Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Planning and Decision-Making in New York City: The Citizens’ Alternative Plan

Abstract

The 1988 Solid Waste Management Act of New York State requires that all localities prepare a 10-year integrated solid waste management plan in order for solid waste facilities of any kind to be permitted in the state. In response to this, the New York City Department of Sanitation has been overseeing the preparation of a 20-year plan since late 1990. The plan was originally conceived to include all aspects of the integrated municipal solid waste (MSW) hierarchy, in priority order: prevention, recycling/composting waste-to-energy/ash management, and landfilling. The Department of Sanitation held biweekly meetings with members of the Citywide Recycling Advisory Board (CRAB), a body of citizens duly appointed by the five Borough Presidents, Mayor, and City Council to ensure public participation in the solid waste planning and decision-making process. However, the cooperative tenor of the relationship changed when the City announced its intention to incorporate incineration of 68 percent of its municipal and institutional solid waste and recycle only 25 percent with 7 percent source reduction.

This plan would have violated the New York State Solid Waste Management Act's intent, which prioritizes source reduction, then recycling and composting before incineration. Also, the Act's goal for recycling and reduction is 50 percent by 1997 for all jurisdictions. As a result, members of CRAB began work on an alternative 20-year plan which would satisfy the State's requirements. The alternative plan details an implementation schedule for a comprehensive program of prevention, recycling and composting initiatives. It also provides justification for it vis-a-vis the projected lifespan of the City's only landfill at Fresh Kills and its proposed incineration program. This paper describes the features of the alternative plan, the impetus for its creation, the process followed in creating, revising and garnering public support for it, and the results achieved by CRAB to promote long-term, integrated MSW planning for New York City.