REMARKS
Council Member Abreu advocates for community composting funding
7:10:07
·
166 sec
Council Member Shaun Abreu passionately advocates for the restoration and baseline funding of community composting programs, emphasizing their importance in conjunction with the expansion of curbside composting. He argues that community composting is crucial for educating and exciting people about composting, which is necessary for the success of broader composting initiatives.
- Abreu highlights the recent job losses at Grow NYC and the inefficiency of the current curbside composting program in Queens.
- OMB Director Jacques Jiha acknowledges the concern but suggests moving towards a more efficient citywide model.
- Abreu counters by emphasizing the educational value of community composting and its role in ensuring the success of citywide composting efforts.
Shaun Abreu
7:10:07
Mister director
Jacques Jiha
7:10:09
here.
7:10:09
How are you?
Shaun Abreu
7:10:10
Thank you so much for for coming today.
7:10:13
I I I can't begin to tell you how many constituents have emailed me to talk about community composting.
7:10:23
As the chair of the sanitation committee, this is a big priority for us.
7:10:28
I I wanna handshake with you guys at the end of June.
7:10:31
This for me, this is what's what's gonna get us there, at least for me personally.
7:10:34
It's very important for me.
7:10:36
It's important for my district.
7:10:38
Just this past week, over a 100 people from Grow NYC lost their jobs.
7:10:43
We shouldn't have to rely on charity to to to make good government,
Diana Ayala
7:10:49
be
Shaun Abreu
7:10:49
a thing.
7:10:49
And we consider I consider very, very personally that community composting is super important as we expand curbside, this fall to Manhattan.
7:11:01
It's important that we pair the expansion of that infrastructure with people who are excited about composting.
7:11:06
At my hearing this past Monday, even commissioner Tisch said that composting community composting is important.
7:11:12
So I would like to think this is something the administration finds to be, a priority.
7:11:17
And I just need a commitment from you that you can do everything you can to restore and baseline.
Jacques Jiha
7:11:24
Again, it is one of those things that, we're trying to be as efficient as we can be in terms of trying to make these works.
7:11:36
As you can imagine, we are in the budget, we include funding for SDNY to operate the curbside residential organic selection in Brooklyn and Queens and, to expand this program in the fall.
7:11:50
This program and I understand, trust me, I'm not taking this lightly.
7:11:54
Sorry.
Shaun Abreu
7:11:54
What'd you say?
Jacques Jiha
7:11:55
I'm not taking it lightly, the, the your concern about, community composting.
7:12:01
But as a city, we have to move to a model where it's a lot more efficient.
7:12:06
Okay?
7:12:06
Doing it citywide, citywide program than doing it community by community.
Shaun Abreu
7:12:11
If we wanna talk about efficiency, the curbside composting program in Queens only had a 4.3% capture rate of all compostable material.
7:12:20
You wanna talk about efficiency, that's an inefficient program that will only succeed that will only succeed if we fully fund community composting.
7:12:28
To get people excited about composting.
7:12:30
The education that comes with it is super important.
7:12:35
You can have all the infrastructure in the world, but if people don't know how to compost, people aren't even recycling, for God's sake.
7:12:43
Then if we're gonna do something as big as expanding curbside composting citywide, then we must fully fund community compost.
7:12:51
And I'll just leave it there.
7:12:53
Okay.
