Did they give you a goal?

Good morning.

Welcome to the Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management.

At this time, we ask that you please silence all electronics.

If you wish to fill out a parents' card, please see one of the starge at arms in the back.

And at no point, please do not approach the dais.

Chair, you may begin.

Thank you so much.

And I want to thank everyone for arriving here on time for the prompt 10 a.m.

sanitation hearing.

Apologies for my delay.

And I want to thank everyone for your uh attendance.

Um, good morning, and finally, welcome to the Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management.

Um, I know you've been waiting all morning.

You've been waiting all week, all year.

Um, I am Councilmember Justin Sanchez, Chair of this committee.

I'd like to thank the members of the committee that are here with us today.

Uh, Councilmember Chanel Thomas Henry, Councilmember Zhuang, Councilmember Hanif, Councilmember Lewis, uh, Councilmember Ung.

Do you have anyone on Zoom?

I don't think we have anyone on Zoom, but if they arrive, I will announce them.

Um, I would like to thank the members of the public that are here to testify.

I would love to give a special shout out.

Um I won't I'll do it later.

Um I'd like to thank the members of the public who are here.

Um, and I've ready to say that.

The purpose of today's hearing is to learn more about the current work of the New York City Department of Sanitation and the Business Integrity Commission to seek value from our discarded materials and to help further the circular economy in New York City.

In addition to oversight, we will be hearing two bills and two resolutions today.

Intro number 256 by Councilmember Crystal Hudson would require the Department of Sanitation Commissioner to study and report on the feasibility and environmental effects of a mandate for households to separate and DSNY to collect textile waste.

The study would consider, among other things, the cost, potential benefits, and potential negative effects of such a mandate.

Intro 970 by Councilmember Jennifer Gutierrez would require the establishment of nightlife districts based on several criteria.

DSNY would be required to increase street sweeping and litter basket services by one day on the weekends in any such nightlife district at the request of the relevant community board.

This bill would also permit DSNY to resume its original street sweeping and litter basket schedule if for 30 days there has been a reduction in street cleanliness 311 street cleanliness related 311 service requests in such nightlife districts.

Calls on DSNY and the Department of Parks and Recreation to continue to engage and collaborate with local communities to encourage and allow community composting to be carried out on parkland.

And finally, resolution 362, also sponsored by Councilmember Nurse, calls upon the New York State Legislature to pass and the governor to sign legislation to amend the environmental conservation law in relation to returnable bottles.

I look forward to the dialogue today, and I would like to thank everyone on my team for their work on this legislation and oversight.

Oh, okay.

Um and I would also like uh to recognize Councilmember Wilson, who was here earlier, um, as well as DEP.

Um we will start by hearing testimony from DSNY and oh sorry.

Oh.

We will uh start by hearing testimony from DSNY and DEP, followed by some questions to the agencies, and then we will hear testimony from members of the public.

I will now turn it over to our committee council to administer the oath.

Please raise your right hand.

Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in your testimony before the council members and to respond honestly to council member questions?

I do.

Thank you.

Good to go.

Great.

Good morning, Chair Sanchez and members of the Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management.

I am Gregory Anderson, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Sanitation.

I'm joined today by Jennifer McDonnell, Deputy Commissioner of Solid Waste Management.

Kate Kitchener, Executive Director of Resource Recovery at DSNY, and Jane Gajwani, Director of the Office of Energy and Resource Recovery at DEP.

Thank you for inviting us to testify today.

New Yorkers have been recycling in some form for more than 200 years.

In the 19th century, rendering plants, scrap dealers, and an informal network of rag and bone pickers ensured that the most usable discards were given new life.

In the early 20th century, during the world wars and the Great Depression, New Yorkers used and reused products out of a sense of civic duty, necessity, or both.

But in the 20th century, industrial growth and economic transformation in the United States built a powerful economy based on the insatiable appetite of a growing population of Americans as consumers of products, of energy, of land, and of water.

The fundamental premise of this 20th century economy was to take, make and waste both natural and labor resources from around the globe to fuel economic growth.

At the same time, we found every possible way to dispose of the growing volumes of trash we generated, dump it in the ocean, burn it, bury it in giant mountains of trash.

And over time, there was a growing realization that we are asking more of our planet and of its people than it than we can endure, and that this economic model, take make waste, was unsustainable.

And here in New York City, we struggled with the reality that our means of disposal in polluting incinerators, in barely regulated landfills across the city, and the behemoth freshkills landfill on Staten Island would not last.