DSNY on Intro 353 (CWZ working group) and Intro 356 (community composter fees)
Anderson welcomes the working group concept in Intro 353 and says DSNY plans to advance it regardless. On Intro 356, he says current rules do not prohibit charging for organic waste drop-off or selling compost, and with prior city-funded restrictions no longer in effect, the bill is not necessary at this time.
Intro 353, sponsored by Councilmember Nurse, would require the creation of a commercial waste zones working group.
There's a lot of words here in my testimony on this.
I'll just skip to the end, which is...
We certainly welcome the opportunity to conduct additional engagement through a formalized working group and plan to advance the formalized working group whether or not this bill moves.
So we'll look forward to working with the council to get that done.
For Intro 356, again sponsored by Councilmember Nurse, would require sanitation to adopt rules to permit
community partners to charge for the collection of organic waste at drop-off site and to sell compost to the public.
DSNY rules currently do not prohibit this practice.
Previous sanitation
contracts with certain community partners did prohibit programs funded by the city from charging for these services, but because those programs are no longer baseline funded in the administration's budget, these restrictions no longer apply.
So I think
You know, the takeaway here is we look forward to working with the council to understand the intent of this legislation, but we don't think it's necessary at this time.
And given that the council has provided significant funding on the order of $5.25 million in the Schedule C posted yesterday, we do think that
publicly funded programs do need to balance access equity with the financial sustainability of the organizations that are funded by the council.