Councilman Antonio Reynoso and several of his colleagues have sent a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio asking him to put a hold on any new contracts for organic recycling that involve shipping the waste to already overburdened sections of the city. “Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia testified that DSNY recently sent a set of contracts to Comptroller [Scott] Stringer’s office for approval. These contracts would allow for increased organic waste processing at certain waste transfer stations in the city,” Reynoso, chair of the Council’s sanitation committee, wrote to the mayor Friday evening.
“We must ask that your office place a hold on any contracts that would increase the amount of waste sent to communities that are already overburdened by waste processing facilities,” said the letter, which was also signed by Councilmen Steve Levin, I. Daneek Miller and Rafael Salamanca. The request came after a testy exchange between Reynoso and Garcia at Friday’s sanitation budget hearing. Reynoso scolded Garcia for not doing more to reduce the amount of trash that gets shipped to and transferred from sections of north Brooklyn, southeast Queens and the South Bronx.
“I’m extremely disappointed that we haven’t been more creative or thoughtful” about how trash is distributed in the city, he said. Garcia said once new transfer stations throughout the city are online, the burden on those areas will be noticeably less. But as the city looks to expand its voluntary organics collection program, representatives from the neighborhoods where most transfer stations are located fear even more will get dumped on them and their constituents.
Read the full story at http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2016/05/8599183/council-members-ask-hold-organic-recycling-contracts?news-image.