State and Local Solutions to Solid Waste Management Problems
New York City
Type of Program
A leaf collection program that teams up the Department of Sanitation (DOS) and the Parks Department to restore degraded parklands and restore wildlife habitat.
Community Overview
New York City’s five boroughs generate 26,000 tons per day of combined commercial, residential, and institutional waste. Compostable materials make up approximately 20% of this total (or 5,000 tons per day).
Background
The need to increase composting became crucial with the announcement in 1996 of the closure of the Fresh Kills landfill at the end of 2001. Since then, the DOS has developed several composting programs. In one such program, DOS partnered with the Parks Department to develop composting sites on a decentralized basis.
Program Description
The DOS and Parks Department are working together to create composting sites that also improve parkland. Although the sites are officially classified as parkland, they are not usable parks. Sites are filled with household garbage, construction debris, sand dredged from the harbor, and rubble removed from postwar London and used as ballast on trans-Atlantic ships.
According to Marc Matsil, director of the Natural Resources Group of the Parks Department, “Improving the soil with compost will allow the seeding of native flora, which will provide improved wildlife habitat and restore the visual integrity of the sites.”
The Parks Department provides the site, and DOS provides the compost through leaf collection. As of the fall of 1997, DOS is collecting leaves in Staten Island (3,000 tons/year) and in the Bronx (1,500 tons/year). By 1999, Brooklyn and Queens will be added to the program, with projected collections of 8,000 tons and 13,500 tons, respectively.
What Makes New York City’s Program Unique?
By teaming with the Parks Department, DOS can create composting sites throughout the city. This helps to reduce transportation costs because leaves collected in one borough do not need to be transferred to a composting site in another borough.
Obstacles Overcome
When a partnership such as this is proposed, there is often concern that the problem will simply be transferred from one department to another. It was important for DOS to assuage any concerns the Parks Department might have. In developing the memorandum of understanding, DOS included several provisions to reassure the Parks Department that the arrangement would serve both departments’ interests. In addition, when the city first began to undertake this program, funding had not been secured—not when the request for proposals (RFP) went out, not when the vendor was selected, and not when the contract was signed. (The contract stipulated that the arrangement was subject to available funding.) The advantage with undertaking these efforts early was that, when the funds became available
about a year after the contract was signed, DOS could go forward with the program immediately. Because RFP, vendor selection, and contract processes can take up to 2 years, DOS’s early legwork clearly paid off.
Program Contact
For further information about the New York City’s program, contact
Robert Lange at (212) 837-8156
or write to:
Robert Lange Director, Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse, and Recycling Department of Sanitation City of New York , 4 Beaver Street, 6th floorNew York, NY 10004
