At a City Council Sanitation Committee preliminary budget hearing, we proposed investing $10 million in a public education program around the organic waste and recycling programs available to residents.

Earlier this year, State Senator Todd Kaminsky and Assembly Member Englebright proposed legislation to expand the state's bottle deposit refund program to several types of bottles and cans that are not currently included in the program like wine, liquor, and hard cider bottles.

This past week, the New York City Department of Sanitation unveiled its much-anticipated plan to reform the inefficient way that garbage generated by businesses and large private institutions is currently collected by dividing the city into commercial waste zones. The new plan is a significant step forward in reducing truck congestion and addressing the amount of waste in our landfills.

In New York, Harmful Algal Blooms are rising at an alarming rate. One cause of HABs is agricultural runoff, which occurs when chemicals from fertilizer end up in our waterways. Some houses in rural New York neighborhood leach nitrogen into waterways because they are not connected to a public sewer system. Another cause of HABs is climate change.

Organic materials comprise about 30% of NYC's waste stream, which amounts to 1 million tons of waste. That’s why the NYC Department of Sanitation launched a voluntary composting pilot program. It expanded over the past few years to serve 3.5 million residents but expansion was recently paused.

It is crucial for policymakers to pass legislation to divert food waste from landfills, as only 3% of waste produced in the state does not end up at either a landfill or waste-to-energy facility. The Food Recovery and Recycling Act (that, unfortunately, did not pass) would have discouraged the production, distribution, and preparation of excess food; recovered excess food to be redistributed to those in need; and provided funding for new recycling programs specifically concerning food scraps.