Res. No. 1091

 

..Title

Resolution calling upon the city of New York to adopt a zero waste policy that provides for proper leadership, dialogue, as well as information on how to achieve it.

..Body

 

By Council Members Serrano, Avella, Barron, Brewer, Comrie, DeBlasio, Fidler, Gerson, Katz, Liu, Martinez, McMahon, Monserrate, Moskowitz, Quinn, Rivera, Weprin, Felder, Jackson, Nelson and Gennaro

 

            Whereas, The placement of materials in waste disposal facilities, such as landfills and incinerators, causes damage to human health, wastes natural resources, and wrongly transfers liabilities to future generations; and

 

            Whereas, Taxpayers and consumers are currently forced to assume the high financial costs, which have skyrocketed with the closure of Fresh Kills Landfill, through the collecting, recycling, and disposing of materials; and

 

            Whereas, The current operation of private waste transfer stations are unsustainable, detrimental to public health, inefficient, and inequitably distributed throughout the City; and

           

            Whereas, The elimination of specified types of waste for disposal, also known as disposal bans, will protect states from waste importation from other states and nations; and

 

            Whereas, A resource recovery-based economy will create and sustain more productive and meaningful jobs; and

           

            Whereas, Increasingly, United States and international governments and organizations are adopting the policy that the financial responsibility of collecting, recycling, and disposing of materials belongs to producers; and

 

            Whereas, Producers should design products to ensure that they can be safely recycled back into the marketplace or nature; and

 

            Whereas, Government is ultimately responsible for establishing criteria needed to eliminate waste, so that manufacturers produce and businesses sell materials that can be safely recycled or composted; and

 

            Whereas, The Council of the City of New York supports the development of a Zero Waste Plan for New York City in order to eliminate waste and pollution in the manufacture, use, storage, and recycling of materials; and

 

            Whereas, The Council of the City of New York confirms its commitment to a target of Zero Waste by 2024, with measurable milestones delineated in the 2004 Solid Waste Management Plan, annual progress reports and a complete review in the 2014 Solid Waste Management Plan; now, therefore, be it

 

            Resolved, that the Council of the City of New York calls upon the city of New York to adopt a zero waste policy that provides for proper leadership, dialogue, as well as information on how to achieve it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 14, 2003

LS# 2808

AC