Group Members: Ingrid, Vicki, Anastasiya, Makinoon, Kevin
Our group is planning to address NYC’s food waste problem, particularly as it pertains to organic waste generated by businesses. We chose this topic because food waste is a problem that is both socially impactful, as 1 in 8 American’s struggle with hunger daily, and an environmental issue, contributing greatly to harmful greenhouse gas emissions, and businesses are a large contributor of this waste. The City of New York already has the capacity to expand its food waste recycling programs, which include composting and using wastewater treatment plants to convert organic matter into energy resources, and has shown willingness to expand its subsidization of food rescue operations. The main issue we believe, lies in incentivizing all businesses, small and large, to comply with the currently voluntary ordinances regarding organic waste recycling. Both Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Mayor Bill De Blasio have referred to New York City’s organics recycling as the final “frontier” in achieving a zero waste city, a goal outlined in the current mayor’s OneNYC plan.
In order to achieve our goal, and increase the number of businesses participating in the organics recycling program, we have come up with a multi-step policy that addresses several components of the Department of Sanitation’s organics recycling initiative. Primarily, the policy will mandate that all businesses, regardless of size, that generate organic waste, participate in the city-wide organic recycling operation, and reserve their organic waste for processing independent of all other waste. This would be a simple modification of the law already in place that affects large businesses. Businesses would have the choice of opting for this organic material to be removed to be composted or to be treated at a wastewater plant by the Department of Sanitation. Alternatively businesses, would have the opportunity to partner with a food rescue operation with existing food removal infrastructure such as City Harvest, to remove all edible food waste to be donated to shelters and soup kitchens. A good example of how this plan would work can be seen in the way Pret A Manger partners with food rescue operations to haul away uneaten food at the end of each day. The second part of our policy is the enforcement measure. The city will enforce the policy using financially punitive measures inspired by those implemented in Seoul, South Korea, to encourage the reduction of food waste, but modified to accommodate business practices. For all food waste produced over a certain threshold, which can be calculated as a percentage of all food purchased over the course of a month, the business will be charged by the pound. For example, if you are a donut shop that purchases 500 hundred dollars worth of raw ingredients per month, in that given month, you are permitted to generate 50 pounds of organic waste, and any waste produced over that amount will be charged at 5 dollars a pound. This will be measured by weighing scales inside of the sanitation trucks, and tracked by a digitized numerical system. This threshold will begin at a modest amount and decrease every year until a target percentage is reached, in order to incentivize businesses to seek ways to recycle organic material on premises, or to reduce wasteful consumption altogether.
We believe that a policy encouraging businesses to participate in organics recycling is a great way to not only reduce food waste but to utilize the city’s recycling capacity to its fullest, and a step bringing the city closer to its zero waste goal. We have subdivided the work into the following research sections: preliminary research on the topic of food waste and its effects, current NYC organics recycling policy and regulations, current food rescue operations active in NYC, comparable policy in Seoul, South Korea, and cost benefit analysis of our policy proposal. Each group member will conduct research and contribute information to comprise these five key elements of our final presentation.
Timeline:
03/12: Group project proposal due, discussion and division of research.
03/18: Research due into shared document, begin outlining presentation content.
03/29: Outline presentation and schedule group rehearsal date.
04/09: In-class working session. Refine presentation and be ready to rehearse.
04/16 & 04/30: In-class Presentation practice dates.
04/4 or 04/05: Conference Date.
