The city’s ambitious goal to send zero waste to landfills by 2030 makes two controversial garbage transfer stations — including one on the Upper East Side — unnecessary, and a waste of $390 million, a group of pols charged.
The seven elected officials - including U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, City Councilmen Mark Treyger, and State Sen. Liz Krueger — sent a letter to Mayor de Blasio to ask him to nix the pricy new garbage dumps and use the money saved to focus on things like composting and recycling.
“Continuing to move forward with marine transfer stations to landfills undermines the mayor’s credibility and commitment to the One New York plan,” said City Councilman Ben Kallos, who also signed the letter.
The East 91st Street Marine Transfer station is supposed to open by late 2016, and the Southwest Brooklyn Marine Transfer station will open a year after that.
The two stations have been in the works for years.
De Blasio last month unveiled a new plan to stop sending waste to landfills by 2030 as part of his eco-friendly One New York program.
The elected officials say they support the One New York plan — which reduces trash by boosting recycling and composting rates — just not the transfer stations.
By the time the mayor’s plan will kick in, if it’s successful, the city will have spent $390 million on two “obsolete” marine transfer sites, according to the pols’ letter.
Kallos said a better solution would be to continue using the system already in place for trash while at the same time working to boost recycling rates.
The current system has garbage sent to stations mostly in low-income neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the South Bronx, which critics say is unfair.
A spokeswoman for the mayror said the transfer stations are desperately needed to handle the 2,000 tons of waste a day currently generated in Manhattan.
The mayor’s goal is “having an equitable, sustainable, and resilient plan to dispose of the waste we generate in the years to come,” said Amy Spitalnick.
She said the stations are part of a “network” that includes post-snow removal and work after natural disasters.