To: Professor MacBride
From: Yana Manevich
RE: PlaNYC Solid Waste Management Organics Recovery Initiative
Date: April 15, 2013
1. The City of New York, “PlaNYC Solid Waste Chapter.” Last modified April 2011. Accessed April 13, 2013. http://nytelecom.vo.llnwd.net/o15/agencies/planyc2030/pdf/planyc_2011_solid_waste.pdf.
Summary: PlaNYC’s chapter on Solid Waste details New York City’s comprehensive sustainability plan regarding solid waste management in the city. It lists a total of 13 initiatives that the city plans to undertake with the goals of reducing waste, increasing resource recovery from the city’s waste stream, and overall improving the efficiency of New York City’s waste management system. My focus for my research paper is on PlaNYC’s initiative to “create additional opportunities to recover organic material”, which ties into it’s goals of increasing the city’s resource recovery. The report begins by stating that 30% of residential and 18% of commercial wastes are organic – largely comprised of food waste, but also from things such as textiles and leaf and yard wastes. Transporting this material to landfills, the report claims, is not only costly but also a big source of GHG emissions, and properly treating and separating these organics would be cost-effective and provide a valuable resource for energy generation and other applications. The plan then goes on to outline specific actions it plans to take in addressing these issues and meeting its goals. These include expanding outreach and launch grants for community and city-wide compost projects and evaluating pilot programs of on-site dewatering units throughout the city.
Rationale: This source will serve as an introductory jumping off point for my paper and subsequent research. The report provides a great overview of where New York City is at currently in their solid waste management, what they want to do to improve their efficiency, how they plan to do so, and why it is important. I will use all of this in setting up my paper’s introduction, and also in developing my research about the specific actions the plan proposes – what progress has been made, the pros and cons of the city’s action plan, and any new technologies the city may want to consider in helping it reach it’s sustainability goals. Going off of the information presented here, I will look into how exactly recovered organics could be valuable resources to New York City, research more about on-site dewatering units and aerobic and anaerobic digestion and how that my benefit New York City and whether other sustainable cities have found success in similar technologies, and look into various community outreach programs New York City has initiated and the response they have been met with.
2. O’Connell, Kim A. “Sorting out solid waste budgets.” American City & County. no. 5 (2003): 28-38.
Summary: This article about how faltering economies and budget cuts have serious effects on municipal solid waste departments and budgets, although published in May 2003, has regained relevance in light of the recent economic downturn and budget cuts that have effected and are still effecting various government programs, including those in New York City. The article mentions that when faced with budget cuts, cities usually protect the core parts of their operations, such as garbage pickup and disposal, because of their necessity, and the programs that are usually left on the cutting room floor are secondary operations, such as recycling and special waste pick-ups and management – both of which are important to a city’s sustainability. Recycling budgets are often the first to go, the article mentions, because of the difficulties associated with being able to forecast long-term revenues from recycling – even though we all know that both the revenue and environmental benefits are there. The article also mentions, however, that some municipalities’ departments have managed to stay relatively unaffected by budget cuts as a result of either being supported by dedicated funds, locked into long-term contracts, or operate as free-standing economic entities which instead of being dependent on government revenues, charge user fees to people who use their services. New York City, however, was mentioned at one of the cities whose waste departments are affected by budget cuts. One expert quoted in the article suggested that New York is particularly vulnerable to economic fluctuations because we export our wastes rather than dealing with them internally. The article goes on to list a number of cities that have had successes in managing their solid waste management departments even in the face of economic turmoil and outlines the various ways they have been able to do so. Those cities include Dover, Delaware, Palm Beach County, Florida, and San Francisco, California. Unfortunately, New York City was not on that list, and could perhaps stand to learn a thing or two from how the other cities listed have budgeted their spending on solid waste management.
Rationale: I think that the economics behind any initiative or program are very important factors to considering when evaluating its feasibility. This article is very relevant to New York City today, in lieu of the recent recession and budget cuts the city is facing. I will use this source to point out the possible difficulties and setbacks that PlaNYC’s solid waste management initiatives, including organic waste recovery – which is dependent on new and costly technologies – may face. Using this article’s points will help me elaborate on what other cities have successfully done to combat budget cuts and point out areas where New York City is possibly flawed in its conceptions. I agree with a lot of the article’s points about what type of departments are more economically stable and think that New York City should definitely consider restructuring the financials of their waste and sanitation departments if it wants the initiatives it outlined in PlaNYC to be practical and timely.
3. Environmental Protection Agency, “WasteWise Update: Recovering Organic Wastes-Giving Back to Mother Nature.” Last modified September 1999. Accessed April 13, 2013. http://www.epa.gov/wastes/conserve/smm/wastewise/pubs/wwupda12.pdf.
Summary: This report by the Environmental Protection Agency outlines why organic waste diversion is important and the type of benefits it provides. It states that composting organic materials can reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides, while also helping soil retain water better and talks about how it can help to both prevent and mitigate pollution. The report focuses on a lot of the materials that PlaNYC mentions in its organic recovery initiative, such as yard trimmings and food wastes. It describes in detail popular composting methods such as Static Pile Composting, Aerated Windrow Composting, In-Vessel Composting, and Vermicomposting as well as breaking down the entire composting process. It also goes on to provide a number of examples of how various cities or facilities have been successful in their organic recovery efforts and the methods they used. Kalamazoo County, Michigan, for example, initiated grasscycling – which not only cut costs but also helped to return vital nutrients to the area’s soil. The report also mentions a Cherokee Casino’s successes in food waste composting, and how Tennessee Correctional Facility, when faced with the challenge of cutting costs and reducing its solid waste by 75%, it has turned to composting to organic waste to meet its goals.
Rationale: This report provides helpful additional background into why it is important to recover organic wastes and how they can be useful in preventing and mitigating pollution. In addition, it provides a lot of information and detail about the specifics of common composting methods and processes, which would provide useful background information to both myself and the reader of my paper. The specific examples of successful organic composting that the report lists also serve as good benchmarks and ideas that I will list as potential possibilities for New York City to look into and how the city can adopt the practices the report mentions.
4. NYC Department of Sanitation: Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse and Recycling, “Composting in NYC.” Accessed April 13, 2013. http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/compost/composting_nyc.shtml.
Summary: This NYC government webpage talks about the community programs that NYC has created in order to encourage organics recovery and composting such as the NYC Local Organics Recovery Program, the NYC Department of Sanitation & GrowNYC Food Waste Drop-Off Program, and a School Food Waste Composting Pilot Program. These are all examples of the community outreach programs PlaNYC has promised to initiate, showing that they have indeed moved forward with these plans. The site also gives a basic overview of what exactly compost is, the decomposition process, and the differences between anaerobic decomposition and resulting methane production and managed decomposition such as composting. The page also links to sections that talk about New York City’s composting site at Riker’s Island and its composting process as well as information about community-based compost sites.
Rationale: This website and its related links are an essential resource to my paper as it describes all the local city initiatives the city has taken on specifically in the area of composting and recovering organic materials from its waste. This page not only gives basic overview of what composting is and how it differs from anaerobic decomposition, but it does so in the context of New York City, which in the end is the main focus of my paper. The programs described here are all examples that I will reference when speaking about PlaNYC’s accomplishments so far and how the city has been going about its proposed initiatives.
5. Bernstad, A., L. Malmquist, C. Truedsson, and J. la Cour Jansen. “Need for improvements in physical pretreatment of source-separated household food waste.” Waste Management. no. 3 (2013): 746-754.
Summary: The study described in this report was based in Sweden with the goal of investigating whether or not more efficient pretreatment of separated solid organic household waste would increase the efficiency of anaerobic digestion and the waste’s overall treatment. Seventeen pretreatment facilities in Sweden were investigated and it was found that the biomass produced in these facilities was of low quality and the maintenance of these facilities was very costly. Four plants, using two different technologies were then tested in relation to resource efficiency. It was found that the plants using dispergator technology, as opposed to screwpress technology, were much more efficient and yielded higher nutrient recovery. This pointed to the conclusion that with improved pretreatment processes, the overall benefits of anaerobic digestion as an alternative for treating organic household waste could improve.
Rationale: While PlaNYC did advocate for the use of on-site dewatering plants and aerobic digestion rather than anaerobic, this study shows an interesting alternative to solid waste management that New York City could perhaps consider. If pretreatment of recovered organics were to improve, then perhaps anaerobic digestion would be a viable alternative for New York City’s treatment of organic waste.
6. Yoshida, Hiroko, Joshua J. Gable, and Jae K. Park. “Evaluation of organic waste diversion alternatives for greenhouse gas reduction.” Resources, Conservation and Recycling. (2012): 1-9.
Summary: This study, from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the University of Wisconsin, evaluated and analyzed current and proposed organic waste management practices in Madison, Wisconsin, with the eventual goal of achieving zero waste and diverting all its organic wastes from Madison’ s landfill to curb methane and GHG emissions – something PlaNYC is currently trying to do as well. The study assessed four alternatives: windrow composting, high-solids anaerobic digestion, co-digestion at a large-scale industrial waste digester facility and co-digestion at a local wastewater treatment plant, along side the city’s current practice of composting yard waste but disposing the rest of the organic waste into its landfill. Each of these practices seem to be viable options for New York City, since Newton Creek is a wastewater treatment plant that has digester eggs that can potentially be used for anaerobic digestion of organics. Costs were also a factor in this study, as they are in New York City, and the results showed that co-digestion practices were most favored, as they resulted in the highest GHG emission reductions while saving the most costs. According to the study, these results were also dependent on other factors, however, such as public participation, which New York City has been trying to promote as well. The study concluded by suggesting that the best practice for Madison would be to seek partnership opportunities with regional anaerobic digestion projects while also continuing to promote community awareness and outreach – an option that seems very viable for New York City as well.
Rationale: This study is one of the most relevant ones in relation to New York City and PlaNYC that I have found. Madison, Michigan, the location of this study, has the same goals in mind for its organic waste management as New York City seems to have – reducing GHG emissions while staying as cost-effective as possible. In addition, the alternatives tested in this study also all seem to be viable and practical for New York City to undertake. In addition, the recent time frame during which this study was conducted (March 2012) also contributes to this study’s comparable relevance, since the technologies considered and evaluated are all modern and up-to-date. I will be using the results of this study as a point of suggestion for New York City, comparing what New York City is doing to what has been suggested here. I will be pointing out that just as this study suggests, New York City has increased its community outreach efforts, and also looking at how New York City could put its digester facilities to use for organics recovery.
7. Pires, Ana, Graca Martinho, and Ni-Bin Chang. “Solid Waste Management in European Countries: A review of systems analysis techniques.” Journal of Environmental Management. no. 4 (2011): 1033-1050.
Summary: This report focuses on current solid waste management practices and principles in the European Union. It outlines a number of the countries’ waste management practices, including those dealing with organics recovery. Policy changes such as the Thematic Strategy on the Prevention and Recycling of Waste promote GHG emission reductions through diversion from landfills and organic compost as a source of fertilizer for soil as instead of mineral fertilizers. The report also mentions some economic incentives EU countries have created such as pay-as-you-throw plans and an organic waste tax to incentivize residents to divert organics from regular waste streams, which I found to be an interesting idea.
Rationale: This report provides an insight into how other countries have dealt with issues of waste management, and gave a few fresh and interesting perspectives and ideas that could perhaps be applied to New York City. I liked the idea of economic incentives that the EU has been using and will reference this report when proposing some possible alternatives for New York City. Some cities in Europe are just as urban and congested as New York City, so I think their solid waste management practices are a fair and relevant comparison to New York, and it is always interesting to have a new perspective on worldwide issues such as this one.
