Just in time for Earth Day 2010, the New York City Council introduced legislation to strengthen and expand the City’s current recycling laws.
As a clean environment and sustainable development are two of the Women’s City Club’s top priorities, the WCC supported the legislation and remains involved in pushing it forward. In addition, the WCC is advocating for provisions that would require take-out containers to be recyclable and ban Styrofoam in food service materials.
The proposed legislation contains 11 points, ranging from strengthening existing recycling practices and institutions to creating forward-looking new programs. A key proposal would include a wider variety of plastics in New York City’s plastic recycling program. Currently, the City only accepts plastic bottles. The WCC’s own studies have shown that this very limited plastic recycling is the source of a great deal of confusion among City residents about what can and cannot be recycled.
In order to prevent further confusion as the laws change, the proposed legislation includes educational measures to inform the populace about the specifics of the law. For example, a recycling guide would be disseminated in paper and posted on the Department website.
The legislation also contains several forward-looking points that aim to make recycling second-nature to New Yorkers (such as simply placing more recycling receptacles in public places) and to establish composting infrastructure for yard and food waste. The food waste composting provision calls for a two-year study followed by a pilot program.
While the existing 11 points are all important steps in the process of greening New York for a sustainable future, we believe the legislation should include regulation of Styrofoam and take-out containers. Take-out containers, frequently made of Styrofoam or plastic, represent an enormous volume of waste in New York City, where people tend to be busy and take-out is readily available. Styrofoam, which also makes its way into the schools (and from there into landfills) in the form of disposable lunch trays, does not break down in nature and is produced with known carcinogens.
WCC’s Environment & Infrastructure Committee Chair Arden Down presented testimony at a City Council meeting on April 26 to support the passage of this landmark legislation and urge inclusion of the aforementioned provisions to make take-out containers recyclable and ban Styrofoam.
Post written by Clara Peterson
