Waste Reduction

The City's comprehensive 20-year Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) did not adequately address issues of environmental justice. We need to mandate a reduction in waste transfer station capacity in overburdened communities.

We also need to significantly improve our reuse, recycling, composting and waste disposal systems. The cost of recycling and trash disposal are nearly equal in New York City today, and a recent study showed that - in no more than five to six years - the city's curbside recycling program will become less expensive than trash disposal and will reduce the Department of Sanitation's (DSNY) overall operating costs.

We can save money, create or keep jobs in the City and combat global warming by expanding the public space recycling program, creating a curbside composting pick up program, limiting use of non-recyclable food and beverage containers and packaging materials sold in stores, require all demolitions to submit a waste management plan and process recyclables at local recycling plants.

Approximately 22% of our waste is food and yard waste that can be potentially diverted with new legislation that would create an official NYC curbside compost pick up program that would include yard waste, leaves, and food items.

Bring back compost givebacks!  Compost givebacks need to be more accessible to the general public. We need to convene an interagency task force including the Dept of Sanitation, NYC Parks & Recreation, and the NYC Compost Project housed within the Queens Botanical Garden, the NY Botanical Garden, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, the Lower East Side Ecology Center and Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden to distribute free compost in at least three locations in every borough.

The City should also provide more oversight over business recycling.  While business recycling is mandatory, standards are often lax from lack of outreach and proper enforcement. Businesses in the food industry should be mandated to separate compostable items to be taken to a NYC composting facility.  The compost produced in this industrial facility should be used in non-edible plantings around NYC Parks and in conjunction with NYC Street Trees.

Finally, the City needs to negotiate its fair share from the current and future unclaimed bottle deposits going to the State’s general fund since the City generates such a large percentage of those unclaimed deposits.

Green Party Ten Key Values

1. Social Justice
2. Ecological Wisdom
3. Non-Violence
4. Grassroots Democracy
5. Community Based Economics
6. Respect For Diversity
7. Feminism
8. Decentralization
9. Personal & Global Responsibility
10. Future Focus
Partido Verde 10 Valores Principales