Photo Courtesy of DSNY
The Queens Solid Waste Advisory Board recently released the “State of Waste in Queens” report.
By Forum Staff
A year-long effort by the Queens Solid Waste Advisory Board has produced the “State of Waste in Queens,” a recently released analysis of the borough’s resource recovery landscape, including COVID-19’s impact and steps Queens must take to help reach the City’s stated goal of sending zero waste to landfills by 2030.
Among the 56-page report’s key findings:
- While no Queens Community Districts reached DSNY’s 7/1/2020 Annual Goal of diverting 33 percent of DSNY-managed solid waste and 25 percent of curbside and containerized waste from landfills, some CDs (11, 5, 6) came close, with diversion rates from 21.2-24.9 percent, while other CDs (14, 12, 3) diverted significantly less than half of their potentially recoverable materials (Paper, Metal/Glass/Plastic/Containers), at rates of 12.7-14.5 percent in the last calendar year.
- A fraction of Queens’ 422,970 buildings with 10 units take advantage of free DSNY textile and electronic diversion programs, with only 638 enrolled in refashionNYC and 3,497 participating in ecycleNYC.
- Big Reuse, a host site for the New York City Compost Project (NYCCP) and U.S. Composting Council’s 2020 Small Scale Composter of the Year, is currently in danger of losing its space under the Queensboro Bridge that it has leased from NYC Parks for the past 10 years. This despite processing almost 34 percent of the food waste collected across all NYCCP sites Citywide in 2019, more than half of that at their Queensboro site. In FY20 in Queens alone, Big Reuse collected over 405,000 lbs. of organics; processed over 1,760,000 lbs. of material (including partner drop-off and wood chips), and served over 26,000 households.
- Only one Queens location (Levain Bakery’s commercial kitchen) currently partners with the non-profit Rescuing Leftover Cuisine to divert food from restaurants to feed food-insecure communities.
- Nearly half (148) of Queens’ 377 DOE schools are enrolled in DSNY’s Organics Collection, but only 18 have taken the “Zero Waste Pledge,” which requires that schools create a recycling culture across all stakeholders; 13 are involved with S.E.E.D., a program that integrates sustainability into school culture and operations, and 12 participate in Race Against Waste (RAW), in which students complete a service-learning project focused on waste reduction. Queens public school students also lack access to potential green job training programs like Right to Repair clinics, where they could learn how to repair electronics.
- Despite passage of Waste Equity Local Law 152 and Commercial Waste Zone Local Law 199, overburdened environmental justice communities like Queens CD12 still contend with unenclosed waste transfer stations next to where people live with more waste potentially headed their way if a proposal by Royal Waste to expand its capacity of putrescible waste at their facility on Douglas Avenue is approved.
- In Queens CD5 — a community negatively impacted by waste-by-rail dust, blowoff, and leachate from uncovered waste rail cars — MTA-LIRR has still not issued a Request for Proposals to repower MP-15 locomotives to U.S. EPA Tier 4 Switch Duty Cycle emissions standards. Despite funds already being apportioned in the State Comptroller’s Contract, the Queens’ nonprofit Civics United for Environmental Railroad Solutions has been fighting to have these funds released for over 10 years.
“The State of Waste in Queens report provides a detailed overview of how waste is currently managed in Queens and shows the borough can do much better in terms of diverting recyclable and compostable waste,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, Jr.
