Maloney questions Anderson on Intro 369 composting capacity and demand data

Thank you, Chair.

And thank you for your testimony.

I am glad to see Intro 75 and your support.

I think enforcement of sanitation from business hours is a sensible solution.

And I wanted to ask about Intro 369, where your testimony indicates that there are

concerns around expanding capacity citywide.

And I wanted to know if you have data on the demand in each borough and a study or inquiry into

the demand and whether or not these

organic waste composting facilities are needed in each borough.

Yeah, so I think in general we support the councils

Intent to expand composting capacity in New York City and in the surrounding metropolitan area.

I think, you know, composting is a very land intensive activity and Councilmember Carr has been out to our Staten Island compost facility with Jen and I

and you know that facility processes 40,000 wet tons per year.

We're talking about a facility that's almost five times that size in each borough.

You know, that's a big facility.

You couldn't find that space in Manhattan or really realistically in most of the other boroughs.

So our opposition to the bill is specifically around the size requirement, the fact that we would have to site one in each borough.

So I think we're open to conversations with the council around where should we go directionally with composting.

I think we are very excited to, now that the administration has transferred some of the

Rikers properties to DCAS.

We're very excited to work with DCAS to see if we can actually construct a sizable composting facility there.

So I think there's a lot of potential in this space, but the approach of this bill, I think, just was not the right direction.

Thank you for clarifying your position.

And then yield back to the chair.

Thank you.

Councilmember Ung, do you have any questions?

Great.

Second round to Councilmember Carr.