Ryan Castalia (Sure We Can) translates and testifies in support of bottle bill expansion

And now, Ryan.

So first from Petra Schelo.

Hello, my name is Petra Schelo and I am a canner.

I do this work for personal reasons.

When I arrived here, I started doing this work because of a recommendation.

It was a necessity because I couldn't find another type of work.

This work helps me survive economically.

I've done this for two years and it's served me.

It's helped me a lot.

It's helped me, but it's not enough.

Everything has gone up.

All our personal expenses have risen.

Recently, I lost my son, and the costs are so high.

They're always high, and it's very hard.

With a lot of strength, we have to continue onward.

With 10 cents, the circumstances that have befallen us would be much relieved.

And I'm not alone.

There are others who need a lot of help.

We have the hope that our community will recognize our work through making the deposit higher and also through smaller things like leaving us bottles and cans to continue collecting.

I want the community to allow us to participate by continuing to collect bottles and cans and by recognizing the value of our work.

We can't do it alone.

We're asking for your help to let us survive.

And from Josefa Marin.

Hello, my name is Josefa Marin.

I am a canner for more than 20 years.

I have the honor of having been elected by my peers to represent them, to come here and speak for them as the president of the Alliance of Independent Recyclers of New York City.

What can I say?

It's hard to be a recycler.

We go street to street in the rain and snow.

We're constantly struggling.

And we're here to ask that in this challenging time that we're all living, the city pushes the state to increase the bottle deposit because today we need to collect quite a bit, double what we had to collect before in the years past because the costs have all risen.

Going to the supermarket costs us a great deal, and everything is too expensive.

It used to be that with $50, you could buy all the food you needed to feed your family, and today you will only buy two or three things, and you cost $50.

Today we need to collect double from before to bring home the same food for our family.

We need to work twice as hard.

We're asking you who have the power to take action to keep us in mind, to help us.

We're here to help.

We help the environment and contribute to our community.

We'd love to see the bottle deposit increase to 10 cents because it's a necessity.

We offer a service to the community and we should be recognized for it.

Now I'll speak for myself.

Thank you again.

My name is Ryan Castalia.

I'm executive director of Sure We Can, a Brooklyn-based redemption center and nonprofit serving independent recyclers or canners, the folks who collect the bottles and cans that others just throw away.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

New York City should pass Resolution No.

0362 and full-throatedly support bottle bill expansion and use every lever to urge the state to act.

If successful, the city will be cleaner, marginalized workers will have more opportunities, small businesses will thrive, and the city will save money.

Because the bottle bill works, period.

It's demonstrated its efficacy continuously for decades, resulting in the diversion of millions of tons of waste.

It's our only extant form of extended producer responsibility policy, and it produces unparalleled outcomes and holds people who generate waste through disposable containers in countable and is an elegant mechanism for environmental justice.

Creating opportunities for any New Yorker, even and especially the most marginalized, to participate in and directly benefit from community waste management.

It helps create the sense of pride and ownership Commissioner Anderson mentioned earlier.

New York City depends on the bottle bill, which since its implementation has created a 70% reduction in street litter.

Canners are a ubiquitous and iconic part of our streetscape.

Yet the system and the workers who drive its success are sidelined and neglected as an afterthought when it comes to inclusion.

in our larger waste management landscape.

The bottle deposit hasn't risen in 40 years.

Today in New York City, canners earn on average $5 an hour.

Redemption centers are closing every day, and many types of containers are

arbitrarily excluded from the system.

A 10 cent deposit would increase our return rates to 90%.

An increased handling fee would allow small businesses to flourish.

And all of these changes together would combine to save the city around $80 million annually.

This is our best recycling system.

And the workers who drive its success, especially the canners who collect what others discard, are essential.

We're not talking about reinventing the wheel.

The system works and works well.

It just needs your support.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Hi, Cecilia.