Date: February 14, 2013
Source: New York City Mayor's Office
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is proposing an ambitious new food waste recycling initiative along with a citywide ban on plastic foam containers. The ubiquitous plastic foam coffee cups and clamshell food containers, he complains, break easily, litter streets and parks, clog drains, foul waterways and have to be removed when mixed with other recycled materials, adding as much as $20 per ton to the cost of recycling, he said. He made the proposal, among other environmental initiatives including a goal to double the city's recycling rate by 2017, during his State of the City address last week. Along with more recycling containers on the streets, he seeks to tackle food waste, what he calls the "final recycling frontier," with a program that would cut down the nearly 1.2 million tons of food waste the city sends to landfills each year at a cost of $80 per ton. He said "that waste can be used as fertilizer or converted to energy at a much lower price."
PRESS RELEASE
February 17, 2013
Mayor Bloomberg Discusses The State Of The City And Outlines The City's Unfinished Business In Weekly Radio Address
The following is the text of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's weekly radio address as prepared for delivery on 1010 WINS News Radio for Sunday, February 17, 2013.
"Good Morning. This is Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
"New York today is a far stronger city than it was just 11 years ago. Our streets are safer, our schools are better, our environment is cleaner, and our economy is creating the jobs and opportunity our growing city needs. Last week, in our annual State of the City address, I outlined the steps we'll take to extend those achievements this year.
"That includes building the projects in all five boroughs that will give our city its future. Across the city, we'll create new jobs and affordable housing for New Yorkers. We'll also complete a major phase of the largest public works undertaking in New York City history: The massive and critically important Third Water Tunnel.
"While we continue rebuilding communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy, we'll also start to make our city more resistant to future major storms. A new 'Conservation Corps' funded with private donations will help protect our beaches and waterfront parks. We'll also assist residents of the hardest-hit neighborhoods who need jobs find work in the recovery and rebuilding of their communities.
"In his State of the Union address, President Obama lauded our Administration's partnership with IBM and the City University of New York in creating the 'P-Tech high school, designed to give students college associate degrees and make them ready for tech industry jobs. This year, we'll work to create two more such six-year high schools, linked to the health care and energy industries. In September, we'll bring computer science classes to 20 more schools - and also open 26 more of the charter schools that offer students the chance to learn in smaller, more academically rigorous settings.
"To make New York even more environmentally-friendly, during the year ahead we'll encourage use of electric vehicles by installing curbside battery chargers at sites throughout the city. We'll work with the City Council to require that 20 percent of publicly available slots in new private parking lots have such battery chargers, too. We'll push for a local law banning the Styrofoam food packaging that chokes solid waste landfills. And to save money and our environment, we'll also begin recycling food waste.
"New Yorkers are safer from crime today than we've been in modern memory - and we've done that while also reducing incarceration. Now we'll work to keep more young people out of trouble, and out of detention, and help more adult offenders discharged from Rikers Island stay on the right path, too. We'll reduce unnecessary jailings for possession of small amounts of marijuana - while also continuing the stop-question-frisk policies that protect us all. And at the national level, we'll work hard for common-sense gun safety measures that will make our city, and our country, safer still.
"We'll also push for the immigration reforms our nation needs. New York remains a city of immigrants who come here to pursue the American Dream. And in the year ahead, we'll also remain a city of big dreams - and a city that can get big things done.
"This is Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Thanks for listening."
Details New Initiatives to Continue the City's Economic, Educational and Environmental Gains
Expanding Waste Reduction and Recycling and Seeking to Ban Polystyrene Foam
"We'll also take major new steps toward another important sustainability goal that we've set: Doubling the city's recycling rate to 30 percent by 2017… It starts with making recycling easier for everyone by putting 1,000 new recycling containers in streets on all five boroughs this year… We'll also tackle New York City's final recycling frontier: food waste… So with Speaker Quinn and the City Council, we will work to adopt a law banning Styrofoam food packaging from our stores and restaurants. And don't worry: the doggie bag will survive just fine."
Put 1,000 new recycling containers on streets in all five boroughs this year.
Work with Speaker Quinn and the City Council to adopt a law banning polystyrene foam food packaging from stores and restaurants.
Finalize a major new facility in South Brooklyn that will accept all kinds of plastics, have a state-of-the-art education center to teach children about recycling and one of the largest solar installations in the city.
Begin recycling food waste, nearly 200,000 tons of which fill landfills every year at a cost of nearly $80 per ton. That waste can be used as fertilizer or converted to energy at a much lower price.
Launch a pilot program to collect curbside organic waste from single family homes in Staten Island for composting.
For more information, contact:
Marc La Vorgna (212) 788-2958
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