Commissioner Anderson opens with agency updates on organics, containerization, and CWZ signup

Good morning, Chair Sanchez and members of the Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management.

I'm Gregory Anderson, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Sanitation, and I'm joined by Jen McDonald, Deputy Commissioner for Solid Waste Management, and Frank Marshall, Assistant Commissioner for the Bureau of Commercial Waste.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify in front of this committee today.

Before I get into my prepared testimony, I just want to provide a few updates.

There's a lot of exciting things happening in sanitation.

First, happy fiscal new year to everyone.

We were very excited to see yesterday that the City Council passed Intro 31, which would allow sanitation to expand the commercial organics program to all food-related businesses.

And we look forward to implementing that over the course of the next few months ahead of the December 1st deadline in the bill.

And second, we are very excited that the council passed Intro 92, sponsored by our dear friend, Councilmember Gail Brewer, to allow us to use stickers to

alert the public of violators of alternate side parking.

So we look forward to rolling that out in the coming months as well.

As it is July 1st, we have exciting news around containerization.

First, today is the first day of signups and registration for Brooklyn Community District 2.

So all businesses with 10 or more units in Brooklyn Community District 2 will be able to sign up to receive their Empire bins.

They're mandatory for buildings 31 plus units and they are optional for buildings with 10 to 30 units.

They can choose either the Empire bins or wheelie bins, whichever they prefer.

They just have to let us know which they prefer.

So we will start doing outreach today.

We have teams out on the ground, and I'm heading over there shortly after this hearing to film a quick little video.

Secondly, on containerization, very excited to announce that we have published our draft environmental impact statement for the containerization program.

This is something that the department has worked on tirelessly for the last year plus.

It's the result of an incredible amount of analysis, public engagement, and we really want to thank our team who's worked on this, as well as our partner agencies at DOT, DEP,

Mayor's Office of Environmental Coordination, and others who have been part of this process.

And we will have a hearing on the final scope of work in the DEIS coming up in July.

And lastly,

It is July 1st, as I mentioned, which means that starting today, customers in the Midtown South and Staten Island commercial waste zones can sign up with one of their three selected carters.

And that sign-up period continues through August 31st.

So we are also having outreach staff out there today.

It'll be limited for the next couple days because of the heat wave, but starting next week we'll be out there in full force.