Bronx Solid Waste Advisory Board promotes "Green the Bronx" and urges input on city's 10-year solid waste plan
Loading...
Summary
At the Jan. 12 Bronx Borough Service Cabinet meeting, SWAB chair Dior Saint Hilaire outlined a vision for a Bronx 0 Waste Center, framed concentrated transfer stations in the South Bronx as an environmental-justice problem, and urged community boards to appoint representatives and submit public comments on the city's 10-year solid waste management plan.
Dior Saint Hilaire, chair of the Bronx Solid Waste Advisory Board, used a Jan. 12 presentation to call for a borough-centered approach to waste reduction, reuse and green job creation. Speaking to the Bronx Borough Service Cabinet, Saint Hilaire described a vision she calls "Green the Bronx," including a proposed Bronx 0 Waste Center intended to centralize organics recycling, materials recovery, deconstruction and reuse while creating local employment.
Saint Hilaire framed the issue as one of environmental justice: she described waste transfer stations concentrated in the South Bronx and said that concentration has produced quality-of-life harms, including noise and air-quality impacts and related health disparities. "This is an environmental justice concern," she said, and argued the city's plan should include restitution and local investments to redress historic harms.
She walked attendees through the policy timeline for the New York City solid waste management plan, noting that what had been a 20-year horizon is now a 10-year plan that DSNY (Department of Sanitation, New York) must interpret and implement. Saint Hilaire said SWAB requested a public-comment extension because the initial comment period was too short; she encouraged board chairs to mobilize constituents to submit comments online and to send representatives to SWAB meetings.
Saint Hilaire highlighted several policy and funding levers that could support local projects: the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) at the state level, the state Environmental Protection Fund, Executive Order 32, and workforce-development grants from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. She also proposed cooperative ownership and green-worker models to build local capacity and urged youth engagement through contests and local educational programming.
In response to a community question about persistent illegal dumping at 167th Street, Saint Hilaire said that particular homelessness-linked dumping had not been specifically addressed in SWAB's work and suggested collaborative, harm-reduction approaches and workforce pathways as potential responses.
Saint Hilaire closed by asking each community board to name a representative for SWAB, offering to provide links and materials, and urging attendees to share the presentation with their waste and sanitation committees.
