NYC Makes Long-Term Commitment to Recycling
Just two years after New York City's decision to no longer sort plastic and glass containers for recycling, its leaders have reversed course and made the historic announcement that the City will partner with long-time recyclers at Hugo Neu Corporation to work together in a public-private arrangement that will not only improve waste management in New York, but will help create new economic and environmental opportunities.
On Tues., September 14, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a press conference to make it official. Together with the City Sanitation Commissioner, City Council President, City Economic Development Corporation President, Hugo Neu Corporation President, and others, Bloomberg announced that the City will enter into a 20-year contract with Hugo Neu to not only manage recyclables collected through its residential collection program but to also build a state-of-the-art processing facility that will add value to the sorted materials and potentially attract new businesses to the region.
The City's decision to enter into a 20-year processing contract with a well established and creative recycling company will create the necessary infrastructure to make recycling successful for the long-term. The contract length gives the private sector the confidence to make the necessary investment to make recycling its most cost effective, while reducing exports of garbage to out of state landfills.
The new process plant, scheduled to be finished by 2007, will be on City-owned land at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park. A majority of materials collected will be barged to the facility from two other Hugo Neu facilities in the City, processed, and barged to market, significantly reducing truck traffic and related air emissions.
In addition, 160 construction jobs will be needed to build the new process plant, and 100 full time employees will be needed to work there. This is a win-win situation for everyone.
A New Leader for Environmental Services
In September, New York's Empire State Development, the state's economic development agency, announced that former Environmental Services Unit Director Keith Lashway would be re-assigned to help implement the Manufacturing Assistance Program (MAP), a 2004 Governor's initiative to provide technical expertise to manufacturers.
Since then, the recycling market development office has been under the direction of the newly-appointed Deputy Commissioner for Environmental Programs, Amy Schoch. Of course, Ms. Schoch, who will oversee the efforts of the Environmental Services Unit and Empire State Development's Brownfields Program, is not new to recycling market development. She worked with the rest of the market development team back when it was referred to as the Office of Recycling Market Development under then-director, Will Ferretti.
NYS Waste Tire Cleanup Program to Begin
The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has completed work on a comprehensive plan to clean up 95 waste tire stockpiles, or 29 million tires, throughout New York State. The DEC and the Department of Transportation (DOT) will partner on an initiative to recycle scrap tires for use in state highway projects.
In a press release, Governor Pataki said. "This comprehensive plan is a major step forward in the state's efforts to eliminate potentially dangerous waste tire piles from our communities, and protect our air and water for our children and generations to come."
To develop this comprehensive plan, DEC inspectors visited 162 locations that were identified as potential waste tire stockpiles during September 2003 through May 2004. The plan seeks to eliminate all 95 noncompliant waste tire stockpiles in the state by a combination of site owner/operator efforts and DEC efforts, should the site owners/operators fail to clean up their tire stockpiles.
The "Waste Tire Management and Recycling Act of 2003" was enacted to ensure the proper management of waste tires in New York State. It required DEC to prepare and implement a comprehensive plan designed to abate all noncompliant waste tire stockpiles in the state and subsequently initiate cleanups. Funding for this program is provided through a $2.50 fee added to each new tire purchased. Fees are deposited into a Waste Tire Management and Recycling Fund to be used for the cleanup of waste tire stockpiles and to develop markets for newly generated waste tires.
In cooperation with DOT and the New York State Thruway Authority, DEC is investigating beneficial ways to use discarded waste tires in road construction activities. Shredded tires will be used in a variety of DOT projects as embankment filler to help reduce the amount of gravel necessary for many highway projects. Tire shreds are lightweight, compact, and drain better than conventional gravel material used on highway embankments.
DEC is finalizing a series of contracts with companies across the state to begin shredding tire piles for use. The first DOT project that will use the shreds will eliminate a bridge on Interstate 87 in Clinton County. The bridge will be replaced with a large embankment consisting of 10,220 metric tons of tire shred, the equivalent of 1 million scrap tires. Subsequent projects could use as many as 25 million tires.