Q&A
Implementation and challenges of the organic waste collection program
0:20:18
·
6 min
Council Member Abreu and DSNY officials discuss the implementation and challenges of the citywide organic waste collection program. They address concerns about low capture rates in Queens and Brooklyn, and DSNY explains the differences between the new program and pre-pandemic efforts.
- DSNY reports three straight years of increasing diversion rates
- Low capture rates (4.3% in Queens, 3.6% in Brooklyn) attributed to the program being new
- DSNY emphasizes the importance of sustained outreach and education
- The new program aligns composting day with recycling day to improve participation
Shaun Abreu
0:20:18
Thank you.
0:20:20
DSNY has been criticized for dropping its role in reaching the city's waste aversion goals, including through education to residents about the importance of waste reduction of recycling.
0:20:31
Can you describe how the agency currently sees itself in the larger waste reduction movement?
Joshua Goodman
0:20:36
Sure.
0:20:37
I'm not familiar with the criticism you're referring to, and I would not accept the premise of it.
0:20:42
I mean, I'm I'll just before I get to the answer, I'll just say that the Department of Sanitation is intimately involved in outreach and education around waste diversion as evidenced by the fact that we're now in our 3rd straight year of diversion rate increase and that we've considered the 65% increase in compostable material kept out of landfill in 2 years I don't see how that would be possible without a very aggressive outreach in education.
0:21:08
So I I wouldn't agree with that characterization.
0:21:12
That said, well, how do we see ourselves?
0:21:14
The Department of Sanitation picks up £24,000,000 of trash today.
0:21:18
We'll pick up £24,000,000 of trash tomorrow.
0:21:21
We'll pick up £24,000,000 of trash the next day.
0:21:23
It just keeps coming, and our role is to process it and make sure that as much of it as possible is put to beneficial years.
Shaun Abreu
0:21:30
Organic waste makes up about a third of New York City's waste stream.
0:21:36
As organic waste decomposes in landfills, it releases methane gas, which is 84 times more effective at absorbing the sun's heat than carbon dioxide over a 20 year time frame.
0:21:45
Which is pretty remarkable.
0:21:49
Starting next month, every New Yorker will be required to separate their organic waste and set it out in a container for collection and recycling.
0:21:56
This is already available in Queens and Brooklyn, but data has data that we've we've been we we've received, and we're happy to share, shows very low capture rates for organics collection.
0:22:07
And I think that's where the criticisms are coming from with 4.3% in Queen's and 3.6 respectively in FY 24.
0:22:15
What do you attribute the low capture rates to in Queensland, Brooklyn?
Joshua Goodman
0:22:18
It's a new program.
0:22:19
It took more than a decade to get to our current roughly 50% capture rates on metal glass plastic and paper.
0:22:25
Outreach and education has to be sustained over a long period of time.
0:22:29
And that's what we're doing.
0:22:30
I mean, I think that when you look at when you compare curbside capture rates and tonnage rates to what we're seeing in the schools where it's handled by a staff, right, you really get at how much education is important in this.
0:22:45
You know, the numbers diverted from schools have just gone up up up up up because it's a smaller population where the department can conduct very direct education and outreach.
0:22:56
Working with building managers and individual residents who manage their own waste is going to be a multiyear process, and we have no intention of backing off that process.
Shaun Abreu
0:23:05
I I I'm I'm excited about that a level of engagement that's gonna be necessary.
0:23:11
And that's also a big reason why the council restored community composting.
0:23:14
We think it's gonna make a big difference in terms of bringing that engagement, civic engagement and education that we hope would increase participation, and thereby improved capture rates and diversion rates.
0:23:29
I'm also aware that I can't I don't know if it's on about 2017 in Queens.
0:23:35
The the the capture rate was twice the amount it is now.
0:23:38
I think it was, like, 10%, whereas now it's 4.3%.
0:23:41
Can you explain why we are trending downwards in that sense?
Joshua Goodman
0:23:48
So there's a few pieces to this.
0:23:50
The the first thing that I think is worth mentioning, I don't wanna be too critical of the prior administration, but the old legacy programs operated in cherry picked districts, and that was true city wide.
0:24:03
Okay, we think we're gonna get a lot here, so that's where we're gonna run the program to juice the numbers.
0:24:08
The goal of this administration was to develop a universal program that works for everybody.
0:24:11
Right?
0:24:12
When it went online in all of Queen's, the idea was everybody every resident of the borough and then later Brooklyn and then in 2 weeks city wide gets access to the same service.
0:24:22
It's not a favor they're doing for us to give us juice up numbers.
0:24:25
Right?
0:24:26
It's a service we provide to all New Yorkers.
0:24:28
To keep this important material out of the waste or out of the landfill and waste energy stream.
0:24:34
So I do think it's going to be an ongoing process.
0:24:37
I wouldn't describe us as trending down because I think the 2022.
Shaun Abreu
0:24:41
I agree that in the from the under our guidance, it has been trending upward, but not to the levels that we wanna see.
0:24:47
I understand.
0:24:48
And I I think also to add to your to your answer, in 2020, when we remove curbside, you know, you and I understand this happened before your administration, We've built this muscle.
0:25:00
Right?
0:25:01
Building the muscle of composting is something very serious.
0:25:04
Like, when you go to the gym, right over time, you're gonna build the stamina, you're gonna you're gonna start looking better, start feeling better.
0:25:10
But once you stop going to the gym, you're gonna lose those habits again.
0:25:13
And I think that that's why I think our city needs to continue to demonstrate a commitment to composting because we can't move that muscle again.
0:25:20
Yeah.
0:25:20
Right?
0:25:20
We we can't remove those habits that people have been forming.
0:25:23
If we were at 10% in 25th, you know, 2017 in Queens, could have been at 20 or 30% if we hadn't removed it.
Joshua Goodman
0:25:31
I think that that's why it's so important that in the new program and I really do believe that in a fundamental way, the program that goes citywide into Greece is different from what it's a separate program from what existed pre pandemic.
0:25:43
You know, it's not really I wouldn't say it's unfair, but just on our side, we don't think of it as like, oh, the program was paused and then we restarted it.
0:25:52
We think of the pre pandemic composting program was eliminated, and we developed a new program.
0:25:57
So I think it's it is so fundamentally different that I wouldn't compare the pre pandemic numbers with the current numbers, and we would just compare ourselves to ourselves.
0:26:06
And I would say that to your point about that composting muscle, it was why it was so important to develop a plan where in the entire city, your composting day is your recycling day.
0:26:15
It's not a 3rd day.
0:26:17
You have to remember.
0:26:17
It's the it's the metal glass plastic and paper day and the composting day.
0:26:21
It will really help people get into the groove as we move forward.
Shaun Abreu
0:26:24
Yeah.
