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Council Member Restler expresses frustration with slow implementation of commercial waste zones
1:39:42
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3 min
Council Member Lincoln Restler expresses deep frustration with the slow implementation of the commercial waste zone program. He highlights that the program has been in discussion since 2016, yet only one district in Central Queens has been implemented, with two more in The Bronx coming later in the year. Restler emphasizes the importance of faster implementation due to the program's potential benefits for safety, environmental outcomes, and business efficiency.
- Restler questions what it would take to implement the program faster, asking if it's a resource or staffing issue.
- He emphasizes that the program is beneficial for everyone and expresses concern about the slow pace.
- Commissioner Lojan responds by explaining the need for careful implementation to avoid customer issues, pricing disputes, and safety concerns.
Lincoln Restler
1:39:42
Chair Brady, that is very generous of you, and I wanna just commend you for your stellar leadership of this committee and for your really thoughtful and and high caliber legislation that you've that we're having hearings on today.
1:39:54
Commissioner and team, it's always great to see you.
1:39:56
Greatly appreciate your work on this.
1:39:58
I have to say, though, the timing of commercial waste zones is just deeply, deeply frustrating.
1:40:08
I'm sure for you as well, you know, we say that this law was passed in 2019, but it's like that was three years after there was already a handshake agreement between the council and the mayor's office to support this legislation, and we got held up in an incredibly slow and painful environmental review process.
1:40:22
So really, we're talking about 2016 is when everyone who's worked on this and cared about this, and the council members and the administration at the time actually shook hands and said, we're going to get commercial waste zones done.
1:40:33
And so now we're essentially a decade later, We're in one district in Central Queens.
1:40:37
We've got two more in The Bronx coming later this year.
1:40:40
It's going to take another two years plus till we get citywide.
1:40:43
What's it going to take to go faster?
1:40:45
Is it a resource issue?
1:40:46
Is it a staffing issue?
1:40:48
How do we help support the Department of Sanitation to get this done more quickly?
1:40:53
Because as you lay out in your your testimony, this will be so incredibly important for improving safety in our communities by reducing the numbers of by improving the the standards for workers, by improving environmental outcomes, by improving so much of, you know, that it improving efficiency for businesses.
1:41:12
Like, this is good for everybody.
1:41:15
It's just too slow.
1:41:16
So can you walk me through what are the impediments?
1:41:18
What are the things that we could do to go faster to get this done more quickly?
Javier Lojan
1:41:23
Thank you council members.
1:41:24
So I think one of the things there's there's two sides of it.
1:41:28
Right?
1:41:29
I think going faster, I think we're I think that we will miss something and I and I mean that in the sense of, you know, customer issues, safety.
1:41:41
Those are those are one of the bigger priorities here because the last thing we wanna do is have customers have any kind of pricing issues or disputes.
1:41:51
And I think that's one of the things with Queen Central that we saw and and we're successful where virtually no complaints.
1:41:59
And I think on the Carter side too is one of the things we have to remember.
1:42:02
They have a big part of this as well because we can go out and do outreach.
1:42:08
The business is there's their responsibility to negotiate the rate, but then the Carter that they select has to still upload these contracts and be able to provide the service.
1:42:19
So I I I hear you, council member, and, you know, wanna move as fast as we can, but I think we we wanna be careful to sacrifice, you know, any kind of issues and having, you know, this program then be scrapped because we have so many issues and safety issues.
1:42:33
But I think the Carters have a big part of this as well.
1:42:36
Like, some of them, as I mentioned before, there's 10 of these Carters that are smaller Carters.
1:42:42
We move fast.
1:42:43
They might not have the ability to to keep up.
1:42:46
So I think it it's on both sides.
1:42:48
I think the plan we laid out commits us to, you know, this is the two the two the end of twenty twenty seven.
1:42:55
So, you know, that's our commitment today.
1:42:57
And I think that holds us to, you know, to task on making sure that this gets done.
1:43:02
But I, you know, I I hear you your frustration and one of those things that if we can move faster, we will.
1:43:07
But I think we just wanna be careful to not sacrifice customer issues and pricing and