Caitlin Vietoro (NYLCV) testifies on zero waste goals and legislative priorities

Caitlin, do we have Caitlin here?

You may begin.

Hello.

Hi, Caitlin.

Hi.

Can I start?

Yes, you can start.

Okay, beautiful.

Thank you.

You're very welcome.

Hi, everyone.

My name is Caitlin Vietoro, and I'm the New York City Policy Fellow at the New York League of Conservation Voters.

Thank you, Chair Sanchez and members of the Committee on Sanitation, for the opportunity to comment.

NYLCV strongly supports our city's zero waste by 2030 goal to curb our greenhouse gas emissions and send less waste to landfills located in low-income and communities of color.

The pollution from landfills and incinerators in these communities disproportionately cause health issues and compound existing environmental and racial inequities.

Our city needs to move towards a system where waste is reduced first before the burden of it can impact environmental justice communities.

Our written testimony outlines several priorities, including reducing our reliance on plastic products, particularly single-use ones.

We encourage the city to reduce procurement of single-use plastic products.

If compostable products are utilized, we must also ensure that composting facilities can accept them.

We strongly support organic waste recycling.

We supported the council passing L.

85 of 2023, establishing a city-wide residential organics program, and we're pleased at the expansion of categories of establishments subject to commercial organic waste recycling.

We hope DSNY continues to prioritize curbside organic enforcement with education.

DSNY should continue in investing composting infrastructure and continue working with the community composting network to build awareness and inspire organic waste recycling.

Increasing awareness and accessibility of textile recycling is imperative.

We support the direction of Intro 256 sponsored by Councilmember Hudson, and we recommend the bill develop a timeframe requiring DSNY to mandate textile collection for all city households, institutions, and NYCHA.

The bill should consider capital funding needs, its recycling capacity to accept textiles, and more.

NYLCB strongly supports DSNY's work advancing an extended producer responsibility for packaging program at the state level.

We encourage the state and DSNY to explore the potential for other EPR programs for difficult to recycle materials such as mattresses.

And we look forward to working with the City Council and Mamdani administration to ensure we meet our zero waste by 2030 goals.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Right on time.

Thank you.

Thank you.