Assignment #7 - task 2

New Laws Would Expand City’s Recycling Program


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/nyregion/12recycle.html?ref=earth
By Nate Schweber

The article is about a sweeping expansion of New York City’s recycling laws introduced by Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker. New York City’s recycling laws has three criteria to increase recycling: 1) increasing plastics recycling, 2) putting more bins in public areas, and 3) creating periodic drop-off locations for hazardous household waste. Ms. Quinn says that the Department of Sanitation would be required to implement this law. This recycling program would be expected that more than 8,000 tons of plastic out of landfills annually, 10,000 residents’ trash would be recycled. To empower New York City’s recycling laws, people who violate this law must pay a fine.

New York City produces 20,000 tons of garbage daily. Since Fresh Kills Landfill closed on Staten Island in 2001, New York City became a major garbage exporter. The trash is transporting to other states’ disposal facilities such as Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey, Ohio, and so forth. However, there are limitations to transport waste to other states. First of all, the price of transport has been rapidly increased exceeding the budget. Second, the pollution from the transport with trucks, ships, and trains is considered seriously. Moreover, as the awareness of environmental issues is growing, the citizens in import states tend to resist the import from other state for their own sake.

To export their problems to other states is not a good solution for environmental sustainability as a long-term strategy. Sustainability is regarded as “maintenance of natural capital” (Goodland, 1995, p. 10) and “an obligation to conduct ourselves so that we leave to the future the option or the capacity to be as well off as we are” (Solow, 1991, p. 181). Thus, New York City’s recycling laws would be a good way to solve partly the overflowing waste problem.

The recycling law is related to sustainability planning at New York City. To regulate recycling is not broadly related with other cities or states. As Ms. Quinn said, New Your City tries to solve problems occurring from the transport of waste, as I mentioned above. In aspect of Three Es–environment, economy, and equity for sustainability planning, the recycling law could reduce the overflowing waste in light of environment. Moreover, the city would expect to make profits from recycling and fines against the law. According to Ms. Quinn, the system of fines for the violation is more fair for small property owners because the fine would charge on landlords or the owner of buildings.

Let’s view the recycling program from the other angle for environmental sustainability. Goodland (1995) divides sustainability into three degrees: weak, strong and absurdly strong. The recycling program would be involved in weak environmental sustainability which is “maintaining total capital intact without regard to the partitioning of that capital among the four kinds”–natural, human, human-made, and social (p. 15). The technology for recycling would be substitute for natural capital or the economic benefits from recycling would be substitute for other capital.

Even if the recycling program is handled by regional planning, environmental issue is initiatively not limited by a region. Environmental issue itself needs overall efforts through a nation. Wheeler (2004) says that “national and state governments are strong and established institutions that dominate public attention” (p. 133). If the United States government initiate recycling as a law, the effect from the law would be tremendous.