Thomas-Henry questions Anderson on illegal dumping and disposal site gaps

I have a question on dumping.

Currently, now originally I thought there were sites throughout the city where individuals can dump, but it seems like they're just special waste drop sites.

Is that correct?

Correct.

They currently know.

So what is a rampant problem in my district is it seems as if individuals are cleaning out homes and then just dumping anything from mattresses, microwaves, and the like in areas.

Is there any plan sanitation has in addition to the cameras to...

mitigate this?

Yeah, so in the, I would say, very distant past, probably before many of us were alive, the department did operate what were called self-help sites where homeowners could bring a load of whatever

trash they had and dispose of it.

That was back when we operated the Fresh Kills landfill and we had transfer stations and landfills all across New York City.

We have not operated those self-help sites in over 20-something years.

And I don't know that given the current sort of regulatory environment and the permitting framework that we operate in today, that we'd be able to

to open those up for the kinds of like large scale loads of material that, um, that are typically the cause of illegal dumping.

Uh, I think that, you know, the, the two things I would say here is one, we go to every residential property in New York city two or three times a week.

And so there's no need to illegally dump material because we will come to you and we will pick it up.

On the other hand, if you are a contractor or you're doing renovations and you're hiring someone to come in and do your kitchen or your bathroom, once that project starts,

there is an obligation that that material be handled through the private carding industry and be collected by a BIC registered hauler and disposed of at a licensed transact.

I will say one of the things that we have identified as a potential gap as we've been thinking about your colleague Ty Hankerson's bill

around the proper disposal of construction and demolition waste is that it may not be super easy if you don't have, you know,

If you're renovating an office building or converting an office building to residential, for example, that's a big job.

You're hiring dozens or hundreds of loads of private carters to come in.

But if you're just getting, if you own a house and you're just getting your bathroom done, that amount of material may not be enough to...

You know, call up a truck and have them come and get it.

And so there's a gap in terms of our ability, in terms of the industry's ability and the regulatory framework's ability to sort of offer that service at that scale.

So that's something that as we consider that bill, which we're thankful that he introduced, that, you know, I think we need to look for ways to fill that gap.