RECYCLING
Zero Waste & Bigger Better Bottle Bill
The New York City Council Committee on Sanitation & Solid Waste Management held a recycling hearing on June 3, 2004. The hearing covered Resolution 144 and Resolution 174.
Resolution 144, the Bigger, Better, Bottle Billl, urges the passage of New York State Assembly Bill 3922-A, sponsored by Assembly Member Tom DiNapoli and Senate Bill 1696-A, sponsored by Senator Kenneth LaValle, which propose to expand the 5-cent deposit to the bottled water and non-carbonated drinks that are exempted from the current bottle bill law. The two bills also require the beverage industry to return all unclaimed deposits to the state to fund recycling programs and other environmental needs.
Resolution 174 calls for the development of a long term Zero Waste policy for the City of New York, with a goal of attaining a state of "as close to zero waste as possible" by the year 2024. This policy would include the promotion of redesign initiatives through extended producer responsibility; waste prevention programming for the public, private and governmental sectors; an increae of product and material reuse; intensive recycling measures that target significantly larger portions of the waste stream and the capture of organic materials for decomposition and production of compost.
The New York Department of Sanitation currently spends more than $1 billion to truck the city's garbage to out-of-state landfills, creating additional traffic, polluting the air and damaging roadways.
Introducing: GREEN WORKER COOPERATIVES
GREEN WORKER COOPERATIVES is a new organization dedicated to creating worker owned and environmentally friendly manufacturing businesses in the South Bronx. An outgrowth of New York City's environmental justice movement, GWC realized that polluted neighborhoods don't have the luxury to wait for new alternatives. GWC's work is based on the principle that in order to really address our environmental and economic problems, there should be new ways to earn a living that do not require polluting the earth or exploiting human labor. The South Bronx is choking on waste. Creating industries that recover valuable materials from the waste stream preserves natural resources, avoids the need to dump New York City waste on other communities, and reduces pollution. Why Worker Cooperatives? Worker ownership enables workers to have a direct role in decision-making and an equal share of all profits. Unlike large corporations, worker cooperatives don't leave town. They're as much a part of a community as their workers because they are their workers. That's why profits generated by a worker cooperative have a much greater impact on a community than those generated for far away owners. Worker cooperatives are truly economic democracy in action.
NEW GWC FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR FIRST CO-OP COMPLETE: According to the NYC Department of Design & Construction, NYC generates 13,500 tons of "non-fill Construction & Demolition" waste per day. Much of it comes to the South Bronx. The first project, a Building Materials ReUse Center and DeConstruction Service, will recover valuable building materials from construction and renovation projects , which can then be resold and kept out of the waste stream, supplying low-cost building materials in the process. The ICA Group, a consulting firm with over 20 years of experience supporting worker-owned businesses, was contracted by GWC to study the feasibility of launching a cooperative Building Materials Reuse Center and DeConstruction Service. The feasibility study has been completed and a business plan and a search for suitable warehouse space are underway.
GWC ENVISIONS South Bronx RECYCLING INDUSTRIAL PARK as part of an effort to beat back both a proposal to construct a 1,075 megawatt power plant in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the South Bronx and decades of high unemployment levels in the South Bronx, GWC has become engaged in an effort to revive a prior vision to develop a Recycling Industrial Park in the Bronx on the site proposed for use as a power plant. A Recycling Industrial Park would serve to locate manufacturing businesses that are able to reuse or recycle materials that would otherwise end up being trucked to a distant landfill. Such an industrial park would incorporate systems that minimize all forms of waste and encourage clean fuels and alternative energy. The 28-acre site, near the Oak Point rail yards is sufficiently large and has the appropriate rail and barge access needed for manufacturing. GWC and Sustainable South Bronx are working together to help turn this vision into reality. If you are involved in a manufacturing enterprise that is both environmentally friendly and respects its workers and are interested in locating in a recycling industrial park, please let GWC know.
The many environmental justice and environmental groups that make up this coalition are pushing a comprehensive package of initiatives that together would enable the City of New York to reduce, reuse, and recycle all of the waste currently exported to distant landfills and incinerators. The coalition has just completed a Zero Waste Plan and is expected to release the plan June 17th. In the meantime South Bronx Councilman Jose M. Serrano has introduced a resolution calling on the City to adopt a Zero Waste plan. A public hearing on the resolution has been scheduled for 1PM on June 3rd at City Hall.
For more information, please contact Omar Freilla directly at the Green Worker Cooperatives, 889 Hunts Point Avenue, Bronx, NY 10474 t. (718) 617-4668 / f. (718) 617-5228 / e. omarfreilla@ssbx.org
Board Members: Angel Garcia, Florinda Pimentel, Joanne Derwin, Raymond Pena, Resa Dimino, and Majora Carter
