TESTIMONY
Eric Goldstein on Advocating for Community Composting in NYC
1:42:12
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6 min
Eric Goldstein discusses the critical role and challenges of community composting in New York City.
- Eric Goldstein emphasizes the environmental and financial benefits of treating community composting as an essential city service.
- He highlights the inefficiencies in organic waste management, with over $200 million spent annually on exporting organic waste to landfills and incinerators.
- Goldstein stresses the importance of community composting for public engagement and education on composting practices.
- He proposes amendments to legislation and increased funding to support and enhance community composting operations.
- The testimony urges for continued and expanded support for community composting through legislative, operational, and financial measures.
Eric Goldstein
1:42:12
Good afternoon, chair Krishnan and bravo to you for all your good work on swimming access and swimming safety.
1:42:20
Very, very important issue.
1:42:21
My name is Eric Goldstein, and I am New York City Environment Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
1:42:28
As you know, we're a national nonprofit environmental group.
1:42:31
We have no connection to big reuse or the other nonprofit composting.
1:42:36
We're gonna operations, financial, or otherwise, other than thinking that they are an amazing group of New Yorkers who are doing spectacular work on behalf of all city residents.
1:42:48
We appreciate you being here today.
1:42:51
The council member holding and Council member brew or for your leadership on this issue.
1:42:57
I'm gonna summarize my written testimony.
1:43:00
Collecting organics processes them to be turned into finished compost should be viewed as an essential city service just like snow removal and trash collection.
1:43:10
Right now our food scraps and yard waste, the organics, the single largest portion of the waste stream are sent to landfills and incinerators creating all kinds of environmental problems and it's costing taxpayers over $200,000,000 a year to export that waste, just the organic waste.
1:43:29
Community composting where these nonprofit organizations work and turn this food scraps yard waste food soil paper into finished compost a useful product is necessary for the success of the whole organics collection program.
1:43:48
The council did a great thing when it passed the universal curbside compost organics collection bill last year along in the 0 waste package.
1:43:56
But in but that will never succeed.
1:43:59
You'll never get full public participation by an endorsement.
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Unless you preserve community composting.
1:44:07
These are the folks that train New Yorkers on how to compost.
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They educate New Yorkers on why it's important to compost.
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They get kids involved in nature.
1:44:16
They bring people into this movement.
1:44:19
You can't just mandate something like this and expect it to succeed.
1:44:23
But for reasons that don't make any sense, community composting seems now to be on life support in this city and hanging by a threat not just with big reuse, but with the lower east side ecology center and the other botanic gardens in Wall of the boroughs, as well as earth matters on governors' island.
1:44:40
The Parks department has long had a critical role to play in all of this since 1989 when the council first passed the mandatory recycling law, There was a responsibility on city agencies and particularly the parks department to compost.
1:44:56
Section 16308 c of the administrative code says, even today, any city agency that generates a substantial amount of yard waste.
1:45:06
And as Justin just said, the parts department is number 1 in that category.
1:45:12
Any city agency that generates a substantial amount of yard waste shall provide for the source separation collection and composting of such yard waste.
1:45:21
So By my reading, the Parks department, along with the sanitation department, has been in violation of this law for over 30 years.
1:45:30
Even today, a significant amount of life in yard waste generated on parts department property is not being composted.
1:45:39
The parts department should be embracing this composting and community composting, not be embarrassed by it or running away from it.
1:45:47
Council council member brewer is an environmental champion and has done so much to protect our environment and quality of life.
1:45:54
And we support the intent of intro 130 for boosting the role of Parks and composting.
1:46:00
We think there should be 4 significant amendments to that build for you enacted into law.
1:46:06
First, the parts department should be directed to continue providing suitable space, preferably their existing space to any nonprofit organization currently conducting community composting that operates in the city without a permit from DC on Park's properties.
1:46:22
That's really big reuse in the low re side.
1:46:25
Again, these community scale composting operations are consistent with Parks' purposes.
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They bring people into parks.
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They teach kids about nature.
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They're popular, and they advance numerous city, environmental, and economic objectives.
1:46:39
2nd, The ten parks to be selected for this expedited composting operation in the 130 bill should be selected based on the amount of organics waste that they generate.
1:46:51
Some pork's generate a lot.
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Some pork's a little.
1:46:53
You wanna get the biggest bang for the buck by focusing on the amount of organic waste they generate.
1:46:59
3rd, the department should be encouraged to work with the not for profit organizations to facilitate NGO engagement in the operations of some or all of these composting productions at these selected parks.
1:47:12
The nonprofit groups have dedicated spectacular employees who work for relatively modest wages.
1:47:20
They can be enormously helpful, and they are ambassadors showing New Yorkers how and why to compost.
1:47:26
Again, you'll never have organics processing work if you don't preserve this community composting forest that's been a wonderful forest in this city for going on 30 years now.
1:47:40
And finally, the legislation should direct that composting operations at these parks should accept reasonable amounts of food scraps consistent with agency best practices.
1:47:50
Provided that any such food scraps meet acceptable standards for low contamination and high quality.
1:47:57
Mixing food scraps and yard waste gets you the best amount the best quality compost, and there are other important reasons for incorporating that, assuming it could be done in a high quality operation, and that's exactly what big reuse and low reuse side have been doing for years.
1:48:17
Finally, passage of this legislation should be accompanied by an FY 25 budget allocation that restores $7,000,000,000 of funding to the New York Compose Project Organizations, the 7 nonprofits and grow NYC, as well as small additional funding to parks so that they can administer and operate this cost effective composting program.
1:48:39
We're very sympathetic to parks, needs, in the financial area.
1:48:43
We've long supported the 1% for parks, but to shirk its responsibilities and the legal requirements of law and not have composting and be kicking out big reuse to literally put up a parking lot is disgraceful.
1:48:58
And this committee ought to be actively involved in getting parks to reverse that decision and to support community composting.
1:49:06
And we appreciate all your good work and your attention today.
