I'm happy to say that we recently began updating the litter basket inventory posted on open data on a monthly rather than quarterly basis, and I'd be happy to discuss with you further reporting, transparency, and accountability with the council.

So thank you for the opportunity to testify on these topics today, and we are happy to answer your questions.

Thank you so much. So just let's start with some general oversight. How many private waste transfer stations are there in New York City? Hold on. There are, it looks like about 16 putrescible waste transfer stations and another, I would say, roughly 21 non-putrescible waste transfer stations. Okay. And how many municipal waste transfer stations are there in New York City?

5. And can you also give us the breakdown? Those are all PCHSB. And can you walk us through how the required permitted capacity reductions of the Waste Equity Law were implemented by DSNY in each of the 4 designated districts between 2019 and 2020? Yeah, so the permitted capacity reductions, we started with the existing permitted capacity. We took out any exempted material.

So that was a certain amount could be set aside for organic waste processing. We gave— and this was all laid out in Local Law 152— there was credit for demonstrated recyclables processing. So if you were taking in let's say, 100 tonnes a day of single-stream recycling or paper recycling, that got set aside, uh, as an exemption. And for C&D, uh, transfer stations, we set aside any actual demonstrated recycling that they were doing.

Whatever permitted capacity was left got, uh, reduced by the percentage set forth in Local Law 152. So, analysis of the waste equity law data, shows that none of the 4 designated CDs have achieved 100% compliance with the law's reduction. Specifically looking at the waste equity data, BK1 required 50% but is only at 35.8% overall reduction, including both stations.

Similarly, the 33% reduction in BX1 is only down to 14.8%. BX2 is down to 21%. And Queens 12 is down to 23.9%. Thank you. Were any required reductions exempted in any of the 4 CDs? And if so, which exemptions were used and for which facilities? So the way that the exemptions are applied under Local Law 152 is that those are applied first prior to the reduction in permitted capacity.

And then the remaining amount after the exceptions is what's reduced by either 33% or 50% based on the community district. And have capacity reductions targeted mostly unused capacity at waste transfer stations? It's a mix of both. There are, as I said in my testimony, there were actual reductions in throughput as a result of the implementation of this law.

So there are— there was real tangible capacity that had been used prior to the implementation of Local Law 152 that can no longer be used. So can you explain to us what challenges that the department has faced implementing the law and the law's reduction requirements? What more challenges have been faced, and, and what can be done to ensure that total compliance is achieved?

So we've achieved total compliance with the law as it was written and enacted by the City Council and as was laid out in the environmental review that we did ahead of the law's passage. So You know, from our perspective, we have implemented that law. That doesn't mean that we have stopped working toward additional waste equity. And I think the commercial waste zones program is a great example of that.

Not only will a commercial waste zones program reduce truck traffic citywide, but it will reduce truck traffic in particular in neighborhoods that host waste transfer stations, commercial carting, hubs of operations and other waste-related facilities. And so, you know, we have seen and will continue to see truck traffic reduce in those neighborhoods as we implement that program. So you said we've hit all of the, all of the reduction markers, but can you explain again?

So first you took out all the exemptions. Can you talk to us about what these exemptions were and what that means to the actual number in reduction that we're talking about? Yeah, so the law required us to go transfer station by transfer station and take the existing permitted capacity, then take any exemptions that were set forth in the law very explicitly, remove those from the existing permitted capacity, take the reduction as a percentage basis, and then add back the exempted permit.

So if you take— and I'm just going to use an example here to make it more concrete. Okay. But if you take, let's say, the Action Environmental— now it's IWS— transfer station in Bronx Community District 1, their initial permitted capacity was 2,999. Their new permitted capacity was 2,101. The reason that that's not 1,999 or 2,000, depending on how you round, is because they had existing recyclable materials that they were processing through that facility. demonstrated in previous transfer station reports to Sanitation and to DEC.

And so under Local Law 152, that amount of recycling, the average amount of recycling, I think it was a, I think a 1-year, maybe 2-year lookback, was set aside prior to the 33% reduction being applied and then added back after the 33% reduction. Okay. Seems— And so when you go facility by facility, There are exemptions for many, not all, of the facilities that, uh, that had reductions taken.

So talking about those facilities, um, I do want to highlight, uh, Waste Management, um, in, uh, DX1 and in BK1. It doesn't look like they had, from the data that we have, that there have been any reductions whatsoever, um, there. And so, um, can you help explain why these facilities didn't go through any required capacity reductions, um, especially when there's no reported capacity reserves at these stations for organics.

What other exemptions did they receive? Yeah, so there's an exemption in Local Law 152 for any facility that, um, exports the majority of its waste by rail, uh, and both of those waste management facilities export nearly all of their waste by rail. Uh, some facilities like the Metropolitan Transfer Station and BX2 actually received capacity increases in 2025.

Why was that? Yeah, so again, there was a provision in Local Law 152 that allows for facilities that want to add additional capacity for organics processing or for recyclable material processing to take a one-time credit for that investment in new processing infrastructure. And so they applied for and received that one-time credit, and that's all That process is laid out in Local Law 152 as well.

And I have more questions, but I'm going to make sure that we turn it over to my colleague really quickly.

But I'm just curious. So you mentioned a lot of the additional work that you have been doing in terms of the supplemental work to the waste equity law, talking about containerization, talking about all these advancements. But the thing that I find really curious is that out of all of the districts that we've mentioned, none of those districts outside of now Bronx 2, CD2, are the start of the containerization pilot?

Were any a part of any of these programs? And I'm curious, why weren't these districts prioritized over other districts that didn't need it as much as we did? Bronx 2 is first on the list for next year, so I think we're coming that way. Yes, but my question is, is there a reason why these 4 districts that we had outlined, that we understood why weren't they the number one priorities for these containerization pilots, for any of these pilots that are coming out, rather than other districts that, you know, aren't the top of this list that have been dealing with these burdens that these other communities haven't but are getting the nice things before us?

I would say the fact that one of those districts is one of the first 3 districts to receive Empire bins is a sign that we are in fact doing exactly what you're saying. Yes, but also I don't think we're answering the question of like why those other districts were chosen. And also it's one out of, I think we have the 9 or 10 outlined already, and out of those only one are in these top EJ districts and overburdened communities.

And so curious why there hasn't been a bigger push for any of these other places to be put in as well. So the great news is that every district in New York City will have trash, full trash containerization by the end of 2031. So we are coming for every district citywide. As we discussed in previous hearings, the methodology for selecting the next 6 districts after Manhattan Community District 9, West Harlem, and Brooklyn Community District 2 was, one, we wanted to have districts in each of the 5 boroughs.

So we are adding 2 districts in the Bronx, 1 in Manhattan, 1 in Queens, 1 in Brooklyn, 1 in Staten Island. Second, we wanted to test this in a variety of different sort of geographic and density use cases. So, you know, we're doing this— we're rolling out in Bronx 5, for example, which will be the hilliest district that we've ever put Empire Bins in.

We're coming to Bronx Community District 2, which, as you've highlighted, I think has, you know, many of the equity and socioeconomic concerns that we're trying to address through much of this work. We're going to Queens West 2, which is the fastest growing neighborhood in the United States at this moment. So I think we picked districts based on a bunch of different criteria.

Equity was certainly one of them. And I think the fact that we're coming to Bronx District 2 is a marker of that. Can we get a commitment from the admin that the next districts after these 6 will be the remaining 3 environmental community districts? that are waiting to have some justice. We will certainly take a look at it.

We will follow back up on that sidestepped question. Councilmember Hankerson. And also before we— we have been greatly joined by Councilmember Ressler. Councilmember Hankerson, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair. I'm going to move relatively quickly through my questions. When did the department halt the practice of removing trash bins on the basis of illegal dumping? So I became commissioner on March 30th, 2026, and one of the first things I said to my team was, absolutely not. We are not doing that anymore. Great. Does the agency— excuse me, does the agency still remove baskets, but for other reasons aside from illegal dumping?

In general, no. What we will sometimes do is, and a lot of this happens in close collaboration with City Council members, we'll move baskets from, you know, if there's 4 corners at an intersection, we'll move it from one corner to another based on, you know, a concern from a resident or a business owner or the location of a bus stop.

Maybe that gets moved, something like that. So we certainly do relocate them, but we don't generally remove them. How often do you collaborate with council members to make that decision? All the time, on a daily basis. No one's called me. We're, you know, I think you, you know how to get in touch with us. So if you want us to come out and talk about your litter baskets, we're happy to do so anytime.

I'd love for you all to get in touch with me as well. So how does the agency determine where litter baskets are placed? There's a number of factors that go into it. We look at things like bus routes. We look at things like subway stations. Litter baskets, because they are predominantly for the kind of trash that you have when you're walking around— a coffee cup, a water bottle, a sandwich wrapper— we predominantly put them in, in places along commercial corridors because that's where you have the most pedestrians and the most people sort of carrying that material.

And then, you know, we look at other factors like where there are bids, there are more litter baskets because the bids in some cases purchase those litter baskets themselves, and in addition, they service the litter baskets on a much more frequent basis. So in bid areas, we have a much higher concentration. Got it. I'm glad you said that.

So in Queens, the intersection of Metropolitan Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard, there are 6 litter baskets. But in Southeast Queens, Archer Avenue and Parsons Boulevard, which is the major hub, it's like the only transportation hub in Southeast Queens, there are zero. What's the reasoning for that? I can't speak to that specific intersection. I know my office has been trying to schedule some time for me to come out and do a walkthrough with you, so happy to come out whenever you'd like and we can chat about specific needs.

And if we need to add more litter baskets, we will do that. Okay. If we can look into it before the walkthrough, so that's not actually in my district, but that station is serviced or used by folks in my district. It's actually in Deputy Speaker Natasha Williams' district. There was actually a community cleanup that happened, and, you know, it's kind of going viral right now.

I can send you the video because the major question is, why are there no garbage bins in this corridor that sees thousands of people hour after hour? It just doesn't really make sense. How do you determine the type of litter basket that's placed on a corner? There's a couple different factors we take into account. One, some council members tell us they prefer a certain type of litter basket, and if they do that, then, you know, we try to honor that preference.

Some council members fund a specific kind of litter basket. So for the, the newer Better Bin litter baskets, those cost about $1,200 each. And so, you know, we only buy— we're only able to buy with our budgeted funding a few hundred of those a year. But if a city council member says, I would like to purchase 250 for my district, we honor that request.

They give us the money, we purchase the baskets, and we put them out. Okay. All right. But generally, you know, we are trying to achieve a consistent look and feel across a given corridor. So if a member allocates money towards the purchase of litter baskets, do they have more of a say as to where those litter baskets go, or is that still fully determined by DSNY?

Every council member can provide input on where the litter baskets go. When they're buying litter baskets, sure, we have a conversation about where would you like the— again, let's use the number 250, but it could be 10, 20, 30, 40. We have a conversation with that member's office around where, where do you want these specific litter baskets to go?

Do you want to replace older litter baskets? Do you want to try to fill in gaps? in the litter basket network, so we have that conversation with everyone. I have a follow-up to that, but I'm running out of time. I'm going to try and get through these last 2, if that's okay, Mr. Chair. Are truck operators mandated to report if a litter basket is removed off of their route?

So let's say sanitation— because I've been told by some of your chiefs that sometimes baskets are removed by residents or businesses and not actually the department. So is a truck operator mandated to report If a basket is not there that they typically see? Yeah, so the sanitation workers, whether they're on curbside collection service or litter basket collection service, should be reporting to us.

We also, on a quarterly basis, do a full litter basket inventory. So the list of litter basket locations that we have approved right now, I think, is like 25,049, and we will send officers out and do a physical inventory of every single approved location. and determine, is there a litter basket on, on site? What kind of litter basket?

Is it damaged? Is it broken? Does it need to be replaced? And so we go through that process on a quarterly basis. That's how right now we know there are about 3,300 missing litter baskets across New York City, and we are in the process right now of trying to replace every single one of those missing litter baskets.

Final question: What are the enforcement tools used by the agency to address illegal So, and I'll just, as a point of clarification, when we talk about illegal dumping, we mean dumping from a vehicle. That's typically not the kind of issues we have around litter baskets. But the— Well, I'm going to have to disagree with you. In my district, I've seen folks pull up to a litter basket in a vehicle, a van, and dump.

And, you know, obviously in talking with members of the department, you know, they'll say, oh, it's household trash. But I'm like, no, it's not always household trash. Sometimes it is someone just taking whether it's debris from a construction site or whatever and dumping it on a corner at a litter basket. So that's why I say it that way.

Yeah, so I, and I think that's an important distinction, and every situation is different. At the end of the day, it's a $4,000 ticket if you dump a substantial amount of material from a vehicle. It's a $75 ticket if you improperly dispose of household or commercial waste near a litter basket. And so, you know, in general, we— when it's that kind of household trash near a litter basket, we'll issue the $75 ticket.

If we see any identifying information, if we have a corner store that has a security camera and can tell us it came from this house or it came from this other business, we can issue a ticket based on that. because there's a presumption of responsibility there. Thank you. Thank you so much, Councilmember Hankerson. I want to flag that we've also been joined by the amazing Councilmember Maloney.

And I would now like to turn it over to Councilmember Wilson.

Thank you, Chair. My colleague from Queens asked a lot of my questions, so I may not use the whole time. Just on the replacements of The baskets, do you— you said you buy a few hundred a year. A few hundred of the BetterBins specifically. Of the BetterBins. Okay. So what is the wait time like on a replacement right now?

If, you know, someone makes a 311 call, they're missing one here, how— what's the— how long does it take for a new basket to go out to the corner? Wait time, I would say, varies because we're trying to replace baskets pretty systematically. You know, we right now actually just got an update from my team that Councilmember Williams' baskets are in the process of being replaced.

So some of those that may have been missing and identified in that viral video are in the process of being replaced as we get litter baskets in from our vendor. So, you know, if it's a 311 complaint, it might be a few weeks or even a month or two. before they're replaced if we had just done a big replacement cycle in that district, because we want to try to sort of fill all the holes.

Our goal is, by the end of this calendar year, to have replaced every litter basket that we've identified as an approved location that is missing, and then have a sort of good baseline for being able to replace litter baskets on a more consistent basis going forward. The last administration, just to be frank, did not emphasize replacing missing litter baskets.

They were much more focused on buying fewer of the nicer Better Bin litter baskets rather than many, many more of the utilitarian green wire litter basket that we all know and love. We're trying to balance those 2 things by buying more of the green litter, green wire litter baskets in order to be able to just fill the holes that we know are out there.

And on the— for the Better Bins, Is the design— how's the design working? Because I feel like I walk around my district and I see them in so many different states. You know, the door is ripped off, the piece is missing off the top. And does that contribute to removal? And is the design of the Better Bin working out?

So I would say the Better Bins are— they have more parts to them. So there's more things that could break. A standard green wire litter basket has exactly one part, and so it either works or it doesn't. Mm-hmm. Um, but with the BetterBins, you know, if, if the top is missing, the great news is it still functions as a litter basket.

Um, it just doesn't look whole. So we do try to replace individual parts rather than remove the entire basket just because the top is missing. I will say they work well in some neighborhoods. They don't work well in others. They don't work well in places where you have a lot of graffiti and stickers because they act as a magnet for those graffiti and stickers.

And so we try to work with council members to say, here are the pros and cons of this basket versus a green wire litter basket, and try to identify the best one for their neighborhood. And in terms of when you're replacing, you mentioned a lot of the community partners that you have and work with, but I don't know that this is, This is sort of anecdotal, but I feel like where I don't have a community partner is where I'm missing a lot of my bins.

So do you prioritize your replacements maybe in those areas that don't have a partner? But like, for instance, in Chelsea, south of Penn Station, tremendous foot traffic. But that's where I'm missing like a ton of— that's where I get complaints a lot about baskets being missed. And there's no community partner there to report on that and like to clean them, so that they could really use them.

So how does that factor into when you're looking at where to replace— target your replacement? Yeah. So where there are BIDs that own and install their own litter baskets, those are obviously getting replaced by the BIDs. So there's a much more just sort of attention to those baskets. And they may even have dozens of extra baskets in inventory ready to go out if something gets damaged or stolen.

Where there are baskets that are only serviced by us and only managed by us, again, it goes through this process of every quarter we do a full inventory of all of our litter baskets, and we are in the process now of replacing every single approved litter basket location that does not currently have a basket. There may be places in the area that you're talking about that are not currently approved for a litter basket, and so it's not technically missing because it wasn't supposed to be there.

If there are places where you think there should be additional litter baskets, we're certainly happy to have that conversation. Great. I did send you all a letter about those, so I'd love to know which of those are approved. I have a draft response to that letter sitting in my inbox right now. Okay, thank you. That's all for me.

Thank you, Councilmember Wilson. And just staying on this topic real quick, do we have an exact number of how many litter baskets the department removed due to misuse, so depositing household or commercial refuse related liquid waste in baskets in 2025, as well as how many it's removed in 2026 for those same reasons? We don't have those numbers, um, and in, in large part, this practice was in effect more than 10 years ago.

Um, and, you know, sometime around, uh, the end of the de Blasio administration, the decision was made by previous commissioners to cease that practice. So if you go back in, in news reports. For example, there was a number of baskets removed in Central Harlem at one point, I think around 2017, 2018, and that caused prior administrations to really rethink if this is the right approach.

There were also, even going back further to 2013, 2014, in parts of Ridgewood along specifically Fresh Pond Road. I know that there was a lot of consternation around remove litter baskets. And so sometime around the end of the de Blasio administration, the practice from wide-scale removals to much more targeted removals was made. And, you know, I know that the number of baskets removed has fallen off pretty substantially since then.

On my final question about the waste litter baskets, so according to 311, it usually takes over a month to get a response as to fulfilling a trash basket request. However, many of my constituents included, and I know many of my colleagues, feel that if you post a cool, fun social media video, you get a response almost immediately.

Can you explain to us why there is such a disparity in the response times from 311 complaints to potential social media complaints? and how you have been handling, you know, these random social media complaints that seem to get fulfilled right away? I would be interested to know which of the random social media complaints you're referring to, because a lot of people add us on social media, and we treat every complaint the same.

You know, tell them to all file a 311 complaint? We often— I mean, our standard response, if you send us something on Twitter, Instagram, Instagram. I don't know that we actively monitor customer complaints on TikTok, but we do have a TikTok. You know, if you send us a complaint, our first response is to give you the link to the 311 and say, please file a 311.

So that's where we'd like all New Yorkers to go, because then we can track how, how quickly our officers are responding, what their response is, and the, the level of satisfaction that customers have with that response. Well, you've heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen. Social media is not 311. Please put in your 311 request for your trash bins, your litter request.

We are begging you, 311, and then send us your 311 complaint number. Thank you. And I'll also, I'll also add, if, if I may, please, that I think sanitation is probably one of the only agencies that, um, and it's not universal, but in many cases will call back the 311 caller, or online request submitter, whatever you call that.

So if you, if you do provide your contact information, our officers will give you a call and follow up. And it may not be the outcome that you want, but at least they'll talk you through why the decision was made the way it was. I can confirm they will call you at any time to confirm. Sometimes early in the morning.

Very early in the morning. But again, New Yorkers, 311. It's the way to get things done, not social media.

Okay. Going back to our questions before we turn it over to Councilmember Ressler. So I want to go back to these exemptions. Is there a way that we can get a copy of where we can access the exemptions that have been given to companies in the EJ districts, or where would we be able to find you know, in order to make sure that we have the best data as well, so that we're not being like, you're not fulfilling your goals.

If we don't have the exemptions that they've been granted, then to us it looks like you haven't been fulfilling the goals. So is there a way that we can get provided a copy of that, or where can we find that? Sure, we can provide you a copy of that. Great. Has the department allowed any capacity increases in any overconcentrated districts, and if So what was the basis for each of the permitted increases?

Yeah, so the, the one increase that I can recall is the one that you referred to earlier, Metropolitan Transfer Station at 287 Halleck Street in Bronx 2, and that was an increase, uh, because they, um, added 111 tons per day of capacity to process organic waste. So have there been any incidents since the— Just a note. The law does prohibit them from increasing their permanent capacity over what their permanent capacity was prior to the implementation of Local Law 152.

So it was 825, it went to 553, and then came up to 664. Great. Uh, has there— I want to flag this also was in 2018. This hasn't even been 10 years ago. It seems like it was an entirely Having said that, have there been any incidents since this lifetime ago where the law was implemented where throughput at any of the solid waste transfer stations exceeded 90% of the total permitted capacity for such transfer stations?

And if this had happened, were these instances reported to the council and the mayor? Where throughput exceeded 90% of the permitted capacity? Yeah. Uh, I'm not aware of specific instances, but we can certainly take a look at that. Okay. Um, overall city throughput has decreased since 2019. Um, can you help us understand what explains this trend? Uh, well, one, I think the implementation of Local Law 152 reduced overall citywide throughput because the majority of transfer stations were located in districts that were covered by Local Law 152.

So when you reduce the permitted capacity citywide, you have to send that waste elsewhere. So more of that waste is going either up to Westchester County or into New Jersey in places that, you know, aren't regulated by the Department of Sanitation. I think there's also a part of it that, that could be related to just waste reduction overall.

We'll say because we have not fully implemented commercial waste zones, we don't have good historical data on the amount of waste that our business businesses are generating. Um, and so, you know, that's speculation at this point, but once we have commercial waste zones fully implemented at the end of 2027, we will have, uh, very robust data on where the waste is being generated, where it's going, and what kind of waste it is.

And I encourage you to look at the full data set that we posted along with the commercial waste zones annual report, which has a lot of data in it. Awesome. And then when looking at this data, we see that the throughput decreased primarily in non-designated CDs, while the throughput remained the same in the 4 designated CDs since 2019.

Could you also help us explain that trend? I don't necessarily know that I'm seeing the same trend, but we'd be happy to dig into the data with you. Okay, that'd be great. We would really love to make sure that we're all on the same page there.

What were the law effects on truck traffic in the designated commercial districts— community districts, commercial districts, what a day— community districts, and did we see truck traffic decrease? I know you spoke about it earlier, but if you could go into a little more detail. So I don't think we're able to measure the actual decrease in truck traffic because we don't have, you know, data on how many trucks there are and where until commercial waste zones is fully implemented.

We did quite a bit of modeling as a part of the environmental assessment that was done prior to the passage of Local Law 152. And, you know, what we anticipated as part of that environmental assessment was a substantial decrease in truck traffic in those districts. We have seen that actual throughput has decreased by about the amount we expected. in that environmental review.

So, I would think that the truck traffic reduction has been approximately what we expected. Even though we can't answer about, um, the waste equity law, I'm curious if you've done any research or insight if Local Law 199 of 2019 had any impact on truck traffic thus far. Um, and what about Local Law 145, if that had any impact on the waste equity law's implementation with truck emissions?

Sure. So for Local Law 145, which goes back to 2013, that was the law that required emissions retrofits for all waste hauling vehicles. That law has been fully implemented. The last of the waivers under that law expired several years ago. So I think that has had a real impact on the particulate matter emissions. from those commercial waste hauling vehicles.

I don't have like a rigorous analysis of that in front of me, but, you know, that's something that I think just the implementation of that law over several thousand vehicles has had a real impact. For Local Law 199, we are— and we do publish to the decimal point the amount of vehicle miles traveled associated with commercial waste zones operations.

Because we only have 6 zones fully implemented at the end of the fiscal year, and some of those commercial waste zones were implemented partially throughout the fiscal year, what we're able to do is model out based on those first 6 zones where we expect to be at the end of the full 20-zone implementation. And we are pretty much on track for that 18 million vehicle miles traveled reduction that we anticipated in 2018.

Particularly in the 4 designated CDs, has DSNY considered any other solutions to decrease truck traffic? We've, you know, I think the implementation of commercial waste zones is the most effective tool that we can use to reduce truck traffic. You know, I think absent rezoning new parts of the city for industrial uses and opening new transfer stations in those rezoned places.

I think it will be very difficult to meaningfully relocate transfer station capacity out of those 4 districts and into other parts of the city. The best we could do is just shift the burden elsewhere onto environmental justice neighborhoods outside of New York City. And I don't know that that's necessarily a great outcome, but that's certainly what Local Law 152 has done.

Not the best outcome. Not everyone wants stuff in other EJ zones. But if it's not in the Bronx, it's good to me.

The— actually, I will turn it over to Councilmember Ressler. Thanks so much, Chair Sanchez. Really appreciate your leadership in hosting this hearing today and hearing our legislative legislation. And Commissioner, it is always good to see you. I have to say, I am very happy that we have commercial waste zones coming to Community Board 1. We have Empire bins coming to Community Board 2.

I just had a great meeting with Chief Latera, who's like helping to make all the good things happen on the ground. We did ASP blitzes this week and last week in Boerum Hill. There's just a lot of good stuff, and I consistently have a really positive experience with whoever I'm dealing with at the Department of Sanitation. And I really appreciate that we've just had, I think, going back since the beginning of the de Blasio administration, really consistently great leadership from the agency.

And I am thrilled that you're in this role and looking forward to continuing to work closely with you and your team. I see that you don't like my bill. Correct. So I said all the nice things first. You might want to take back those compliments. Yeah, no. Well, we'll see how the conversation goes. The— so appreciate that the smart compost bins were kind of created in a different moment before we had mandatory composting fully in place.

And our legislation is, I think, rightly ambitious in trying to set a sizable number of compost receptacles around every community district, because there are times when you're having lunch in a park or having lunch at a City Council hearing, and you need a compost receptacle for your excess food. Do you think that a smaller number of compost receptacles per community district could make sense if 25 is too big a number?

I think that, and if you look at the utilization of our smart compost bins, FY25, and this is all in our zero waste report, which came out also on September 30th, the same day as our commercial waste zones annual report, big day for annual reports in sanitation. Great. FY25, almost 1.1 million unlocks. FY26, 0.6 million unlocks, 42% reduction in utilization over that one year.

And keep in mind, we have only very recently been really focusing on enforcement for mandatory organics. I, for example, used to use a Smart Bin until my building got a ticket for not having a compost bin, and then they got a compost bin, and now I just use my building's compost bin. So I just, I don't think that that's an investment that necessarily makes sense at this time.

I think if there is a pot of money that we are going to invest in composting in New York City, it's probably better spent on education and outreach rather than providing additional bins for folks, because we will come to every building in New York City once a week and pick it up from the front of your building.

You know, our legislation, the idea was to make composting convenient on street corners for the times where it's not your household waste. But, you know, as I think what during your brief sojourn up to Albany, we, you know, really struggled here when GrowNYC refused to continue to operate compost drop-offs at their farmers markets. You know, at the farmers markets in my community, at McCarran Park and McGolrick Park— McGolrick is with Big Reuse, McCarran— well, I think Big Reuse has taken over McCarran too.

That was a GrowNYC market, as examples. We still have huge numbers people that come every single week to drop their compost off. And so I'm concerned that we still need locations for people to be able to take their compost, whether it's household or otherwise. We've gotten a lot of complaints from larger buildings that have trash chutes and where they're not having composting set up in the buildings.

Uh, maybe it's just the scale of the buildings are challenging for the building management staff to, to handle the compost. Are you concerned about— I guess there's a couple questions there. One, are you concerned about kind of full adoption of composting, especially in larger buildings where the operations are a bit more involved? And then secondly, are you concerned about the stability of the compost drop-off sites we have across the city, and do you believe that they serve an essential role in kind of achieving our compost goals?

So, thank you for those questions, and it's 2 very different questions. Yes. I fully agree with you on access to convenient composting for apartment building residents, particularly in larger buildings. And that's a place where we are doing a lot of enforcement already. If there are residents out there whose buildings do not have a brown bin and are not setting that brown— or not setting a brown bin out for collection, call 311, let us know.

We'll do outreach first, and then we will write tickets, and we will not stop. And that's where, in addition, I think the outreach and education is really valuable to teach people how easy it is to compost in their own apartment. When my wife and I first started composting, she was not a fan and she was just like, why do we need 4 different trash cans?

Now, we were just at my in-laws' house in Pennsylvania where they don't compost, and she literally was looking around my mother-in-law's kitchen for a place to put the eggshells. And so— and we live in a high-rise apartment in Long Island City. So, you know, it is easy for apartment residents to compost if you know how to do it and if you have some easy tips.

If we had more resources to be able to do that outreach and education, I think that's where the investment is really meaningful. If I can continue going, because I know his clock has run out. Okay, no one's saying no. On the drop-off side, you know, I think, I think the, the kinds of drop-offs that you're talking about are very different than the organic waste receptacles that the bill calls for.

Those are, those are drop-offs where you have, uh, you know, a dedicated community composter standing next to the bin helping people feel good about what they're doing and, and helping people understand that it's going to be turned into compost at a local community garden or at a community composting facility and go back to, uh, you know, their, their local parks and gardens and, and whatever.

And I think that's all great stuff. And I agree with you, when the community composting baseline funds were eliminated from the budget in November 2023, that was a massive, massive, uh, change to the way that we approach composting in New York City. And I have said before, I would love to have those baseline funds back in the budget so that we don't have to have this ongoing sort of tit-for-tat on whether composting is getting funded every year.

I don't think that the people who are showing up at the green markets looking to have that interaction with the community composter and have that sort of, you know, local sort of circular economy for their compost would necessarily feel the same way about using An organic waste receptacle like a smart bin that, you know, is collected by sanitation, goes to one of our industrial-scale processing facilities, either a compost facility or anaerobic digestion.

So, I, I, you know, I think you make all very good points, and I think that I still feel that in super high-trafficked areas, in big parks like McCarran Park or, you know, Borough Hall, having a compost receptacle, having it having one of these CompostSmart bins still has value. So I'd love to continue the conversation if there's a much more tailored approach that you think could make sense.

It doesn't sound like you think it does, but I will push you anyway. And I will say lastly, I also take credit for converting my wife into a compost enthusiast as well. I'm sure our wives will be thrilled that we're discussing them here. I was just going to say blessings to both of your wives. On behalf of the City of New York, thank you.

On this topic of public composting, I am curious as to what the definition of education is. And just to piggyback off of what Councilmember Resser was saying, having more of these public compost bins, especially in places like these parks, wouldn't that part of education show how easy composting is and how you know, getting more people to be able to compost, especially when they're doing things in the park like barbecuing and, you know, bringing food.

And I'm Dominican, so we bring a lot of different food, and being able to, be able to compost all of that when it's not eaten or whatever, wouldn't that be a part of the education that would be able to show how easy it is to truly compost? I think it, it could be, but I think there's some, you know, pretty As we've discussed before, we don't have very much in the way of baseline funding for education and outreach around our zero waste programs and our recycling and composting programs.

And so, you know, I think that could contribute. But if we're not teaching people about why they should compost or how they can compost, I think giving them access to a bin isn't necessarily the most effective, uh, thing that we can do. So, you know, again, to, to roll out the, the bill as it's been introduced, we're looking at millions of dollars in, uh, in expense money to purchase additional bins and install them.

And I think that money could better be spent on maybe on, you know, community composters going out into neighborhoods and teaching people about why they should compost. So what you're saying is, is we need baseline funding to— in order to convert more wives and husbands to composters. I would love that. Thank you.

Um, okay, going back to our questions. So the mayor's racial equity plan highlights 2 strategies to address waste transfer infrastructure, uh, inequities borne by overburdened communities. Thank you. Uh, the first strategy would be to distribute waste transfer operations such that underutilized stations become more utilized. The second would leverage solid waste management contracts as opportunities to produce more distribution of waste transfer contracts.

How does the department plan to implement these strategies, and where can the council help? Um, yeah, so I think, I think in part, uh, one of the things that we have long been talking about, uh, in these hearings is the use of our marine transfer stations for commercial waste. That's my next question. Which, as, as we, I think, discussed maybe in July, um, you know, we are, we are fully committed to that, uh, so long as we can overcome the, the real financial obstacles there, um, and are planning to, uh, do so following the, the complete implementation of commercial waste zones at the end of next calendar year, which when we first started having these conversations seemed very far away but is now 15 months, which is not that far.

So I think that's, that's the most important thing we can do there is, is by using excess capacity at specifically the 91st and Southwest Brooklyn Marine Transfer Stations. You know, as far as, as far as our using our procurements to, to reduce the capacity in overburdened districts, I think that's something that As our current set of waste export contracts starts to expire, because these were all 20-year contracts, we certainly will look at as one of, you know, many goals that we want to try to achieve.

The challenge, again, there are not large waste transfer stations in other neighborhoods, and building a new waste transfer station in New York City is not possible at this moment because of various zoning regulations. and permitting requirements. And so, you know, just to be frank, unless we were to try to build a new municipal waste transfer station and go through the ULURP process for siting and land acquisition, you know, I don't see a new large transfer station that services Department of Sanitation waste opening at any time soon.

Have there been any conversations about trying to open this new marine, municipal marine transfer station at all? There have not at this time. I think, you know, the, the thing that we should be looking at as far as new infrastructure is additional composting infrastructure, as we've mentioned before. And, you know, Rikers Island— I was just gonna ask, has Rikers Island been spoken about or thought about as a potential place for a new Municipal Marine Transfer Station?

The challenge with Rikers Island as far as being a transfer station is that there's only one road in and one road out, and so you put a lot of trucks on that one road going to and from the island. I think the better option for Rikers Island is to be a receiving facility for organic waste that's collected and transferred at marine transfer stations all across the city, so that it can receive the, receive the material by water, not have the additional truck traffic, Um, and then process it into compost that can then be used beneficially.

Is there a way that the everything could happen via water if it was at Rikers Island? Uh, many things can happen via water. The thing that can't happen via water is us picking up the trash at 8.5 million residents' homes, and once the trash is in the truck, it has to go somewhere and dump. So that's the, that's the utility of the transfer station is to then move that material by other means to its processing and disposal location.

So the challenge we always, always have is we pick up the trash in the trucks and somehow the trash has to get out of those trucks. And so where we do that and, and how, I think, is the focus of our efforts. I think this is a worthy conversation that we should be continuing to explore. Having said that, are there any updates on increasing usage of marine transfer stations to move additional solid waste via barges in order to shift away from truck-based transport?

Is there any applicability of this program to private operators? And has there been any discussion of this being scaled up for municipal waste transfer stations? Again, yes, looking very seriously at doing this after the full implementation of commercial waste zones next year. We've already started conversations with our 59th Street MTS, which we don't often talk about, which handles all of our paper that we collect in Manhattan, to see if there would be feasibility for accepting commercial paper, commercial office paper specifically, at that transfer station.

We, at this moment, we only have one zone, or I guess now 2 zones fully rolled out in Manhattan, so we still need more data on how much commercial office paper is being collected separate from single-stream recycling collections. And as we have that data, we can start to formulate what that would look like. Have we also had a discussion about collecting all of the paper from the universities that we have on the Isle of Manhattan?

So, we haven't looked at universities specifically. Many of them use private carters, so they would be covered by commercial waste zones. The challenge with the 59th Street MTS is that it only takes paper. Many of the private carters are offering single stream collection where it's paper commingled with metal, glass, and plastic containers. And so, once that's commingled, we can no longer take it at 59th Street because that goes straight to the paper mill on Staten Island.

So, we can certainly, certainly look into those universities and where their material is going. So, there— is there a discussion in which we no longer allow universities to commingle their trash in order to get better streams of— We can certainly have conversations with the universities about how much material they're generating and what kinds of recycling programs they have.

We will be definitely having that conversation.

Has the department considered requiring that waste transfer stations located within the 4 designated CDs be enclosed? That's, that's certainly something we've talked about before. All putrescible transfer stations are required to be enclosed. today. That's a requirement under the state regulatory scheme. Non-putrescible transfer stations are not required to be enclosed. I think as we— and we've talked, I think, a bit before about taking a more comprehensive look at the construction and demolition industry generally and ways to improve recycling, ways to improve deconstruction rather than demolition.

I think looking at those facilities and, and impact that they have on the surrounding community is a, a great thing to add to that, uh, that examination. Uh, does the department monitor, uh, compliance with waste equity law via the quarterly private waste station reports that DSNY receives pursuant to Local Law 40 of 1990? Yes, we do. Great.

Um, and then the— in 2024, the department released a chart detailing the percentage of existing lawfully operating transfer stations in New York City by CD. Today, what is the breakdown citywide? Do we have that? I don't have that specific report in front of me. We release that report every year. And finally, 311. Please use it. Does DSNY receive 311 complaints regarding dust, pests, odors, and water or sewer runoff at private solid waste transfer stations?

What about for things like open doors or gates or for litter adjacent to waste transfer station properties? Yes, we do receive 311 complaints for all of those categories, and we investigate them quite promptly, usually on the same shift, so within 8 hours. We also conduct, for most transfer stations, weekly inspections and even more frequent drive-by inspections. So we'll drive by and look to see, are they tracking material out of the facility.

Are the doors open unnecessarily? Are there odors or other fumes coming out? And if any of those things are identified, we will take appropriate action. Do you also have— and, you know, this is a large data set, but could you help explain if you have the data, the sanitation 311 volumes in environmental, in EJ communities versus non-EJ communities and what that looks like?

Yeah, are we making 311 complaints relative to everyone else? So yes, everyone makes 311 complaints, every neighborhood in New York City, um, to the Department of Sanitation, because we have an incredibly high volume of 311, uh, both complaints and service requests. It's not all just a complaint. Sometimes people are asking for, uh, for something. Um, so we do see 311 call volume from every sanitation district and section.

I don't have specifically in front of me the breakdown between EJ communities and non-EJ communities, or between the racial equity communities that are identified in the racial equity report and non-racial equity communities, but we can certainly do that analysis. I would really appreciate that. That would be really great.

I also want to mention, if I have not mentioned, we've been joined by the incomparable Councilmember Chanel Thomas-Henry. With her presence, I also want to give a huge plug and shout out Roosevelt Avenue needs more trash cans immediately. Do you have any questions before? No. Great. Okay. So I want to touch on Councilmember Nurse's rechargeable battery disposal plan.

What outreach and education has the department engaged in to inform the public of a proper way to dispose of rechargeable batteries for micromobility devices? Yeah, so we do a bit, quite a bit of education. This month in particular is Fire Safety Month, and one of the areas of focus this Fire Safety Month is around rechargeable batteries. So everything from buying UL-approved batteries and making sure that you only have batteries that are safe to use, how to safely store and charge them in your home or business, and how to safely dispose of and recycle them at the end of life.

So the FDNY is doing a lot of education around that this month. We are working with them on that education. The mayor's office has put out some social media on that. So that— those are the kinds of things that we do. When the plan from the Battery Network, which is the producer responsible organization is approved by DEC, there are also education components of that that will be undertaken by the producer responsibility organization.

At this point, DEC has not yet approved that plan. We're having ongoing conversations about the right balance between convenience and safety, because obviously we don't want to create drop-off opportunities that then create fire risk and are unsafe for either commercial establishments or for our communities. So that's an ongoing conversation, but as soon as that plan is approved, we expect that there will be funding there for education as well.

And have you— has the department seen a lot of rechargeable batteries dropped off at the safe disposal events? And if not, what could the department be doing to increase the traffic at safe disposal events? So I would say that traffic at safe disposal events is never our problem. I think I think our capacity to be able to handle the amount of people that show up is our biggest challenge.

And we had a safe disposal event a couple weeks ago during the nor'easter. And, you know, even though we, we did advise folks, you know, if it's not safe, don't come out, whatever, we still had over 800 people come to the safe disposal event to try to dispose of paint, batteries, electronics, et cetera. So, you know, we would love to increase our capacity for those events.

Right now we're only funded for one per borough per year. And, you know, we get a lot of volume as far as rechargeable batteries. Jen, do you have anything to add there? I would say that we have seen a great increase in the amount of batteries returned both at the safe events that the commissioner mentioned but also at the special waste sites that the commissioner mentioned earlier that are now open 5 days per week.

That is very convenient for folks to come and bring their batteries in addition to the safe events, which are only one time a year. The other point we would make about safety is those drop-off locations are for batteries that are not damaged. It is important that damaged batteries, you do contact FDNY to come and address them because there's a high risk of fire if the battery is damaged— leaking, swelling, obvious heat.

But as long as the battery— if it's not charging anymore or something like that, it's fine to bring to a safe event or to one of those special waste sites, one in each borough. Thank you. And speaking of FTNY, we're curious, outside of FTNY, has DSNNY partnered with any other agency or an organization to host events for like Deliveristas, for example?

looking to safely dispose of their micromobility batteries? Yeah, so Sanitation is part of a micromobility working group that includes many agencies, including the Department of Transportation, Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, FDNY, NYPD, focused on a range of issues around micromobility devices and third-party delivery. So yes, that conversation is certainly a part of that work. And I know when DOT and DCWP are doing some of their outreach to the Deliverista community and to the third-party delivery apps, that they're raising the safety and safe disposal issues there as well.

And then we'll talk about Intros 30 and 987 quickly before I end with my last question. What is the most common method of waste collection for public buildings? Approximately what percentage of city-owned buildings receive off-street collection, and what percentage of school buildings receive off-street collection? The most common means of collection is standard curbside collection with a rear-loading collection truck.

Almost every school in New York City, for example, receives school truck collection. Those collections are done using dual bin trucks. So we pick up a combination of paper recycling, metal, glass, plastic recycling, and organics on various different days. And then the trash is collected on the neighbourhood collection frequency, the same as the surrounding residences. As far as the percentage of city buildings that have off-street collection, I don't have that number specifically in front of me, but it's a relatively low share as a percentage Do you have any idea how much it would cost to transition all of the city-owned buildings to stationary on-street containerization?

I think we're trying to work on that estimate as part of the discussions around this bill. 2 things I'll say. One, we do have to do a waste generation study on a building-by-building basis to determine how many bins each building would need. And so that's a time-consuming process that, you know, if we were to do it, would take, you know, for the whole city, would take several years.

The second thing is— But just, is there any other methodologies that we could be— that we could use in order to speed-track that timeline? Yeah, we're— I mean, we're using a bunch of different approaches. We do desktop modeling based on, you know, you can make estimates based on the number of seats in a school, for example, or the number of units in a residential building or the number of meals served.

So we can start from that, but we do have to do the actual detailed waste generation study to make sure that we're putting enough bins there. Because the last thing we want is to have one bin and then there's a pile of trash sitting next to it, because that makes the bin look like it doesn't work. So we could certainly do that, and we're trying to come up with a reasonable estimate of what that would— what the number of bins would be, and therefore the cost, for all city buildings.

The other thing I'll say, which I mentioned in my testimony, city buildings are already required to containerize their trash. Every school sets their trash out in tilt trucks if they don't have some other means of containerization already. Other city buildings are using NYC bins. We have a separate contract where city agencies can order NYC bins directly from the vendor, and many city agencies Parks has designed custom waste enclosures that they are using at every park so that there is no longer just piles of bags sort of sitting out by the fence.

So every agency is sort of taking their own approach based on what works for them. And because we are talking about schools, does that also apply to any of the charter schools as well, or is that solely only for our DOE schools? It depends on what kind of charter school and what kind of building they're in. If they're in a private building, then they receive commercial waste collection, so they're covered by commercial waste zones.

If they're in a DOE building, they receive sanitation collection. If they're in their own building, many of them do receive sanitation collection, but some of them choose to go with a private carter. So, it varies pretty widely based on the specifics of the school. Great. Thank you. And then, so reports from the M9 containerization pilot, um, indicated record-breaking reductions in rat sightings and improved cleanliness at setout locations.

Do you believe that the stationary containerization requirements in Intro 30 would have the similar effect? I think anything we can do to containerize more waste would, uh, would have positive effects as far as cleanliness and rats. Um, the thing that we are focused on as we roll out our containerization program citywide by the end of 2031 is where are there still bags sitting on the sidewalk, and that's large residential buildings.

So the, the approach that we're taking is to— because there's a limited number of trucks that we can purchase any given year, just because the, the factory that makes these trucks can only make so many, um, we've— our, our plan right now takes all of those trucks and puts them at solving the residential containerization, uh, challenge. And when we get to the end of 2031 and have purchased all the trucks we need for residential containerization, I think that's, that's the right time to look around and say, what are other, um, what are other things that we could use Empire Bins for?

Start to look at lower density buildings that maybe could use more shared containers, potentially require shared containers for some of those lower density buildings. But anything we do today that takes away from our ability to roll out as quickly as possible on the large residential buildings means we achieve that goal slower. Thank you. And then my last question on Majority Leader Breu's Intro 987.

Are there any other factors beyond the department's fleet and collection routes that the department would need to take into consideration when assessing the viability of an association's request for stationary on-street containers? I think the, the Other important factors, just is there enough material there to justify the size of the container? These containers generally are quite large, and if you had only a handful of single-family homes or a handful of units using one Empire Bin, that would probably be a waste of public space for that bin and a waste of the city's money in terms of purchasing the bin and maintaining it.

So we do want to try to get to at least a minimum number of 10 to 15 units sharing the same Empire bin to sort of hit the minimum threshold. And then from there, we look at waste generation and other factors to determine the right number of bins to assign.

And speaking of M9, one of my favorite topics, and waste equity, my last question is there has been movement of the trucks from M9 because of new opening of Success Academy Charter School. And now the trucks that were in front of the M9 station are now just randomly on side streets, taking away all of the local residents' parking and just filling our streets with literally blocks of trucks.

While the M9 truck storage facility underneath the bridges just sits empty as of right now. And so curious, has there been more discussion as to be able to move the trucks that are just sitting on the streets back to the empty parking lot that gets only used for things like, you know, Harlem Pride? I think that there is a greater need for the trucks to be there.

I mean, you can probably move them for events like Harlem Pride. I'm not saying to cancel Harlem Pride. But has there been any discussion of being able to move the trucks that are just sitting on the streets back to the M9 parking lot? I'm not familiar with the exact parking lot that you're referring to, but happy to take a look at it.

You know, we have made some adjustments to the parking around the M9 garage, which, as you have mentioned before, the Manhattan 9 garage is in the Bronx. Bronx 7 and 8 garages are in Manhattan. It's sort of a weird— But they have enclosed spaces. It's a much larger facility. It is very— I think if you were to go up to 215th Street, you would see sanitation trucks parked all over the place.

But I will say, we have tried to rearrange the way that we are parking trucks in the vicinity of the Manhattan Community Board 9 garage because of the additional pedestrian traffic going to and from the new school that opened. It's certainly something that we are having active conversations with many council members about, because There's a few different districts that sort of COVID that area.

And, you know, we want to balance the residents' needs with safe pedestrian travel for the school kids, along with our operational needs to be able to provide service to New Yorkers. Thank you so much. And you know how much I would love to make sure that the M9 trucks are back at Community Board 9 in Manhattan. So anything that we can do there, would be much appreciated.

And with that, thank you for surviving another day with us at the Committee of Sanitation and Solid Waste Management. I really appreciate it. We will be taking a brief 5-minute break and then coming back for our public session. Thank you, everyone.

Are we rested? Are we refreshed? No. No? We could take another 5. No, but no, we would like this committee hearing to end. Uh, so having said that, welcome back everyone. Uh, I am now opening the hearing for public testimony. I remind members of the public that this is a government proceeding and that decorum shall be observed at all times.

I'm especially speaking to you, Zoom. As such, members of the public shall remain silent at all times. The witness table is reserved for people who wish to testify. No video recording or photography is allowed from the witness table. Further, members of the public may not present audio or video recordings or singing or songs or your next mixtape as testimony.

Please leave that for Spotify or Apple Music or whatever streaming service of your choice. I'm not picking a side. But you may submit transcripts of your latest hit single to the Sergeant at Arms for inclusion in the hearing record. If you wish to speak at today's hearing, please fill out an appearance card— thank you for those that already have— with the Sergeant at Arms and wait to be recognized.

When recognized, you will have 2 minutes to speak on today's hearing topics. Waste equity, environmental justice, or any of the legislation on our agenda today. If you have a written statement or additional written testimony you wish to submit, or maybe you go over, please provide a copy of that testimony to the Sergeant at Arms. You may also email written testimony to testimony, that is T-E-S-T-I-M-O-N-Y.

Again, T-E-S-T-I-M-O-N-Y. Notice how I didn't have to look down to spell it. @council.nyc.gov. Please learn to spell. Within 72 hours of this hearing. Audio and video recordings will not be accepted. I will now call my first panel. We have Joyce Bialik. Hey, Joyce. Hi. Aaliyah Somio. Damon Gilbert, don't be so scared. And Lauren Mocker, did I say your last name right?

I want to make sure. Karima. Karima. Oh, Loreen McCaw, apologies. Thank you so much, Loreen. Did I pronounce everyone's name correctly? I want to make sure. No. No? What did I do? All right. I will make sure I fix it next time. People also learn people's names. It's nice and respectful. Joyce? Start us off. Thank you.

So I'm Joyce Bialik, chair of the Plastic Task Force for the Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board and a member of WEAC for Environmental Justice that has endorsed my testimony. I support your oversight of Waste Equity and Environmental Justice 2585, as well as oversight and removal of litter baskets Bill 1041. So Bill 1041 will require the sanitation department to consult with the council and community boards before removing litter baskets.

With fellow members of WE ACT, I studied disparities in the distribution of baskets based on a community's affluence. In 2023, with a larger population, In East Harlem, 76K, than in the Upper East Side, 60K. East Harlem had 69 baskets to 260 in the Upper East Side. In addition, only 17% of 4-street corner baskets were found in East Harlem compared to 95% in the Upper East Side.

In our Madison Avenue dirty blocks, In our study, we found 51% dirty blocks in East Harlem, 6% in the Upper East Side. Less baskets, dirtier blocks, of course. These are environmental justice issues that can be eased with Bill 1041, which will require consultation with community boards before baskets are removed. Now, just briefly about plastics. There are current council bills addressing plastic designed to reduce plastic in our midst.

Plastic is an environmental justice issue. Plastic is produced from fossil fuels. Low-income people of color disproportionately reside near sites where there's drilling and refining for oil and gas, where toxic chemicals are released, sites that are near polluted rivers and groundwater and near landfills, incinerators. So we seek a hearing for the following council plastic bills: 69, 300, 781, 795.

They pertain to plastic beverage containers, artificial turf, and water fountains. Although these bills, they're not introduced through this committee in order to adhere to 2585 regarding oversight of environmental justice, We are asking you to please reach out to your colleagues to hold hearings for them.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your testimony, and, uh, thank you for bringing up East Harlem. Um, you know, speaking about all of this, uh, also I want to shout out the Young Lords and the Garbage Offensive in East Harlem. Uh, years later, we are still seeing the disparities. If you go up a few blocks on Madison Avenue, what is happening to our communities?

So The more that we can talk about our environmental justice communities and what we face and the fights that we've had from our 4 sisters and brothers beforehand, to please continue uplifting. So shout out to the Young Lords and the Garbage Offensive.

Good afternoon. My name is Aliya Sumro, and I'm the Deputy Director for New York City Policy at the New York League of Conservation Voters. Thank you, Chair Sanchez, and members of the Committee on Sanitation for the opportunity to comment. One of NYLCV's top priorities is achieving our zero waste by 2030 goal to not only curb our greenhouse gas emissions, but to send less waste to landfills, which are disproportionately located in low-income and communities of color.

The higher rates of pollution from landfills and incinerators in these communities cause disproportionately higher cases of asthma, cancer, and other health issues, and compound already existing environmental and racial inequities. Our city needs to move toward a system where we reduce waste in the first place in order to minimize the burden on EJ communities, whether in New York City or elsewhere, and a system where resources are reused and recovered.

When it comes to the bills being considered today, NYLCV supports Intro 30 requiring a program for city-owned non-residential buildings to dispose of their waste in containerized waste receptacles. We are pleased that the Mondani administration is moving toward a full citywide commitment to waste of residential containerization by 2031. We think it's important for the city to move towards full waste containerization, including for non— for city-owned buildings.

But we also think it's important for the bill to take into account what's realistic, considering different city-owned buildings and building typologies. We also support the intent of Intro 352, requiring DSNY to develop a plan for promoting proper disposal of rechargeable batteries used for powered mobility devices. With the rise of e-bikes and e-scooters throughout the city, lithium-ion rechargeable batteries will continue to proliferate, especially given these devices help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

So it's crucial that we implement proper disposal of recycling these batteries. NYLCV supported the extended producer responsibility for batteries at the state level that was approved by the governor in December of 2025. So just wrapping up, now that that state law is being implemented, we think it's important for this City Council bill to consider the state bill being implemented and to tailor it accordingly.

We look forward to working with the City Council, the admin, and other stakeholders to move toward our zero waste goals. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Aaliyah? Yeah, thanks. Alia. Alia. Yeah, all good. See, you messed it up again. Third time's a charm. Alia. Uh, next, can we please hear from Damon? Good afternoon. My name is Damon Gilbert. I'm a staff attorney with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. Uh, thank you for holding this hearing on waste equity.

I'm here today to talk about how the city could further pursue its waste equity goals. In Far Rockaway, residents of NYCHA's Redfern Housing experience the harms of waste inequity firsthand. They live just across the street from a facility in Nassau County called the Inwood Material Terminal, which processes construction and demolition debris and releases dust from these processes that covers residents' homes, their cars, and their common spaces within hours of cleaning them.

Many residents also report problems breathing and asthma complications due to the poor air quality from the past 10 years of the terminal's operation. And while the facility is in Nassau County, the people bearing the burdens are New York City public housing residents. And their experience illustrates why we need systemic solutions to waste inequity. We thank the committee for its July hearing on Intro 367, and we urge the bill's passage as it would allow commercial waste to be accepted at city-owned marine and rail transfer stations which would reduce reliance on private transportation concentrated in environmental justice communities like this one.

It would also help reduce unnecessary truck traffic and operational pollution. To that end, we also urge DSNY, City Council, and State DEC to include a firm commitment to this equity program in the forthcoming 10-year solid waste management plan. Finally, we support Introse 987, And commend the council's efforts to expand waste containerization, but sidewalk accessibility must be part of that approach.

Under the current plan, smaller residential buildings would still use individual bins and recycling bags, which could create significant obstacles and unpredictable hazards for people with disabilities. For this reason, we urge the council to build on Intro 987 by making sidewalks truly waste-free and supporting the required use of on-street containers throughout the city and amend the bill to direct DSNY to partner with disability communities to develop placement guidelines.

Thank you. Thank you so much. What part of the city are you from? What part of the city are you from? Crown Heights. Crown Heights. Crown Heights, please look at this staff attorney in a durag actually representing us and the people. Yes, people that practice law can look just like us in all of our communities. Thank you so much for your testimony, and thank you so much for representing.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Loree Makar, and I am the Just Transition Coordinator at UPROSE. Based in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, UPROSE is an intergenerational, multiracial, and matriarchal community-based organization working at the intersection of climate change and social justice. I'm here today to testify on behalf of UPROSE and the Sunset Park community in support of these bills being considered today.

Sunset Park is a diverse, working-class, frontline community with 3 peaker plants, the Sims Recycling Facility, the Gowanus Expressway, and a deep history of manufacturing industries along its waterfront, all contributing to pollution and adversely impacting Sunset Park residents. We believe that the passage of these bills will contribute to the city's progress on waste equity, especially for communities such as Sunset Park that experience outsized burden of the effects of climate change.

As data from the New York City Comptroller and Department of Sanitation reveal, the system remains grossly unfair, with around 75% of privately managed waste still being trucked in and out of just 5 community districts, Sunset Park being one of them. The passage of these bills will help ease that burden and inequality. Additionally, we believe that the city must do more to begin using state-of-the-art marine and rail transfer stations to improve route efficiency and reduce truck trips in overburdened communities where private transfer stations are clustered.

One barge can replace nearly 96 trips of an 18-wheeler long-haul truck from driving through our communities, greatly reducing pollution and contributing to worsening air quality in communities with the highest rates of asthma in the city. We also call on the city to pass Intro 367, sponsored by Councilmember Nurse, as soon as possible, which would require the Department of Sanitation to accept and process commercial solid waste at all city-owned and operated marine and rail transfer stations, as well as cease expanding waste management solutions like anaerobic co-digestion as city waste resource recovery facilities.

Thank you. Thank you so much for your testimony, and the first panel is dismissed. Thank you. Thank you. All right, next up, and I hope I don't butcher this name again, uh, Shravathi Did I get it right? Shravanthi. Shravanthi. Right, you see, second time's a charm this time. Chris Johnson. Mary Ellen Sullivan. And of course, Cafeteria Culture, Rhonda Kaiser.

Okay, and Shravanti, we can start now. Good afternoon. Chair Sanchez and members of the council, my name is Shravanti Kanekar. I'm the senior resiliency planner at the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance. New York City's current solid waste system is an ongoing environmental injustice where 75% of the city's privately managed waste is still trucked through 5 community districts which represent low-income communities and communities of color.

Despite laws intending to change this, for years these communities of color have had to deal with far more than their fair share of heavy truck traffic, safety hazards, pollutions, noise, and a lot more. NEJA recommends the following EJ Center recommendations to ensure that New York City truly makes progress on waste equity. One, we recommend— we strongly urge the DSNY to implement the remaining zones of Local Law 199 of 2019, the Commercial Waste Zones Law.

The continued delay in rollout of this program continues to disproportionately impact low-income communities of color by the private waste industry while jeopardizing the health and safety of sanitation workers as well. Number 2, the 2020— the upcoming 2026 Solid Waste Management Plan should fulfill the 2006 Solid Waste Management Plan waste equity strategy of using municipal marine transfer stations to accept commercial waste.

This has been a longstanding priority for environmental justice communities. Number 3, we ask that the council pass Intro 367, co-sponsored by Councilmember Nurse. Number 4, the city should not be expanding anaerobic co-digestion systems at city wastewater resource recovery facilities. Doing this at the cost of expanding municipal composting facilities is, is something that we don't recommend. Community advocates from neighbourhoods around the Newtown Creek wastewater facility have repeatedly raised concerns over the years over excessive flaring of methane.

And lastly, we urge the council to look at a People's Swamp and all of the recommendations that we've outlined especially in thinking about the upcoming 2026 Solid Waste Management Plan. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Next, we have Mary Ellen Sullivan from the Brooklyn Swap. Thank you. The Solid Waste Advisory Boards of New York City support placing more public receptacles for organic waste in our community districts. According to statistics posted on Track NYC Trash, the capture rate for residential organics is averaging about 77% for calendar year-to-date 2026.

While the imposition of fines for nonparticipation in organics has restarted, recent data shows no significant jumps in participation. Until the DSNY consistently and comprehensively fines buildings for noncompliance, there will be many New York City residents without convenient access to organics recycling. For these residents, more public organic bins would be convenient and a way for them to participate.

Intro 401 calls for DSNY to place and service 25 bins in each community district. The Swabs believe that community composters should also be involved. As Mayor Mamdani calls for increased greenways to soak up the city's increasing rainfall, the demand for compost and mulch in New York City will increase. And New York City's food scraps, yard waste, and our network of local composters could be a major asset in helping solve this challenge.

Regarding Intro 987, the Solid Waste Advisory Board strongly supports associations such as BIDS and other associations to get on-street stationary bins for waste. We want them to go a step further. There shouldn't just be bins for waste. We should also have them for recycling, organics, and trash. The people that do these kind of cleanup activities care deeply about waste policy, and this would respect their commitment.

If New York City truly wants its residents to regularly dispose of waste in the most beneficial fashion, then recycling can't be a sometime thing. It must be an everyday, everyplace thing. The council can take a step in this direction by providing bids in association with stationary bins for all types of waste that DSNY regularly collects. On Intro 401, the Solid Waste Advisory Boards of New York City support the development of a fair and transparent process for the removal, introduction, and reintroduction of public litter in recycling baskets.

Thank you. Thank you so much for your testimony. Of course. Oh, sure. Next up, Rhonda Kaiser.

Hi, I'm Rhonda Kaiser, Cafeteria Culture's Program and Policy Director. Thanks for this opportunity to testify and for the council's attention to waste equity and environmental justice through policy. Removing the waste burden from the streets and making waste diversion accessible to more New Yorkers is a great start. We hope we can keep our sights on reducing the truck traffic also that is hauling it away and on waste stream diversion.

Last year, our Cafeteria Culture students in Harlem brought the almost 1 metric ton of food scraps that they collected from their cafeteria to our local partner, Compost Power. This human-powered team puts a local face on food scrap diversion, collection, and processing for our students. And now our students use their compost made with their own cafeteria food scraps in their own school garden.

Access to the actual physical benefits of compost, not just theory, helps our students understand that their food scraps belong to them and that they are not merely observers of the decisions shaping their environment. They are stakeholders with power to create positive climate action in their own communities, climate action that helps them grow their own food. This is what makes them want to divert their food scraps.

Imagine a city where food scraps are no longer hauled away as a burden, but made into a resource to be returned to the soil and used for benefit in local communities. Thanks to the City Council, we are building a robust community compost network to make this kind of zero-waste diversion goals real. These local community compost sites disrupt the truck-based polluting industrial model of hauling our waste away as a burden.

By composting locally in our schools, we can build participation across generations, creating immediate and accessible environmental benefits cultivates the long-term habits that a zero-waste future requires. And together, with the right policies, the right infrastructure, and the willingness to keep prioritizing more human-centered solutions, we can continue to build this zero-waste future now. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, hello, Councilmember Sanchez. My name is Christopher Leon Johnson. I support Intro 352 when it comes to micromobility devices. I don't know, I know this was the last session, but it didn't go through. And I know why, it's because those people right outside that Delarista Hub, and they're opposing that bill because they know that with New York City sanitation police, if they start enforcing it, there's a lot that the mayor or police cannot do because sanitation is sanitation, and sanitation does a great job when it comes to enforcing the vendors in certain places.

I want to say this right now, that going forward, the city council needs to find ways to ban those time bomb batteries that you see on the bikes that you can tell that's been converted to make the bike go faster. That need to be a more direct target in the city council when it comes to mitigating the battery problem in the city of New York.

Like I said before, e-bikes are needed in the city, but the biggest problem in the city of New York are these old school batteries, bikes that you wrap around the bike and you put the little old school battery on it, it makes it go faster. It's like Mexico, it's like Ecuador. You see all those countries put their little stickers on the battery.

And those guys, they feel comfortable riding those bikes, but those bikes and those batteries are like time bombs. You hit them, all hell breaks loose. We see all the death that's going on in the city. Going forward, I hope that if this bill goes through, they need to allocate some money and put one of those bins right outside of the Delarista hub To make it make a prime example, and very like I said make a prime example with the workers' party.

Say look, you guys want to keep on getting government funding. You need to put you need to put one of those bins right outside your office and start pushing it to your for the people that's coming to your office. So like I said before many times, guys say look, this is that's the problem in the city of New York.

Like I said, I'm not against migrants. I'm not against delivery systems. I love them. But the biggest thing in the city is those. particular bikes that we need to start cracking down on, and to the point we gotta start confiscating those bikes and batteries. So I support this bill 100%, and I hope this goes through. But put the bill— thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony. With that, this panel is dismissed. Thank you. And for our next panel, can I please have Claire Mifflin? Is there anyone else that would like to testify that has not yet submitted a card before we enter this last in-person panel? Going once, going twice. Claire. Thank you, Councilmember Sanchez. It's great to be able to testify.

I mean, as we heard, environmental justice issues are a lot about reducing trash, increasing diversion of recycling and food scraps, and also the quality of our public space. Is there a lot of litter? Is there trash around? And how we do waste containerization affects that. Like, we're doing trash-only waste containerization, and we know if you make something more convenient, it gets used more, and if you make something less convenient, it's a heavier lift.

So while I'm really happy to see Intro 987 with its aim of having less bins permanently on sidewalks, increasing accessibility, moving all that to the street, the fact that it's just for trash means it's not going to solve the problems it could. And the fact that you need to get a group of buildings together and they have to have a maintenance agreement, that's a huge lift for a block association to agree to maintain the buildings, or for one building to agree to maintain a container that's used by several buildings.

That's a huge lift. What I would like to see is on-street containers for all waste types that the Department of Sanitation maintains. They need 2 guys on a truck. One is automated. Only one needs to operate the truck. The other one could be sweeping around the containers. You know, it's easy for them to maintain them as they service them.

So I really think that bill should be relooked at and it should be all the waste types. And especially for like all our main streets, where we have storefronts on the ground floor, there's no space for bins apart from in front of those storefronts. And it's not good for those businesses to have their storefronts blocked by all these bins, and it leads to all this litter.

So if those residents could just take their waste straight to the street instead of a bin in front of the storefront, they're saving— those buildings are saving up to $200 per dwelling unit per month. There's lots of affordability savings. We get more diversion, the streets are cleaner. So I would really love to see that bill changed.

A question on that. Have there been examples of other cities that we could look at that have done the 3-part type container bins? Yeah, everywhere else these bins have been used in the world, from Buenos Aires, Bogotá, to Europe. Even LA are doing a pilot now with all the streams apparently.

Great. Everywhere else they've been used like this. This is a new idea to use them just for trash and lock them. This is the only city that does that. Great. Thank you so much for your testimony. We appreciate it. Now we will turn our attention to Zoom. Again, this is a government proceeding. You start singing, I cut you off.

Um, it's crazy I have to say that, but it was actually a lot of fun. Um, having said that, I would now like to— oh, no. We now turn to the remote testimony. Once your name is called, a member of our staff will unmute you and the sergeant at arms will give you the go-ahead to begin. Please wait for the sergeant to announce that you may begin before starting to deliver your testimony.

Thank you. Now, I will bring up our first panel. Ah, Mr. Eric Goldstein. We have Haley Miranda and M. Blaze Backer. We're going to start off with Mr. Eric Goldstein. You may begin.

Good afternoon, Chair Sanchez. I'm Eric Goldstein with the Natural Resources Defense Council, and thank you for the opportunity to testify at this oversight hearing on waste equity and environmental justice. Sanitation Department has made some progress on these issues over the years, thanks in good measure to the council's leadership, but much more is needed. Here are 3 examples.

First, the city has not done nearly enough to provide equitable sanitation services to the hundreds of thousands of residents who live in NYCHA properties. One thing DSNY should do is to support the expansion of the great jobs-producing work being done by the nonprofit groups Compost Power and Green City Forces at all NYCHA developments. Every NYCHA resident should have the opportunity to participate in composting through these groups, and we support council legislation to accomplish that objective.

Second, private waste transfer stations located predominantly in North Brooklyn, the South Bronx, and Southeast Queens continue to pose environmental in already overburdened EJ communities. And the promise of the 2006 Solid Waste Management Plan to facilitate the use of the city's marine transfer stations to assist in the export of commercial waste remains unfulfilled. We urge the passage of Intro 367, Councilmember Nurse, that would direct the department to advance this process after 2 decades of waiting.

Third, roughly one-third of the waste we export is sent to pollution-generating garbage-burning incinerators frequently located in environmental justice communities. We're referring here to the Essex County Incinerator in the Ironbound section of Newark and the incinerator in Chester, Pennsylvania. The DSNY contracts with ReWork for these 2 problematic incinerators expire in 2032. That gives us five years to plan for other disposal routes.

If the council wants to ensure environmental justice in the city's waste operation, it should take steps to ensure that these kinds of time has expired. Renewed. These are the kinds of initiatives that should be included in the city's new 2027 plan. They're not, and we urge the council to use its existing authority under Section 16-140. to incorporate enhancements like these to the final draft plan.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Eric. I appreciate your testimony. Next up, we will have Haley Miranda. You may begin.

Hi. Good afternoon, Chair Sanchez and the Committee on Sanitation. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Hi. My name is Haley Miranda, and I'm a youth Hi, my name is Maria. I'm a waste organizer for the past 5 years at Wiste Nos Quedamos. I'd like to testify about my experience and concerns with waste sanitation and its overlap with EJ in our communities.

So my family and I have lived in the Melrose neighborhood of the South Bronx for over 20 years. And throughout my life, I've experienced the before and after of waste, trash, and air pollution. Growing up, my younger brother spent Christmas in the hospital due to an asthma attack stemming from growing up in the city's own asthma alley, A reality that could have changed if agreements were put in place to protect our environment.

Trucks in the South Bronx and the city have been an ongoing issue for as long as I can remember. We must urge sanitation trucks collecting over 24 million pounds of residential and commercial garbage daily to have more efficient routes, have an overall reduction in passing through communities with high asthma rates such as my own, and decrease the number of private transfer stations along the waterfronts of The city areas that can help mitigate the urban heat island effect— sorry, the urban heat island effect, private transportation continues to take over even after the implementation of the waste equity law in 2019.

So I urge the city to pass Introduction 367 as soon as possible to require the Department of Sanitation to accept and process commercial solid waste at all city-owned and operated marine and rail transfer stations. Thank you. Despite sanitation efforts being put in place, the lack of regulations based on investment in underserved communities allows facilities and programs that can help youth and community members enter the green job sector go unnoticed.

And the city needs to cease expanding waste management solutions at the city wastewater resource and recovery facilities at the cost of expanding composting facilities all over the city. As an organizer who fruits works in green spaces and composting around my neighborhood. Anaerobic co-digestion may seem better for the EJ and for the environment, but we must make sure that this gas collected— Thank you.

Your time has expired. Facilities. Thank you so much.

Thanks so much, Haley. And last but not least, we have Emblaze Backer. You may begin.

Thanks, Chair Sanchez and the committee. My name is Blaze Becker. I'm a resident of Fort Greene, Brooklyn. I'm testifying here on behalf of myself as a resident, but I am a former bid director and a former deputy commissioner at the Department of Small Business Services in the de Blasio administration. So I'm really intimately familiar with some waste management operational aspects at the neighborhood level, and I wanted to testify regarding Intro 987 and the efforts of small buildings to do on-street waste containerization.

We, you know, I live in a 4-unit brownstone, and I talked to some of my neighbors in adjoining buildings looking in, since we are part of the pilot in Community Board 2 in Brooklyn, to do something like this where a bunch of us go in. And I think, as much as I appreciate sanitation's efforts to open up this opportunity, It is, as Claire alluded to, you know, pretty onerous to think about, to really organize when we already have our condo boards to organize, to really get a bunch of, you know, one building to sign on as sort of the maintainer of this bin and the space around it.

So as much as we would, you know, get our supers and things to contribute to the cleanliness of the sidewalk, as we already do, I think it's just a heavy lift to take it beyond that to a formal maintenance agreement. Thank you. Likewise, I want to echo a lot of other testimony about not just doing garbage, but also doing recycling and compost, as I think that would go a long way to actually getting some of us more organized and motivated to sort of move in this direction.

And lastly, I do live around the corner from Myrtle Avenue, a busy commercial district, and, you know, the fact that the residents above the stores have containers All up, all up and down the sidewalks is a real problem for accessibility reasons. And so I think allowing bids to, to kind of enter into these agreements with DSNY for residents above the store would be a huge benefit.

So thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Have we missed anyone that registered to testify and has yet to be called? Please use the Zoom raise hand function if you are testifying remotely, and you will be called in the order that your hand has been raised. Do we have any raised hands?

Seeing none, I will now close the hearing. Thank you to the members of the administration, the members of the public who have joined us today to discuss this very important topic. And with that, this hearing on the Committee of Sanitation and Solid Waste Management is adjourned. Thank you.

Yay! That was pretty good. I think we have some good info coming from them. You heard everything I said? I was talking about you.