Council to Take Out the Garbage

As the Times is reporting this morning it appears that the City Council is poised to pass the SWMP at its Stated Meeting tomorrow. It also appears that, aside from some minor adjustments, the plan will reflect the substance of the mayor's original proposal.

One of the unresolved issues according to the Times is the question of "setting a long-range goal for reducing the 50,000 tons of commercial and residential trash produced in the city every day." This reflects what we have been saying all along about the plan's lack of any credible waste reduction strategy.

What needs to be done is for the Council to move swiftly, after passing the mayor's plan, to implement Intro 133, the pilot program for the use of commercial food waste disposers. It should also examine the expansion of the use of residential disposers so that the city can (as "Zero Waste" spokesperson Jean Halloran says) "reduce our waste exports." The city might also at the same time be able to obviate the need to build an expensive an obtrusive commercial waste transfer station at 59th Street in Manhattan.