Draft Testimony for March 10, 2010 DPW Hearing
dcvir...@hotmail.com
honest opinion as you like, it would be greatly appreciated! And again
- please consider signing up to testify or sending in testimony
(instructions in prior emails).
Virginia
Testimony Before the Committee on Public Works
March 10, 2010
By Virginia Johnson
Washington, DC 20009
I am not sure that sufficient time and attention has been devoted to
recycling by the DC council.
For the capital of what is still the most powerful nation on earth to
be recycling at between 15 and 22%, and to not have a recycling
center, two and a half hearings does not on the face of it, appear to
be a serious attempt at solving the problem of recyclable waste. We
all must ask ourselves if we have sufficiently challenged our thinking
on this issue. We are all still too satisfied living in a throwaway
society, content to treat recycling as a second-class citizen. The
connection to everything else has not been made, and it’s time this
connection be made and brought alive.
Visit just about any Starbucks in DC and you will see no recycling.
This was true in February at the Starbucks in Adams Morgan, true seven
months ago at a Starbucks near the museums downtown, not to mention
CVS which does not recycle at all, nor do most food serving commercial
establishments many of which are plastics-based now. Most food serving
commercial establishments are currently not required to recycle
plastics 3 and higher, but go into any such establishment, for
example, Marvelous Market, or your local cafeteria even, and take a
look at the row upon row of plastic, and what do you see? Nothing but
plastics three and higher. These places are not required to recycle
all that plastic. Forgive me for speaking with such specificity, but I
honestly wonder if there is any other way you will ever hear
information like this.
Our city leaders do not understand the connections to other issues
including parks, city trees, the robustness, reliability and safety of
our public transit system, environmental education and the absolute
lack of it in the DC school system. We need to be forward thinking,
but we are not. The bag tax is the sole exception.
All ideas need to be considered, including charging buildings for the
amount of trash they throw out. But we need to establish competence at
basic reduction, reuse and recycling, before moving on to more
challenging things like composting. Basic recycling competence is a
welcome first step.
I understand that there is no bill under consideration, Mr Chairman,
that you believe we have a good law; it is a matter of enforcement and
education.
With all due respect to your outstanding leadership in other areas, I
see your assessment of the current situation as indicative of the
problem. The head of DPW removes a reasonable amount of snow in a
fairly short amount of time as happened in December and you offer him
your hearty and deserved congratulations at the last recycling hearing
in January. I’m sure car drivers appreciate the snow removal, but
where is the municipal employee who is dedicated to recycling and has
the facts at his fingertips who is not shuffled aside in some back
room with limited visibility and no authority? At January’s hearing,
Director William Howland didn't know how many commercial recycling
plans are in place currently when asked by you Mr Chairman, but he
sure did have the numbers on how many tickets DPW investigators would
have to write to be 'profitable.' This goes to show where our
leaders’ priorities are. They appear not to be with recycling, and
thinking outside the box to make it and other pro-environment measures
work.
The DPW director says education is the core strategy. In many ways,
this is unfortunate. Businesses and apartment buildings must be
breathing a huge sigh of relief upon hearing that. As long as our
leaders are distracting themselves with adult education programs,
businesses are again off the hook. As I said at the January hearing,
adults do not need more education – that’s a whitewash. People know
all this by now. The time has come and is rapidly passing for
enforcement. Yet all that is proposed is adding three more
investigators and some more education for adults. The people want to
recycle. The problem lies with collection.
Finally, I strongly support the regulations on carry out bags and see
this as a great step forward in DC, one that I hope will give other
cities, states, and eventually the Federal Government the courage to
follow suit. The new regulation has shown that habits CAN be changed
and I'm proud of our local government for its leadership on this
issue.
Connecticut Avenue Pet Sitting
Starbucks and CVS as examples of non-recycling businesses is a very good
one, because just about everyone at the hearing will have gone past at
least one Starbucks or CVS on their way to the hearing and will be
familiar with the overflowing trashcans that often accompany these
businesses.
I do have some hesitancy about promoting the recycling of plastics 3-7,
since there doesn't seem to be much of a market for them. However, the DC
government has asked people who live in single-family homes to recycle
plastics of those types, so it's puzzling that businesses (including
apartment and condo buildings) aren't asked to recycle them.
Mostly, I think we need more enforcement of existing regulations, and your
testimony does a good job of making a case for that.
I hope the hearing will go well.
Jen
Virginia Johnson
Thank you for the email.
Due to a last minute emergency, I am not able to attend the hearing, currently in progress.
I attach the witness list for those who are interested.
By the way, I understand that there is to be a recycling-only hearing scheduled soon to discuss Fenty's proposed new regulations.
--Virginia
Council of the District of Columbia
Committee on Public Works and Transportation
Public Oversight Hearing – Agenda and Witness List
JIM GRAHAM, CHAIRPERSON
COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC WORKS AND TRANSPORTATION
A PUBLIC OVERSIGHT HEARING ON
the Department of Public Works
Wednesday, March 10, 2010, at 1:00 pm
The John A. Wilson Building, Room 123
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004
______________________________________________________________________________
AGENDA & WITNESS LIST
CALL TO ORDER
OPENING REMARKS
Public WITNESSES
Panel 1
Geo T. Johnson, Executive Director, District Counsel to AFSCME
Sandra Seegars, ANC 8E02 Commissioner
Catherine May, MD, ANC 3C08 Commissioner
4. Bryan Weaver, ANC 1C03, Commissioner
Panel 2
Michael Sindram, Disabled Veteran
Barbara Morgan
Ruth Caplin
Jim Dougherty, Secretary, Sierra Club DC Chapter
Panel 3
Hewlette Pearson, Director, Green Team, CHSFSC
Ronald Wingard, Crew Chief, Green Team, CHSFSC
Kathy Henderson
Virginia Johnson
Panel 4
Peter Chepucavage, Executive Director/CFAW
General Counsel, Plexus Consultant LLC
Nicola Whiteman, Vice President of Government Affairs, DC, ABOA
Todd Anderson, Building Manager, Akridge
Kasara Williams, General Manager, Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Inc.
D. GOVERNMENT WITNESS
1. William O. Howland, Jr., Director, Department of Public Works
> Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 22:30:21 -0600
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> To: green...@googlegroups.com; dcvir...@hotmail.com
> Subject: Re: {Green CP Plus} Draft Testimony for March 10, 2010 DPW Hearing
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Ruth Caplan
Jen,
Thank you for the email.
Due to a last minute emergency, I am not able to attend the hearing, currently in progress.
I attach the witness list for those who are interested.
By the way, I understand that there is to be a recycling-only hearing scheduled soon to discuss Fenty's proposed new regulations.
--Virginia
Council of the District of Columbia
Committee on Public Works and Transportation
Public Oversight Hearing - Agenda and Witness List
--
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Virginia Johnson
I am having some sad times now with my family, but I just read your testimony, and I wanted to let you know that it BRIGHTENED MY DAY (rather my night). It was great! Very lively and just terrific. From one resident to another, thank you so much for testifying. We will see: this will all make a difference! One thing leads to another.
Take care, and I hope it was not too much of an ordeal today at the Wilson Building.
Virginia Johnson
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:53:55 -0500
To: dcvir...@hotmail.com
From: rca...@igc.org
Subject: RE: {Green CP Plus} Draft Testimony for March 10, 2010 DPW Hearing
CC: green...@googlegroups.com
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Connecticut Avenue Pet Sitting
better for you soon.
In case you don't already know, written testimony can still be submitted
even by people who didn't make it to the hearing in person. The deadline
for submitting it is tomorrow, Friday, March 12, at 5pm. (Friday is
"tomorrow" as of right now, while I'm writing this, but will probably be
"today" by the time the e-mail goes through. Sanjay, would it be possible
to let people who have proved they aren't spammers to post messages
without waiting for moderator approval?) The address to send testimony to
is ahawki...@dccouncil.us
I'm planning to submit testimony myself. I had intended to send it
sooner, but wasn't quite sure what to say. FWIW, here's what I'm planning
to submit tomorrow afternoon. Feedback is welcome.
---
I live in an apartment building in DC, and am concerned about the quality
of the recycling program that applies to DC's apartment buildings. The
Washington City Paper has documented that companies picking up recyclable
materials often mix them in with non-recyclable trash, rendering useless
the efforts of residents like me who separate our recyclables. I would
like to see more inspectors assigned to ensure that what goes into
recycling bins actually reaches a recycling center, and fines levied
against trash haulers that mix recyclables with trash.
I would also like to see an end to the current system under which
commercial buildings, including apartment buildings, are not required to
recycle the same types of materials that are collected for recycling from
single-family homes. Many of my neighbors throw juice cartons and plastic
tubs into our building's recycling bin in the mistaken belief that these
items are recyclable throughout DC, when in fact they are recyclable only
when collected from homes served by DC's residential recycling program.
It is difficult for people who live in large apartment buildings to
understand that the Office of Recycling considers our building
"commercial", not "residential", and that the rules for residential
recycling therefore do not apply where we live.
As much as I believe in recycling, my priority is to see less waste
generated. To that end, I encourage the Council to enact legislation
making it easier for people to reuse what they already have. For example,
pharmacies could be required to offer customers the option of getting
literal refills of their prescriptions instead of being given a new pill
bottle each time a prescription is "refilled". (On several occasions I've
asked for refills to be put in an existing bottle, but have often ended up
with a new pill bottle.) It is wasteful and unnecessary to provide
"refills" in new bottles that then need to be collected and processed for
recycling.
I would also like to see stores encouraged to sell items containing
recycled content. For example, grocery stores could be encouraged to sell
brands of paper towel that are made of at least 80% post-consumer recycled
paper. This would "close the loop" of recycling, creating a market for
the paper collected by DC's recycling program.
I am proud to live in a city with a tax on plastic bags, and hope to see
the city continue to become more environmentally responsible.
---
Ruth, your testimony is great! Your point about bags being unnecessary
for items like shoes that already come in boxes was especially good. I
hope CM Graham was paying attention.
I'd love to see a bottle bill. I pick up lots of bottles and cans while
walking dogs, and wish people had an incentive not to toss their bottles.
Jen