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COURIER LIFE, APRIL 22-28, 2022
BY GREGORY LETTIERI
April is always full of recommendations
for taking action on Earth Day, but
creating lasting change requires incorporating
sustainable practices into our
daily lives, rather than simply participating
in a one-time park clean-up event.
A simple way to start is for New Yorkers
to reduce the amount of food they
waste each day. According to the EPA,
food takes up more space in U.S. landfills
than anything else; and that matters because
decomposing food emits methane
— a greenhouse gas that is more than 25
times as potent as carbon dioxide (CO2) —
and contributes directly to global warming.
We can take steps by working to understand
expiration labels to avoid throwing
away fresh food and planning meals
to avoid overestimating the amount of
food we need. We can also make it a habit
to compost food that truly must be discarded.
Composting recycles organic materials
and turns them into fertilizer that
improves the quality of soil and helps
plants grow. But we also need the government
to play a role, especially in cities
like New York where backyard composting
isn’t a widespread option.
Unfortunately, New York’s existing
OP-ED
residential organic waste management
program has taken a long time to roll
out and is available in only a handful of
neighborhoods. There were hopes that
the program would garner a larger footprint
in the city, but Mayor Eric Adams
recently made the controversial decision
to halt the expansion in his preliminary
budget. While
many were disappointed
that the
program will be
delayed even further,
Mayor Adams
is right that we can
build something
better. But the time
to do so is now, to ensure the rollout of
such an important program does not slip
further.
Arguably, the current program design
may be causing more harm than good as
trucks meander across neighborhoods,
spewing out diesel exhaust with little
to show for it. The overwhelming positive
environmental impact experienced
through composting is well-documented
and supported by rigorous analysis and
myriad studies, but in order for it to make
a broad impact, the city should think
about a community approach using local
zones or micro haulers with experience
collecting organic waste.
The city is already poised to implement
a similar model for the waste produced
by businesses through Commercial
Waste Zones, which will help create
a more organized approach to waste management
and reduce the amount of time
die sel - emi t t ing
trucks spend on
our streets by dividing
the city into
local “zones” with
dedicated haulers.
The city could apply
this zoned approach
to residential
organic waste collection.
Some private companies that service
commercial businesses in New York already
have organics programs in place
that could be leveraged for an improved
residential collection program. For example,
at Recycle Track Systems, we
partner with Rethink Food to ensure that
high-quality, fresh excess food makes its
way from restaurants and offices to community
based organizations and people
facing food insecurity. We service Citi-
Field and the Barclays Center and provide
them accurate in-depth reporting on
composting for their organic materials.
We also take food waste that’s no longer
edible and use it to manufacture a sustainable
cleaning product called Veles,
available on zerowaste.com.
We must bring more than good intentions
to the table this Earth Day. While
New Yorkers bear responsibility for being
sound environmental stewards, we
need a partner in government that recognizes
the urgency of sustainable waste
management and acts as an impetus to
progress. By halting the expansion of
curbside organics collection, City Hall is
demonstrating that it is willing to make
tough choices to ensure New York’s environmental
programs are producing results.
Policymakers have the opportunity to
implement the private sector’s best practices
that have been proven to be effective
— environmentally, economically, and
logistically. With this win-win approach,
a new era of responsible waste management
can be ushered into the city, paving
the way to a cleaner future for New York.
Gregory Littieri is the CEO of Recycle
Track Systems, an environmentally-focused
waste and recycling management
company.
In the wake of last week’s
Brooklyn subway shooting,
some in the press and the public
floated the idea of installing
metal detectors at station entrances.
We’re all for ensuring a safe
public transit system and a safe
city — but there’s a fine line between
the practical and impractical,
and the idea of forcing
tens of thousands of commuters
through metal detectors every
day borders on the absurd.
Think about the agonizing
wait air travelers endure when
boarding a flight at a major airport
in this post-9/11 world. On
average, travelers have to get to
the airport three hours ahead
of their flight time because they
know a good chunk of their
time will be spent on line going
through the necessary hassle of
TSA checks.
But almost all New Yorkers
don’t fly to work every day, and
they don’t have the time to wait
long minutes or even hours to
get into their subway stations.
If anything, being forced to endure
metal detectors or similar
thorough safety checks would
dissuade commuters from using
the subways.
The practical answer toward
boosting security and safety in
the subway system comes down
to increasing patrols and ensuring
that the intricate network of
security cameras in the subways
are in good working order 24/7.
What the increased patrols
and cameras will do is help reinstate
a sense of security at a time
when subway ridership remains
a great deal off from what it was
before the pandemic. It will help
deter the everyday criminal and
make them think twice about doing
something stupid or dangerous
in the system.
Beyond that, last week’s mass
shooting also serves as yet another
reminder of the troubling
prevalence of gun violence in
not just New York, but most every
city in America.
Too many guns are coming
into the city illegally in spite of
New York state’s stringent gun
laws. That’s because the federal
government has been unable to
enact new, tougher legislation
that would cut off the “iron pipeline”
of firearms being funneled
into New York and other cities
from other parts of the country
with lax gun laws.
All who care about public
safety and law enforcement need
to wake up to what’s practical
and do it. The impracticality of
stubborn politicians who are
in the gun lobby’s pockets are
hurting our city, and they must
either come to their senses and
support meaningful reform —
or be replaced by practical lawmakers
in the next election.
EDITORIAL
The practical fight
Composting can pave the way for cleaner city
“We must bring more than
good intention to the table
this Earth Day.
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Courier Life,
1 MetroTech
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