FROM: Ostroff Associates

DATE: December 4, 2020

RE: Waste Advisory Panel

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Chair
• Martin Brand, Deputy Commissioner, New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation

Member Introductions:

• Michael Cahill, Partner, Germano & Cahill, P.C.

o Has been in waste business for 35 years
o Have represented many municipalities across the State
o Familiar with the burdens of running a waste program in the State
o Need to look at our recommendations, because if we raise fees, some of our waste
will take off for the border and that’s not a good idea
o Need other revenue sources for solid waste management

• John W. Casella, Chairman, CEO, and Secretary, Casella Waste Systems

o Have reduced carbon footprint by about 50% as an organization
o Materials management is significant part of our portfolio
o Look forward to participating, would like to have a conversation around materials
management and what can be done to move it at a much faster pace

• Steve Changaris, Vice President, Northeast Region, National Waste and Recycling
Association
o Knowledgeable in many areas we’ll talk about
o Have access to a lot of the companies that have the information and run the
facilities, will work with members to make sure we can make the best decisions and
inform the CAC
o Have been active in Extended Producer Responsibility (ERP)debate recently
o Believe my industry is as solid as any want to minimize environmental impacts as
much as possible and we work hard to do that

• Resa Dimino, Senior Consultant, Resource Recycling Systems

o Can bring different expertise
o Worked at DEC previously, have worked in waste and recycling for about 30 years
o Worked for NYC and private recycling
o Prioritizing diverting materials from disposal as a key way of controlling waste
emissions is critical, should target activities based on impact
o Should target EPR policy, need to look at carpets and textiles as well as packaging

• Dan Egan, Executive Director, Feeding New York State

o Membership organization of the 10 Feeding America foodbanks in NYS
o 40% of all food created in this country is never consumed
▪ No excuse for anyone to go hungry
▪ Do a certain amount of waste diversion already

• Jane Atkinson Gajwani, Director, Energy and Resource Recovery Programs, NYC
Department of Environmental Protection
o Have been working for past decade on goals that are outlined in the CLCPA
o Delighted to hear the value of anaerobic digestors – produce a lot of bio gas there
▪ Integral because it works on all levels
▪ Materials not converted into energy can be turned into soil or other things

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 o Composting is important
o Might want to consider offsetting synthetic fertilizer use
o Leaks can be an issue with anaerobic digestion, monitoring that is something we are
in agreement with but funding for that can be hard to come by
o Biogas is not listed in CLCPA, which we found disappointing
o Should collaborate with the Ag & Forestry Panel
o Nitric oxide emissions – there’s a lot of work being done on that, should be included
in our work

• Paul Gilman, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, Covanta
o New Yok has an opportunity to set an example
o Should look at what Europe has done
o Waste sector has a possibility to provide 10% of waste reduction

• Dereth Glance, Executive Director, Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency

o Flow control community - we have a comprehensive residential recycling program,
largest municipal composting program in NYS
o Want us to be cognizant of unintended consequences
▪ Unsupportive of PFOS – need to make sure we aren’t working in a vacuum
o Material reduction and responsibility is important, as well as recycling and recovery
o Timeline for DEC regulations moving forward – may need to be expanded

• Eric Goldstein, Sr. Attorney and New York City Environment Director, Natural
Resources Defense Council
o Have active waste issue sector, have worked on NYS waste issues since the 1980s
o Hope we can use CLCPA to move longstanding issues forward
o Landfills are the third largest source of methane emissions in US
▪ Should reduce if not eliminate emissions from landfills
o Supporters of composting and anaerobic digesting
▪ All organics should be composted/digested
▪ Want to reduce food waste we generate in the first place
o Should support local initiatives like NYC’s commercial waste zoning program
o Everything we do on solid waste has adversely affected EJs – recommendations
should relieve burdens they have too long suffered

• Allen Hershkowitz, Founding Director and Chairman of the Board, Sport &
Sustainability International
o Was a senior scientist at NRDC, led solid the Waste Management Program
o Led Congressional research tours to study in Europe and Japan
o Created Green Sports Alliance
o Environmental Science Advisor to the New York Yankees
o Should focus on immediate opportunities, overarching approach is looking at waste
as having an ecological disposal route, and they should be directed in the most
ecological route – most materials are suitable for recycling or composting
o Landfill gas is a critical priority
o 95% of a products impact happen before you open the package
o Thinks we should consider this material management instead of waste management

• Tok Michelle Oyewole, PhD., Policy and Communications Organizer, NYC

Environmental Justice Alliance

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 o Have done a lot of solid waste policy to reduce burdens on low income communities
o Interested in increasing hyperlocal organics processing in a way that develops local
workforces
o Need to logically pair organics with land for carbon sequestration
o Want to reduce harmful waste in low income and communities of color
o Need to look at transfer of waste to landfills and incinerators in EJs
o Interested in using strong EPR and having strong recommendations to reduce waste
o Zero and low emission vehicles for waste vehicles
o There’s an emerging group of micro haulers in NYC operating organic processing
companies

• Lauren Toretta, President, CH4 Biogas

o Build, own and operate anaerobic digest systems
▪ Have largest on-farm system, operating since 2011
▪ Capture thousands of cars-worth of emissions each year
o Can use public-private partnerships to meet goals

Brigitte Vicenty, Founder, Inner City Green Team

o Working in NYCHA developments and starting our second phase called Recycled
Comm.
▪ Working with recycling collection and have coupled that with composting, a
special anaerobic digesting machine
▪ Creating an eco-hub with Green City Forest
o Also partnered with Earth Matters to facilitate collection of resident food scraps,
and we will be facilitating the education portion
o Also want to add textile and e-waste collection

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Molly Trembley: It would be good to collaborate with the Transportation Panel on this. There are
also opportunities for rail to come right to facilities.

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Michael Cahill: Are the people responsible for implementing our recommendations going to be local
governments and the private sector? Will the State continue its current role as a regulator?
Martin Brand: The responsibility for implementation will be very cross cutting. There will be a lot of
efforts on behalf of the State and local governments. These things will require regulatory and
financial support. A number of things will have to be in the plan.
Cahill: How will we handle exported waste? Are we going to be able to regulate that at all?
Brand: It’s high in our calculations.
Sally Rowland: This came up early, it is counted as in-state landfill.
Allen Hershkowitz: If you regulate emissions that go to out-of-state landfills the same as emissions
sent to in-state landfills, we will not be out of compliance with the interstate commerce charge.
Dereth Glance: Could have incentives for flow control communities.
Resa Dimino: Should want to take advantage of recycling and the remanufacturing of materials that
are recycled from New York, and much of that will happen outside of the State.
Paul Gilman: Surprised you’re crunching data and playing with the WARM model, more advance
models were not readily available to the State before, but they have become available and they take
into account all emissions. Not just GHG emissions.
Allen Hershkowitz: Think it will make sense to have sub-workgroups.
Brand: Yes, think in order to manage the workload we will have to.
Steve Changaris: What’s the interplay between the different agencies? Particularly with the advent
of these laws becoming effective, regulatory authority is going to be important.
Brand: This is a collaborative effort, so there’s crosscutting between panels and agencies, our group
here contains a number of members from NYSERDA, Ag & Markets, DOT and others. Want to make
sure we come up with practical recommendations and come up with solutions for obstacles.

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John Casella: Reduced our GHG numbers by over 50% as an organization, a large portion of that
came from low-emission landfill model at the disposal facilities.
Glance: Wanted to bring up the role of solid waste management in emergency preparedness. When
there are natural disasters there’s significant solid waste management issues, so perhaps that can
also be integrated into adaption and resilience. Need space for debris and other things that come
from disasters.

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