QUESTION
What are the plans for outreach and education regarding the commercial waste zones pilot program?
1:31:10
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166 sec
The commissioner explains the outreach and education plan for the commercial waste zones pilot program starting in Central Queens.
- An MWBE vendor has been hired with a $1.5 million budget for outreach
- In-person outreach and multilingual flyers/mailers will target businesses in the pilot zone
- The initial outreach rollout will be complete by January 2nd, 2025
- After assessing the initial rollout, an aggressive but responsible expansion schedule will follow
- Careful implementation is crucial to avoid issues like uncollected commercial waste piling up
Kamillah Hanks
1:31:10
So my I have two questions.
1:31:12
1, I believe that you I came a little late, you've addressed in your opening statement, the commercial waste zones.
1:31:20
So we're going to have, from my understanding, the the pilot will be in Queens, and the rollout will be in in January of 2025.
1:31:33
So I think my biggest question is when it comes to the outreach and the education of the program, what does that look like burrow per burrow.
1:31:41
And when do you think you'll start putting those pieces together?
1:31:45
And what kind of assistance or help do you need from us?
1:31:50
To make sure that we are disseminating the information properly.
Jessica Tisch
1:31:55
Thank you.
1:31:56
So we start our first zone.
1:31:59
We're very excited about this.
1:32:01
We start the outreach and education this summer.
1:32:06
And we have hired an MWBE vendor.
1:32:09
We have $1,500,000 in our budget, and they are going to be hitting the pavement this summer specifically focused on the businesses in Central Queens.
1:32:23
And they'll be doing, like, in person outreach.
1:32:26
In addition to this, we have a flyer and a mailer in many languages that are going to each business in that first zone.
1:32:41
We And that rollout will be complete.
1:32:44
Has to be complete by January 2nd is the deadline.
1:32:48
We will take a little time.
1:32:50
We will assess how that rollout went, and we'll see if we have to make any tweaks or changes based on what we've learned.
1:32:59
And then the plan is to have an aggressive rollout schedule thereafter.
1:33:05
Now when I say aggressive, this not like we're going to say, okay, every district we're going to turn on on the same day, 3 months later.
1:33:14
But we are we are going to be as aggressive as we can be while still being responsible to make sure that it's it's all done the right way.
1:33:24
And the thing that I just always remind people of is what happened in LA.
1:33:30
When this is done poorly when the implementation is a is a rush job, when there is insufficient outreach, when something goes wrong.
1:33:38
That means trash left on our streets every single day.
1:33:44
And we know that there's £20,000,000 of commercial street that commercial trash that's set out every day.
1:33:50
We have to make sure that we are getting it right.
1:33:52
So those £20,000,000 of commercial trash do not sit on our streets every day.