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TESTIMONY
Arkman Heber on the State and Future of Community Composting in New York City
1:50:55
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127 sec
Arkman Heber testifies about the overlooked infrastructure of community composting, highlighting the need for funding restoration and future legislative support.
- Heber, representing Grow NYC's composting efforts, criticizes the shift away from community composting towards more limited processes.
- Emphasizes the role of the Newcross City compost project as a successful model for community-based organic waste processing.
- Calls attention to negative comments and unclear future plans from the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) regarding composting.
- Urges New York City Council to both restore funding to composting programs and ensure their longevity through legislation.
UNKNOWN
1:50:55
Good morning, Cherubriu, and members of the sanitation committee who might be listening in among them, my councilwoman Viki Paladino.
1:51:03
My name is Arkman Heber, and I'm a proud member of the Bargain Committee of the Grand Marcy Workers Collective, represented by our WDFU.
1:51:11
I work as a compost coordinator for growing my c, and along with my colleagues of 0 waste programs, we serve the city of New York by providing food, stuff collections, compost outreach, education access and finished compost.
1:51:23
I would like to thank a chair of Breo for your comments today in support of community composting, and we as a union look forward to speaking with you along the budget process.
1:51:32
And I'm also happy to see different proposals and resolutions that encourage composting.
1:51:37
And to provide some sort of infrastructure.
1:51:40
But with all due honesty, we already had an infrastructure for organic collection and community composting.
1:51:47
That was the Newcross City compost project.
1:51:49
The blessed plan for infrastructure is a collaboration of local organizations to collect food scraps process them and provide compost for our parks, homes, gardens, and farms.
1:51:59
And so building off of this infrastructure with the Brahmin system and Smart Bend system, Instead, we are solely focusing on those 2 processes and ignoring community composting.
1:52:10
DANG itself is an injustice.
1:52:13
This morning, we've been hearing disparaging comments from leadership of DSMI, which is not uncommon as I was here last year testifying and hearing the same exact comments as well as vagueness about plans for the future of composting and organic collection.
1:52:29
We already have the solution that to provide our composting for all New Yorkers.
1:52:36
And What this council needs to do is advocate more for the restoration of funding and also to fight against the bagueness and also the intolerance is being provided by DSNY to best serve the needs of our communities, the city council must end became only for the restoration of the program.
1:52:54
But also for demand, the legislation in order to ensure the existence of the program for years to come.
1:53:01
Thank you.