Then-Vice President Joe Biden (photo: governor's office)
Over the last four years, our city and nation have watched as the Trump administration targeted immigrant communities with punitive policies and lashed out at local leadership who disagreed with his politics. With unprecedented climate events and a pandemic that has upended our lives, cities like ours have been left to fend for themselves. Indeed, this abdication of responsibility on the national and global stage has been a recurring theme.
That is about to change.
The incoming Biden-Harris administration has already given us reason to be hopeful. In the days following the historic election, they have let us know how they will help address the challenges that cities have been managing alone for far too long.
Let’s start with our communities: President-Elect Joe Biden named a 16-member COVID-19 task force committed to following the science and promoting policies that New York City knows works. This is in sharp contrast to the sitting president, who downplayed the severity of the pandemic from day one and continues to promote conspiracy theories and politicize common sense measures like wearing a mask as our nation surges past the grim milestone of a quarter million deaths.
For a majority of New Yorkers, it is a relief to see that the Biden-Harris administration has already pledged to undo the travel bans against some Muslim-majority countries, take action to protect the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and advocate for a $15 minimum wage. Our administration, which just announced even more ambitious Green New Deal goals, is relieved to see climate action among the president-elect’s top priorities. The United States on January 20 will move quickly to recommit to the Paris Climate Agreement that seeks to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Climate action may be one of the few existential issues that is truly bipartisan. While New York City was one of the first U.S. cities to commit directly to the Paris Agreement after Trump pulled out, there are over 250 cities around the country, from San Francisco, CA to Kansas City, MO to Little Rock, AK that have said “we’re in.” New York City has been a leader these last four years because our memories are fresh. It’s hard to forget the devastation of Superstorm Sandy, which hit on Oct. 29, 2012, killed 44 of our fellow New Yorkers, displaced thousands, and left $19 billion worth of damages in its wake.
New York City is host to the largest diplomatic corps in the world. We have used this incredible platform and access to global leaders to reaffirm that U.S. local governments are showing the American leadership missing from Washington D.C. on issues like climate, migration, and now, Covid-19.
It has been critical to do this with our communities throughout the five boroughs, especially with our youth. Launched in 2015 to bring the United Nations and the Global Goals to young New Yorkers, our NYC Junior Ambassadors program now has thousands of alumni who are taking action in their communities on issues our national government has ignored. For example, after studying Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Under Water, one of our cohorts organized a cleanup of the Bronx River.
New York City also worked to create a seat at the table for cities and local governments at the United Nations. Unsurprisingly, the Trump administration has disengaged at the multilateral level on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are a roadmap to address poverty and climate change by 2030. New York City leveraged our influence at the United Nations to create the NYC Declaration on the Voluntary Local Review, an opportunity for cities and local governments to directly bring their leadership on the SDGs to the global community. We now have more than 210 cities and states worldwide that have committed to sharing ideas and using the SDGs to accelerate change in their communities.
The hard work cities here in the U.S. and around the world are doing is what will greet the incoming Biden-Harris administration, especially the work we have done on the frontlines of combatting COVID-19. It has been local leadership that has saved lives. We followed the science and data and continue to do so, but the coming year will bring many challenges including equitable distribution of vaccines.
The president-elect’s intentions around COVID-19 management, climate, immigration, minimum wage, and more, are all steps in the right direction that will create a better world for millions.
After four long years, cities are finally gaining an ally in Washington, D.C. and the promise of building back better seems to be within our collective grasp.
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Penny Abeywardena is Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs. On Twitter @PAbeywardena.
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Compost collection (photo: New York City Department of Sanitation)
As we come out of the Thanksgiving holiday and head further into the season of holiday meals, it is useful to take a moment to think about where all of those leftover food scraps end up. The ability to divert this organic waste from landfills is a lot more limited this year due to substantial budget cuts to New York City’s voluntary composting program. Utilizing recently-developed, small-scale organic waste digesters in residential buildings offers a new, economically-viable path forward.
In recent years, efforts to sustain New York City’s composting program have focused on mandating organics recycling through legislation. This strategy is modeled after the city’s existing approach to non-organics recycling, in which paper, plastic, and metal are processed through centralized infrastructure. However, handling organic waste actually lends itself to a localized setup if the right technology is available.
Under the now largely defunded city composting pilot program, the city Department of Sanitation (DSNY) coordinated residential curbside pickup for organic waste in small dwellings (nine units or fewer), much like they do for recyclables. The collected material was then transferred to centralized sites for conversion to compost.
A core challenge that plagued the voluntary program was a low average participation rate, resulting in DSNY trucks collecting at about a tenth of their capacity. From an economic standpoint, this translates to organic diversion costing as much as six times more than conventional landfill disposal per ton.
Regardless of whether organic diversion rates improve in small residences, there is no setup in place to process organic waste in medium- and large-scale residential buildings, i.e., those over nine units. Some key challenges are limited storage space for the separated material prior to disposal and the accompanying odor that can trigger rodent and insect infestations if not properly managed. The amount of organic waste produced and energy usage of these larger residential buildings put them on the right economy of scale to take up new, onsite organic waste digestion technology.
Advances in aerobic waste digester technology allow for small-scale machines that effectively break down organic waste using a proprietary blend of enzymes. Unlike composting, where material decays slowly under natural conditions, digestion occurs at a relatively rapid pace (24-48 hours) and low temperature (~95 ⁰F). The process is also versatile – allowing the complete breakdown of all forms of commonly-discarded household organics, such as produce, meat, bones, fat, pet waste, yard waste, and compostable packaging/bags.
Typical small-scale aerobic digesters (SADs) cost approximately $150,000 per unit. They produce a nutrient-dense, soil-like material that is completely non-toxic – meaning that it is not subject to any regulatory controls. This output product can be used as an additive in building landscaping or as fertilizer for community gardens. Since the processed material is odorless and dehydrated, it can also be stored onsite until it can be picked up by DSNY or a private hauler to be added as a valuable ingredient to existing commercial composting or energy digester conversion programs.
With additional equipment (approximately $150,000), the high-energy content material output can be used onsite to power a building’s boiler. This can displace other building energy purchases such as fuel oil, natural gas, or electricity from the grid, while saving money in the process.
SADs offer a number of other advantages. The units can run continuously with minimal oversight and are easy to operate (adding the enzymes is similar to loading laundry detergent). Much like a building’s compactor, operating and maintenance costs for SADs are low and any necessary repairs are generally covered by a warranty. The relatively fast transfer of organic waste to digesters within a building also reduces pest management costs and any unpleasant odor. On the city-wide level, this also provides health-related benefits by decreasing rodent- and insect-based diseases, as well as exposure to any chemicals used by exterminators.
Policy changes could provide new financial incentives to encourage the use of aerobic digesters in residential buildings. Some examples include tax credits for each ton of landfill waste avoided (including tipping fees, transport costs, truck wear and tear, etc.) and offsets related to avoided greenhouse gas emissions. Funding for installation of SADs could be considered under the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) energy upgrade programs and the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing program established under Local Law 96.
Perhaps the most important shift in localized organics processing is the transition from an incentive-based “carrot-style” philosophy over the mandatory “stick-style” approach. Providing incentives to buildings will likely encourage management to play a larger role in getting their residents to separate organic waste. In tandem, this would relieve the city of some costs associated with educational organics recycling programming and public service announcements. The added convenience of dropping off these materials in one’s own residential building should also increase the rate of organic waste diversion.
We suggest that the city help expedite the potential implementation of aerobic waste digestion in residential buildings by developing pilot programs that generate a clearer picture of the full cost savings. While budgetary pressures are high at the moment, the gains seem well worth the costs of subsidizing a handful of digesters in buildings willing to participate. Another option is for New York City to consider legislation that requires new buildings to leave space in their designs to install this equipment, if not also require its use.
The solution to shortcomings with the New York City zero-waste initiative may very well be the opposite of what we thought – not to centralize our organic waste recycling efforts, but rather localize them at the residential level. Technology now presents us with an option for an innovative and cost-effective path forward. Let’s choose this local detour, as it might just make all the difference.
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Nancy Holt, PhD is the Co-founder of Science for New York (Sci4NY) which aims to have local scientists support decision makers through project-based interaction. On Twitter @Sci4NY.
Brandon M. McMurtry is a PhD candidate in Chemistry at Columbia University in New York and a member of Sci4NY.
Calder Orr, MPA Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University, is a Research Scientist with the City of New York.
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Small businesses are the lifeblood for so many (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)
As cases of COVID-19 rise once again, New York is faced with a second wave that could force “nonessential” businesses to shutter their doors, and for many this may be permanent. This would hinder profitable operations and wipe out families’ income without proper support. In the Bronx and across New York City, we are powered by immigrant-owned small businesses that are essential to our communities and to our economy’s success. Yet, they have faced immense and disproportionate hardships due to the pandemic.
Diminishing, almost non-existent, access to federal assistance programs has left many business owners with nowhere to turn. Without additional access to loans and grants to help pay for salaries, rent, and bills, we can expect a drastic decrease in small businesses, including many that have been staples of our communities for decades. It has already happened in far too many cases as the coronavirus has devastated New York and the federal government has not come through.
This is something that we all can see and feel as residents of the Bronx, which from the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic has been one of the hardest-hit boroughs. However, we are a community of diversity and resilience.
Even as financial hardship has hurt them, some Bronx restaurants are making sure their community members have access to food since other industries have faced even more dire restrictions. La Morada turned its operation into a soup kitchen, making about 650 meals each day to help unemployed New Yorkers and disabled adults without the ability to cook on their own.
While some places are able to provide hope, many businesses are starting to run out. Over the next few months a third to almost one-half of all New York City restaurants and bars could permanently close up shop due to increasing uncertainty and the ever-changing business environment brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. As the restaurant industry cripples under financial pressure, so does the hard-working immigrant community, which makes up over 60 percent of the workforce in the industry. Both of which are essential to New York’s vibrant culture and prosperity.
Today, almost half of all small businesses are immigrant-owned. And, as coronavirus sparked uncertainty for everyone across the board, undocumented workers continue to face disproportionable hardships. From being left out of federal relief in the CARES Act earlier this year to new reports that undocumented immigrants across all of New York City will be left out of city aid, there is a continued financial strain and little help in sight for one of the hardest-hit communities.
Fortunately, there are policies we can enact that will help New York’s immigrant communities. As a new member of the State Legislature, I am committed to passing meaningful legislation such as the Empire State Licensing Act, a common-sense solution that would expand access to the appropriate professional licenses — regardless of immigration status — needed to enter the workforce. Additionally, I will be focused on the Excluded Worker Fund would provide assistance to those traditionally left out of wage protection and unemployment benefits, such as undocumented immigrants, and the Lift the Caps legislation, which increases street vendor permits and licenses, many of whom are immigrants.
As a newly-elected Assembly member, I will work to end the nonsense that is bickering and excuses within government that is supposed to be helping people. I will fight consistently and effectively alongside staff and other elected officials in the Assembly and the Senate to pass legislation that will promote small businesses that represent staples of our community yet are left without financial relief. The state needs to make significant investments in the immigrant communities and immigrant small businesses that breathe life into our economy and help our communities thrive. This means that we need a budget that reflects our morals and community needs, and one that invests in our people, not threatens economic hardship through austerity.
I promise my district that we will fight and champion legislation that builds not just equality but also the equity looted from our communities for far too long.
Only with a response that is geared toward helping the most vulnerable communities overcome financial hardships, keep their businesses open, and get back to work can we rebuild towards far greater equality and success. We can’t let up and will not stop until our community members, and all small businesses in the Bronx and beyond, are made a priority.
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Kenny Burgos is the Assemblymember for the 85th District, in the Bronx. On Twitter @KennyBurgosNY.
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