A Shortlist of Cost-Effective Waste Prevention Programs for New York City

Waste Prevention Programs Shortlist

The shortlist of waste prevention programs proposed by INFORM for New York City is described below. These strategies emerged as especially compelling and cost effective when our analysis of the city's waste disposal costs showed a dramatic projected rise from 2000 to 2001.

The Growing Case for Waste Prevention in New York City: Rising Costs.

At a March 2001 New York City Council Hearing on the Department of Sanitation (DOS) Preliminary Budget for FY01, it was revealed that the DOS was proposing to spend $63 million more in FY01 for waste disposal (OTPS) than it spent in FY00 due to higher than anticipated export costs. While this represents a 60 percent increase in the City's waste disposal costs in one year, the figure may actually be much higher. Based on the pricing of the current export contracts, the cost of transfer, transport and disposal are closer to $250 million than to the $200 million estimated by DOS.

These economic realities make it becoming increasingly clear that waste prevention programs can be the most cost-effective approach to addressing the City's increasingly expensive waste disposal problems. Waste prevention is considered the "preferred" waste management option by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and by the City's own solid waste management plan. DEC has set an 8 to 10 percent waste prevention goal for all municipalities in the state. If New York City were to meet the 10 percent goal, it could lower its disposal costs by $20 to $25 million annually, depending on the actual amount of avoided disposal costs. In addition to reducing export costs, waste prevention can benefit New York City by reducing the amount of truck traffic needed to haul wastes and the associated (diesel) air pollution and public health impacts (asthma), as well as by reducing wear and tear on the roads.

Though promising, DOS's waste prevention programs to date have received limited funding and, therefore, have not significantly offset the City's rising waste disposal costs. DOS's $2 million in annual funding for waste prevention programs is about 100th of the amount to be spent on "transfer, transport and disposal" of waste next year.1

In order for New York City to reap the tremendous potential economic and environmental benefits of waste prevention, INFORM proposed the following budget items2, which include addition to funds to pay for a Deputy Director for Waste Prevention position within the Mayor's Office of Operations (MOO).3

For each proposed waste prevention budget item, INFORM has estimated the program costs, as well as the cost savings related to implementation. In all cases, the estimates represent the total program costs. While DOS may have allocated some funding for certain waste prevention programs already, because specific information was unavailable, those allocations could not be accounted for here.

INFORM's Waste Prevention Budget Proposals for NYC: FY01
Community-Based Waste Prevention/Recycling Coordinators	$6,500,000
Waste Prevention and Recycling in City Agencies	$ 700,000
Backyard Composting	$4,100,000
Business Waste Prevention	$ 700,000
Schools	$3,000,000
TOTAL	$15,000,000

In many cases, initial program costs would be incurred in FY01, while the savings gained through waste prevention could continue year after year with minimal additional financial support. In estimating cost savings, INFORM only assumed savings in waste transfer, transport and disposal, despite the fact that waste prevention can also lower collection and maintenance costs and yield other economic, job creation and environmental benefits. Therefore, the long-term savings estimated by implementing these programs are very conservative.

1. Community-based Waste Prevention/Recycling Coordinators
Total Cost: $6.5 million per year

Proposal: The Department of Sanitation would contract with community-based organizations and/or community boards to fund community-based waste prevention coordinators in each of the City's 59 community boards. These coordinators would serve as an accessible source of information on waste prevention and recycling to residents, businesses and institutions in their community districts.

The coordinators would perform multiple tasks, including: developing block leader programs to help residents reduce waste and recycle properly; reaching out to businesses and government institutions to help them comply with the City's recycling, waste prevention and "buy recycled" requirements; working with retailers and restaurants to implement waste prevention programs aimed at consumers (e.g., hanger take-back at dry cleaners; used battery, cell phone and carpet collection programs; discounts for consumers who bring their own bag or mug, etc.); promoting backyard composting and "leave it on the lawn" programs; encouraging and facilitating the reuse of common household items (e.g., furniture, electronics and clothing); and fostering recycling and waste prevention in schools, hospitals and other local institutions.

The estimated $6.5 million costs include:

contracts for 59 coordinators at $100,000 each;
an additional $50,000 each for 10 community boards/organizations to implement special pilot projects such as community reuse centers, composting sites and vocational reuse programs (e.g., "Recycle a Bicycle" and computer refurbishing); and
an additional $100,000 to develop training programs for the coordinators.

Rationale: DOS reportedly has only six or seven full-time recycling coordinators for the entire City -- less than one per million people. At this level, outreach staff can have only a limited impact on the habits of individual households, businesses and institutions. By working directly with residents, businesses and institutions, community-based outreach coordinators would yield more significant environmental and cost-saving results by increasing waste prevention and by diverting additional recyclables from the disposal stream into the recycling program. In order to recover the $6.5 million investment, all the waste prevention/recycling coordinators combined would need to reduce approximately 2.2 percent of the amount of waste currently disposed of by the City, or about 87,000 tons per year.

2. Waste Prevention and Recycling in City Agencies
Total Cost: $700,000

Proposal: DOS would fund five staff positions to increase waste prevention and recycling activities within City agencies, and to increase the purchase of recycled and waste-preventing products. According to Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) FY97/98 report, Environmental Procurement: Purchasing Goods that Promote Recycling and Waste Prevention, the City's purchase of products with recycled content declined by $16 million in FY97/98 as compared to FY95/96 a drop of more than 30 percent and its purchases of waste-preventing products is negligible.

A budget of $700,000 would include:

$350,000 for salaries and expenses for three staff members in the new environmentally preferable purchasing office 1.5 environmental purchasing coordinators to review and develop specifications and identify products, and 1.5 environmental purchasing outreach coordinators to promote the program to City agency purchasers;
$100,000 for the development of an environmentally preferable product guide and web site;
$150,000 for salary and expenses for the Deputy Director for Waste Prevention within the Mayor's Office of Operations; and
$100,000 for salary and expenses for a Waste Prevention and Recycling Coordinator within DCAS.

The three Environmental Purchasing Coordinators within DCAS would increase the City's purchases of products that contain recycled-content and/or that reduce wastes and other environmentally preferable goods and services. These staff would promote compliance with the "Buy Recycled" requirements of Local Law 19 and with the waste prevention requirements of Mayoral Directive #96-2, "Waste Prevention and Efficient Materials Management Policies" (see summary attached). These staff members would also ensure that the City complies with federal mandates regarding proper disposal of hazardous products (e.g., fluorescent light bulbs and batteries that contain mercury and cadmium) and seeks to purchase non-hazardous substitutes.

In addition, a Waste Prevention and Recycling Coordinator within DCAS would help City agencies comply with recycling requirements and implement cost-effective waste prevention management practices. Finally, the Deputy Director for Waste Prevention within the Mayor's Office of Operations would coordinate all City government waste prevention activities. Under Section 6 of Mayoral Directive #96-2, the Mayor's Office of Operations is charged with primary oversight in its implementation.

Rationale: The total cost for these five positions would be more than offset by savings associated with the purchase of waste-preventing products and reduced disposal costs. For example, the DCAS FY97/98 Environmental Procurement report describes a contract for remanufactured furniture that would save the City upwards of $600,000, were it used. Further, if the City were to purchase retread tires instead of "new" tires, it could save up to $1 million.4 The City could also increase its purchases of remanufactured toner cartridges, duplex printers and copiers, energy-efficient computers, water conservation devices, and other cost-saving items.

Were City agencies to reduce their waste by 10 percent, from a current total of 190,000 tons, the City would enjoy savings of approximately $1.4 million annually. Improvements in recycling diversion would further reduce disposal costs. Finally, buying recycled products would bolster markets for the City's recyclables, increasing revenues for that program.

Proposal: The City would develop a plan to phase out its free disposal services to City agencies, not-for-profit organizations and institutions, which have given City agencies little incentive to reduce waste. The transitional plan would create incentives such as reduced disposal fees for agencies that vigorously implement waste prevention programs.

Rationale: Giving government and non-profit institutions financial incentives to improve their waste prevention, recycling and energy efficiency programs has proven effective. For example, the US Government Services Administration has stimulated recycling activities by allowing federal agencies to keep a portion of the proceeds from their recycling programs.

3. Backyard Composting and Other Organic Waste Prevention Programs
Total Cost: $4.1 Million5

Proposal: The Department of Sanitation would increase its outreach and promotional efforts to encourage backyard composting and organic waste prevention activities. These efforts would include increasing the distribution of subsidized backyard composting bins in appropriate neighborhoods and expanding outreach on composting and organics waste prevention to the City's many businesses and institutions.

DOS currently offers backyard composting bins to residents at a reduced cost, i.e., the City pays $38 per bin and sells them to residents for $10 apiece. Unfortunately, the City has not promoted the availability of the bins much beyond a very limited pilot program. An increased budget for outreach and advertising would ensure that willing residents are able to take advantage of this opportunity to begin composting in their backyards.

Further, the City could greatly reduce its disposal costs by restoring the composting and organic waste prevention outreach staff at the four botanical gardens. At full staffing levels four or five staff members per garden these outreach programs could help to implement institutional, agency and business composting and organic waste prevention programs, and also train, work cooperatively with and serve as technical experts for the community-based waste prevention and recycling coordinators.

The proposed $4.1 million budget includes:

$2.4 million to subsidize 87,000 backyard compost bins (for 9.4 percent of the households with access to backyards that would be expected to participate);
$500,000 to advertise the benefits of composting and organic waste prevention and the availability of reduced-cost bins; and
$1.2 million to restore outreach staff members at each of the four botanical gardens.

Rationale: DOS recently completed a pilot program and in June 1999, issued a report entitled, Backyard Composting in New York City: A Comprehensive Program Evaluation. Despite DOS's conclusion that institution of a full-scale backyard composting program would have negligible results, the report offers promising findings. It estimates that there are 930,000 households in the City with access to backyards. It also reports that in the areas where the pilot program was tested, 9.4 percent of households participated. Participating households reduced their waste disposal by 6.8 pounds per week. If it achieves the same participation rate, a full-scale backyard composting program could save a minimum of $1.15 million per year in disposal costs. 6 Therefore, the $2.4 million investment in backyard composting bins would be recovered in just over two years. Further, because of their ten-year life span, the subsidized compost bins would be an up-front expense that would yield disposal cost savings for years to come.

Composting outreach staff members, housed at the four botanical gardens, would recover the expenses of their programs through disposal cost savings. When the outreach programs were fully funded (in the early 1990s), they worked with schools, City agencies, institutions, residents and businesses to achieve significant reductions in organic waste. For example, outreach staff were successful in instituting a "leave it on the lawn" program within the New York City Housing Authority, the City's largest manager of lawns. This NYCHA program, alone, reduced 9,000 tons of grass waste per year, at an annual cost savings (by today's cost standards) of $675,000. Similar programs, including food and yard waste composting and other organic waste prevention, could be instituted with other City agencies, such as the Parks Department, public hospitals and universities.

4. Business Waste Prevention
Total Cost: $700,000 7

Proposal: DOS would expand the WasteMatch program, a materials exchange service for New York City businesses. WasteMatch helps businesses reduce waste disposal costs, find cheaper raw materials and/or generate revenues from scrap or surplus materials. With an annual budget of $500,000 (an approximate $300,000 increase over current funding levels) WasteMatch could greatly increase its impacts by doing more outreach, marketing and advertising of the program, and by performing more direct brokerage and larger transactions based on consistent material streams.

Rationale: The Department of Sanitation currently provides roughly $200,000 per year in funds for the WasteMatch program, a collaboration between NYC Industrial Technology Assistance Corporation, Long Island City Business Development Corporation's Industrial Waste Recycling and Prevention Program, and the City University of New York. Over the last two years, DOS's investment of $400,000 (approximately $200,000 per year) has helped more than 200 companies yield savings of more than $431,000. Therefore, the current WasteMatch budget essentially yields dollar for dollar savings to participating companies. Because the increased investment would build on the program's technical expertise and the infrastructure created to date, the $500,000 annual investment would likely yield direct and indirect savings far exceeding its costs.

Proposal: The City would create two staff positions within the City's Economic Development Corporation to foster the attraction, development and expansion of recycling and waste-preventing businesses. A budget of $200,000 would cover the costs of two staff members, as well as of related expenses. The staff would provide in-depth technical assistance to recycling and waste-preventing companies located in New York City, including aiding in business planning, financing, market development, and particularly, helping businesses present their products and services to New York City agencies and institutions. This would complement the NYC Department of Environmental Protection's Environmental Economic Development Assistance Unit, which focuses primarily on regulatory assistance and pollution prevention.

Investment in these staff could leverage significant funding for NYC companies from state and federal sources including Empire State Development's Environmental Management Investment Group, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, federal agency Small Business Innovation Research programs, and the US Economic Development Administration. The staff would also develop full proposals for additional financing mechanisms to fill the needs of this sector. Such mechanisms could include a revolving loan fund, a capital pool, a tax credit program, etc.

Rationale: Even though business waste disposal has been the responsibility of the private sector, helping businesses operate efficiency can enable them to survive and flourish in New York City. The costs of operating a business in New York City are exceedingly high compared to many other locations, especially for the City's many small firms. For a business, every dollar saved is worth two dollars earned. From an economic development perspective, every dollar saved improves the likelihood that a company will be able to stay in business and grow. So, by helping businesses save on their waste disposal costs, or generate revenues from sale of their scrap or reusable materials, the City is directly preserving its tax base and retaining jobs. Those savings can lead to increases in tax revenue and job generation.

5. Waste Prevention in Schools
Total Net Operating Costs: $3 million in Year One, $500,000 in subsequent years

Proposal: While INFORM's manuals, Making Less Garbage on Campus, and Getting An A at Lunch, describe may opportunities for cost-effective waste prevention, our proposal for New York City focused on elimination of disposable cafeteria trays. The New York City Board of Education would eliminate the use of disposable food service trays in the cafeterias of NYC public schools. According to the Office of School Food and Nutrition Services, there are 1,097 kitchens in the NYC public schools serving 800,000 meals per day on disposable trays. There are both economic costs and cost savings associated with eliminating the use of disposable food service trays in the NYC public school system, as detailed below.

Estimated costs of switching to reusable trays. The most significant cost of this proposal would be the capital expense of installing new dishwashing equipment in most of the City's 1,100 schools. Local vendors estimate that commercial dishwashing machines cost between $20,000 and $25,000 per kitchen.8 Environmental Quality Bond Act money may be available to assist the City with this capital expense.

The first-year operating costs for this proposal would include the following expenses:

$2.9 million for the initial purchase of reusable trays.9 In subsequent years, INFORM estimates that roughly 10 percent of the reusable trays would need to be replaced annually at a cost of less than $300,000;
$4.8 million in additional electricity costs to power the dishwashers;10 and
$1.1 million in additional water costs.11

INFORM estimates that each kitchen would need to allocate one worker for five hours per day to operate the equipment.12 We assume that a staff person who is currently handling the dozens of bags of waste generated in the cafeterias (as well as the dozens of boxes of incoming trays) could be reassigned to this task, creating no significant additional labor costs.

INFORM did not calculate all of the costs related to the use of reusables. We were unable to confirm the costs of soap and descaling, or the costs of remodeling, plumbing and electrical work to prepare for the installation of dishwashing equipment. We were also unable to calculate the current labor costs associated with handling the intake and disposal of throwaway trays.

Estimated savings accrued by switching to reusable trays. There are several ways in which the City would offset the costs of using reusable trays in its public school system:

$3.6 million in disposable tray purchases annually according to the Office of School Food and Nutrition Services (OSFNS), the NYC public school system purchases about 800,000 trays per day at a cost of $.025 each;
$1.7 million annually in waste collection and disposal costs13 and this may be significantly understated, since the trays are lightweight but occupy a significant volume. Unfortunately, DOS does not track its collection costs by cubic yard, which results in underestimates of the costs of handling bulky, lightweight materials. For example, if the schools were to contract with private carters whose prices are based on volume rather than weight to manage their waste, the disposal costs for handling the schools' disposable trays could be more than $10 million annually;14
$500,000 annually in plastic trash bag purchases eliminating disposable trays would reduce the number of trash bags used by City schools by approximately 29,000 per day at an estimated cost of $.10 per bag.15

Rationale: The primary benefit of switching the New York City public school system to reusable trays comes from the fact that it would eliminate the need to transport and dispose of approximately 29,000 bags of trash daily, as well as eliminate the impacts of delivering 800,000 disposable trays to City schools every day. But a switch would also reduce the related truck traffic, pollution and wear and tear on city streets.

Using the best information available to date, INFORM estimated the operating costs and savings associated with this proposal and found that the first year's net operating costs of using reusables would be approximately $3 million, and in subsequent years would be roughly equivalent to the cost of using disposables. (See tables below.)

SUMMARY OF YEAR 1 COSTS & SAVINGS Associated With Using Reusable Trays In NYC Schools
Year 1 Operating Costs	Year 1 Operating Savings
$2.9 million initial cost for reusable trays	$3.6 million avoided disposable tray costs
4.8 million electricity to run dishwashers	1.7 million avoided disposal costs
1.1 million water usage costs	0.5 million avoided plastic bag costs
N/A labor to wash dishes	N/A labor to unload and store trays
N/A soap and pipe descaling	N/A labor to bag and dispose of trash
$8.8 million Total Calculated Costs	$5.8 million Total Calculated Savings
*$3.0 million in Net Operating Costs in Year 1*

SUMMARY OF YEAR 2 COSTS & SAVINGS Associated With Using Reusable Trays In NYC Schools
Year 2 Operating Costs	Year 2 Operating Savings
$0.3 million18 replacement of reusable trays	$3.6 million avoided disposable tray costs
4.8 million electricity to run dishwashers	1.7 million avoided disposal costs
1.1 million water usage costs	0.5 million avoided plastic bag costs
N/A labor to wash dishes	N/A labor to unload and store trays
N/A soap and pipe descaling	N/A labor to bag and dispose of trash
$6.2 million Total Calculated Costs	$5.8 million Total Calculated Savings
*$400,000 in Net Operating Costs in Year 2*

Notes

1 Committee on Environmental Protection, Fiscal 2001 Preliminary Budget Hearings, p. 10.

2 Note: The Mayor's Office of Operations is currently directed to chair the Interagency Task Force on Waste Prevention and Efficient Materials Management Policies under Mayoral Directive #96-2. (See attached fact sheet on the directive.)

3 Note: INFORM and its partners in the New York City Waste Prevention Coalition are developing a more extensive list of budget proposals to create a comprehensive waste prevention program for the city. The complete package will be provided to the City Council at a later date.

4 The estimates are based on a savings of $75 per ton prevented. INFORM believes this to be a conservative estimate since it is based on only the cost of export and does not account for potential savings in collection costs. $75 per ton is a reasonable median, since the City's export contracts have recently ranged from $65 per ton to over $80 per ton and new contracts are expected to increase. Moreover, in a 9/29/99 article in Waste News, DOS Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse and Recycling director Robert Lange stated: "It will cost about $100 per ton to export municipal solid waste."

5 Note: The City is estimating that it will dispose of 12,500 tons of municipal waste per collection day (@312 days/year), totaling 3.9 million tons annually. 87,000 tons/3.9 million tons = 2.2%.

6 Between September 1, 1998 and August 30, 1999, the City issued six contracts valued at $2.5 million that specified new tires only. All four vendors offer retread tires at a cost that is 40 to 45 percent less. Therefore, if the City were to purchase retread tires it could save up to $1 million.

7 The actual cost may be less than $4.1 million because DOS may already have budgeted for some backyard composting bins, or may have some in stock.

8 If 87,000 homes had bins, and each reduced 6.8 pounds per week, that would result in an annual reduction of more than 15,000 tons per year and a savings of $1.15 million. Savings could be much greater, since the pilot study found that the outreach effort resulted in an overall waste reduction in the target areas, even in households that chose not to install compost bins.

9 If DOS has renewed program funding for WasteMatch at current levels, these costs may be as low as $500,000.

10 INFORM's total estimate cost for dishwashers, $27.5 million, is based on the conservative assumption that all 1,097 kitchens would purchase new dishwashers at the higher price. OSFNS reports, however, that 201 schools have dishwashers in place that have been unused for some time. The costs in these 201 schools are likely to much less, since these machines could likely be repaired or used as is.

11 A vendor quoted a price of $32.40 per dozen reusable trays made of ABS plastic and $43.20 per dozen of malamine plastic. INFORM used the higher cost in order to be conservative and because this product is stronger and will likely last longer. The NYC public school system would have to purchase 66,667 dozen reusable trays to meet its need for 800,000 annually. The 800,000 estimate of the number of reusable trays needed is also conservative because the 800,000 meals per day include 150,000 breakfasts. Presumably, the schools serving breakfasts could wash and reuse the same trays for lunch.

12 In a telephone interview with INFORM, the NYC Economic Development Corporation reported that the City pays $.08-$.09 per kilowatt hour (kwh) of electricity. The vendor of the dishwashers reports that each machine requires 72 kw per hour of operation. Assuming the machines would operate for four hours/day, (see note # 14, below), they would each draw 288 kwh of electricity daily at a cost of $24.48, using the mean cost of $.085/kwh. That yields an annual cost of $4,406 per school, and a total cost of about $4.8 million annually for the entire system.

13 The NYC Department of Environmental Protection reports that it charges $4.47 for 100 cubic feet of water. One cubic foot of water equals 7.48 gallons. Each machine uses 423 gallons per hour, according to the vendor. Assuming there would be 1,100 machines, each operating for four hours/day, for 180 school days/year, the annual water cost would be about $1.1 million.

14 The machines we priced handle 200 trays/hour. Assuming that each kitchen serves about 800 meals (800,000 total meals/day for 1,100 schools = 727 meals/day/school), dishwasher operation should be a four-hour task. An additional hour was budgeted for set-up and clean-up time. Interviews with schools operating kitchens of equivalent size to those in NYC schools reveal that one staff person can load and unload the dishwashers, and accomplish additional tasks in a day's work.

15 A school lunch waste composition study conducted in NYC found that disposable trays made up 85 percent of the lunch waste generated by volume, and that a total of 64 bags of waste were generated by serving 1,500 meals. Extrapolating from that data, the 800,000 meals served daily generate more than 34,000 bags of garbage, of which trays make up about 29,000. OSFNS estimates that each bag of garbage takes up .1634 cubic yards. Therefore, the NYC schools generate about 4,741 cubic yards of discarded trays per day. A Sustainable Enterprise study of trash can density rates estimates that a cubic yard of plastics weighs about 28 pounds. Therefore, the NYC schools generate more than 66 tons of tray waste per day. DOS has stated publicly that the costs of garbage collection are $65 per ton, and INFORM estimates the costs of transfer, transport and disposal next year will be about $75 per ton. Therefore, eliminating disposable trays would decrease the City's collection and disposal costs by more than $9,000 per day, or about $1.7 million per year.

16 The maximum allowable commercial carting rate, as set by the New York City Trade Waste Commission, is $12.20 per cubic yard. If the schools were charged this rate for its 4,741 cubic yards of trays disposed of each day, its disposal costs for trays alone would be more than $10 million.

17 A box of 80 45-gallon trash bags costs about $.16 each directly from Staples. We estimated a cost of $.10 per bag using the assumption that the City buys its garbage bags in bulk under contract in most cases. We were unable to obtain the City's actual per bag cost.

18 INFORM estimates that roughly 10 percent of the reusable trays would need to be replaced each year, at a cost of less than $300,000 annually.