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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Justin Wood, Director of Policy at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, on Solid Waste Management and Climate Change
2:50:47
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Justin Wood, representing New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and the Transform Don't Trash New York City campaign, testified on the urgency of addressing solid waste management in relation to climate change. He emphasized the need for more aggressive implementation of existing solutions and increased funding requests from DSNY.
- Highlighted that solid waste management accounts for 12% of New York State's greenhouse gas emissions
- Expressed concern about DSNY's pace in implementing Local Law 199 and renewing the Solid Waste Management Plan
- Called for faster implementation of marine transfer stations and revisiting abandoned infrastructure like the Gansevoort Marine Transfer Station
Justin Wood
2:50:47
Good afternoon.
2:50:49
Abreu and members of the committee staff and council, thank you so much for the opportunity to testify.
2:50:55
My name is Justin Wood.
2:50:56
I'm the director of policy at New York Lairs for the Public Interest.
2:50:59
And like my last two colleagues, we're also founding members of the Transform Don't Trash New York City campaign.
2:51:07
We'll submit detailed written testimony via email.
2:51:11
Just wanted to respond to some of what we heard drawn out through questions.
2:51:16
Thank you for the thoughtful questions for DSNY today.
2:51:20
I think, you know, the students on the first few panels made the case compellingly.
2:51:25
We don't need to put all the science in front of this committee.
2:51:29
Climate change is a worst case scenario.
2:51:32
It's happening to New Yorkers.
2:51:34
It's happening to people across the world as we speak.
2:51:37
And we have a federal government that seems determined to withdraw every possible federal dollar from solutions.
2:51:45
It's also 12% of New York State's greenhouse gas emissions.
2:51:49
So it's a serious chunk of what we as a huge state economy and city economy put into the air in terms of climate change.
2:51:58
The good news is this solid waste management is a sector that remains firmly in local and municipal control, and the solutions have already been invented.
2:52:07
Again, we've heard about composting, we've heard about efficiency, we've heard about recycling and waste reduction at the source.
2:52:16
I think what we are worried about in this budget is that DSNY is not as aggressively as necessary even requesting the funds to implement the good works of this committee and this council going back years and even decades.
2:52:32
So Local Law one ninety nine, you know, it sounds like we're off to a good start with one twentieth of the law being implemented and some good results, at least from a customer perspective, we don't see a reason to wait with the urgency of climate change and worker justice and inequities in how that waste is being handled.
2:52:52
Similarly, you know, the solid waste management plan is expiring.
2:52:56
This is a twenty year plan that DSNY needs to reduce, renew.
2:53:02
So we would like to see the department aggressively going after the funds with the council necessary to start accepting waste at marine transfer stations that we've already invested in.
2:53:14
We've also got entire pieces of infrastructure like the Gan Avort Marine Transfer Station that have just been quietly abandoned by the department and it doesn't even put in funding requests for this anymore.
2:53:25
So these are things we hope to revisit in the Local Law one hundred ninety nine oversight hearing with you and throughout this budget cycle working together.
2:53:32
Thank you so much.
Shaun Abreu
2:53:33
Thank you, Justin.