Proposed Public Works Budget Would Slash Funding for Composting and Parking Enforcement

Committee on Public Works and Operations
Budget Oversight Hearing
Tuesday April 9,  2024

Introduction

Councilmember Nadeau, thank you for the opportunity to testify at this Committee on Public Works and Operations Budget Oversight Hearing on the Department of Public Works (DPW). My name is Susan Schorr, and I am the chair of the Sierra Club District of Columbia Chapter’s Zero Waste Committee. The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. The DC Chapter has approximately 3,000 dues-paying members in the District and many thousands of supporters.

The Chapter’s testimony addresses our concerns about the impact of Mayor Bowser’s Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) Proposed Budget and Financial Plan on implementation of the Zero Waste DC (ZW DC) Plan – including composting services, enforcement of existing zero waste laws and the Save-As-You-Throw pilot –  budgetary implications of a District beverage container deposit-return law, a necessary update to the Mayor’s List of Recyclables and Compostables, electrification of the DC fleet and parking enforcement.

We understand that the FY25 budget process is sober. We have also seen the DC Council and Mayor Bowser act to keep the Wizards and Caps in the Capital One Arena. Before turning to important zero waste and clean transportation funding issues, the DC Chapter also wishes to request that Council make clear there will be no funding to bring the Commanders to the RFK Stadium site. Enough is enough. We can't afford further sacrifices to key services for District residents, including environmental services, in this time of climate crisis. Especially for a football schedule with a scant nine home games that contribute little to neighborhood business. At least our hockey and basketball teams have scores of home games that bring benefit to local businesses.

 ZW DC Plan Implementation

The ZW DC Plan (Plan) was finally released this February. The Plan was called for in legislation enacted in 2014. For years, environmental advocates have been requested to wait for development of the plan before meaningful implementation of zero waste measures would begin. Given the current climate crisis, and the important zero waste contribution to climate mitigation, we cannot afford to wait any longer for meaningful implementation. We are disappointed that the Plan extends the deadline for achieving the District’s goal of 80 percent waste diversion from 2032 to 2040. Zero waste measures – especially those that focus on redesign, reducing and reusing – cut greenhouse gas emissions, create green jobs and importantly, in this time of tight budgets, are often cheaper than paying hauling and tipping fees for trash going to landfills and incinerators. If we cut zero waste programs, we are likely cutting cost saving opportunities.

• We see from the mayor’s proposed FY25 budget that $3,043,015 has been allocated to sustain the roughly 9,000 households participating in the curbside compost pilot.
• We also see that the Office of Waste Diversion (OWD) FY25 operating budget is $6,053,000. Beyond continuation of the curbside compost pilot, how much of the FY25 operating budget will be allocated to implement the ZW DC Plan? What specific Plan actions will this allocation be used for? We would appreciate it if DPW would share a detailed budget each fiscal year, starting with FY25, on how implementation of the Zero Waste DC Plan will be funded.
• Page 9 of the ZW DC Plan seems to indicate implementation in 2025 will cost $10M and another $20M in 2026. It’s not clear if the Plan’s dates are calendar or fiscal years. Either way, it appears we’re already falling behind in spending to implement the ZW DC Plan.

Composting services:

We are pleased to see the curbside compost pilot continue, but believe it’s essential that curbside composting be expanded to more households and that a range of additional composting services be provided.

• We have heard suggestions that the mayor’s proposed FY25 budget does not include funding to continue the popular and impactful Farmers Market Food Waste Drop-Off program. Can DPW confirm whether or not it has funds to continue this program and for which period?
• We also understand that OWD is procuring trash compactors and smart compost bins to provide compost drop off sites available seven-days-a-week, and is discussing with ANCs the placement of these bins. This promises to improve compost drop-off services. But it will be essential that the compost drop-off bins be regularly emptied and hauled so the materials collected are composted. Does DPW have funds to collect and haul the contents of these smart compost bins? When will this service be available?
• In this time of budgeting –framed as an exercise in “strategic investments, shared sacrifice”-- we recognize that costs for zero waste measures may come under heightened scrutiny. We encourage OWD to conduct a cost comparison between composting and waste management. Generally, tipping fees at compost sites are lower than for incineration and landfilling, meaning that expanding curbside composting and food waste drop-off locations may well be cheaper than continuing to send food waste to landfills and incinerators.
• We do know composting reduces greenhouse gas emissions and creates green jobs. District residents have demonstrated they are ready to compost. Indeed, the curbside compost pilot and Farmers Market drop offs are wildly popular. Composting services should be expanded.

Existing Zero Waste Laws

During the DPW performance oversight hearing, we testified in support of enforcement of existing zero waste laws, in particular the Zero Waste Omnibus Amendment Act of 2020.

• Does DPW have sufficient funds to implement and enforce the commercial compost requirements, glass separation, janitorial training, and other programs required in the 2020 legislation?

Save-As-You-Throw (SAYT) pilot

As we write this testimony, we don’t know if the mayor’s proposed FY25 budget includes funding for the long-promised Save-As-You-Throw pilot. Whether funded this year or not, it will be important for DPW to convey to the mayor that adopting SAYT billing practices will result in economic savings for the District government. SAYT is designed to incentivize residents to produce less trash. If there is no funding for this pilot, we encourage DPW to pursue grant opportunities to fund a SAYT pilot in the near future.   

Strong, equitable bottle bills are funded by beverage companies

As we stated in the DPW performance oversight hearing, the Sierra Club supports a strong and equitable bottle bill to establish a deposit-return program in the District. We know, of course, that new programs generate concerns about how those programs will be funded. A strong and equitable bottle bill program is designed to be self-funded by beverage companies, not local governments or taxpayers. Beverage companies will pay fees to cover the costs of implementing the program, including government oversight and enforcement. This is a standard policy tool for product stewardship. 

Mayor’s List of Recyclables

We reiterate our request for the Mayor’s List of Recyclables and Compostables (Mayor’s List) to be updated to remove materials for which there is no recycling end-market. During this austere budget period, why should the District be paying a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) recycling tipping fees for materials which are not actually recycled? In addition, the Mayor’s List serves to educate residents on what they can and cannot place in their recycling bin. Why educate the public to wish-cycle materials that aren’t actually recycled? Why enable a false waste diversion rate to be reported?

We understand that DPW is waiting for the opening of new MRFs in the DMV which may be able to recycle different materials. We urge DPW OWD to conclude its MRF market research quickly so that it can update the Mayor’s List to include only materials that are actually recycled. Our prior testimony explains our specific concerns about black plastic and gable-top cartons. These concerns are based on the practices of many MRFs around the country which do not accept these materials. It’s time to set a short but firm deadline for publication of an updated Mayor’s List. Council should also establish requirements for food service entities serving on recyclable and compostable materials to provide separate bins for each and then have them hauled to recycling and composting facilities. Without these steps, our current requirements for use of recyclable and compostable materials by restaurants is meaningless.

DPW and DOEE cooperation on zero waste ordinances

What we have not seen funding for is redesign, reduction and reuse programs. Such programs can be developed through ordinances or regulations which are called for in the Zero Waste DC Plan. We call on DPW to work with DOEE to begin developing these ordinances. Considering all the support the District has provided to sports stadiums, a good place to start is asking stadiums to switch to reusable cups. The average sports stadium of 18,000 seats that hosts 300 events annually uses 5.4 million single-use cups, and creates nearly 64 tons of plastic waste^[1]. If the stadium instead served beverages in reusable cups that are used 300 times, and recycled them at the end of their lifecycle, the stadium would generate no waste. Asking stadiums to switch to reusable cups will cut single-use plastic use and trash, lead to investment in reuse infrastructure in the District that could be used by other reuse ventures and create green jobs. Oakland and San Francisco California have adopted ordinances to require re-use. Shouldn’t we? 

Electrification of the D.C. Fleet

We support continued funding for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to support the electrification of the DPW and District fleet. With that objective in mind we would like more information to determine whether the budget is enough for DPW to meet the requirements under the Climate Commitment Amendment Act of 2022 for the District government to only purchase or lease zero-emissions vehicles, starting in 2026, and to transition its fleet of over 3,000 vehicles to all zero-emissions vehicles by 2045:

• How many electrical charging stations has DPW already installed, and how many does it plan to acquire during each of the next three fiscal years, for which funds are allocated in the proposed budget?
• How many EVs can be accommodated by that total number of chargers?
• How many EVs does DPW project will be in the District’s fleet in each of the next six years, particularly once all replacement vehicles will have to be zero-emissions vehicles, beginning in 2026?
• How much of the budget for fleet replacement will go toward procurement of EVs and for how many?

Relatedly, as we requested in our testimony for this year’s DPW performance oversight hearing, we would also like to see a plan with benchmarks from DPW toward transitioning its fleet of over 3,000 vehicles to all zero-emission vehicles by 2045.

Although DPW’s Fleet Management Administration provided an FY22 fleet inventory, it would help to have a publicly available report - or better yet, an up-to-date dashboard - that breaks down vehicles by fuel type and indicates progress toward fleet electrification and GHG emission reduction goals. Information about electric vehicle acquisitions should also be provided to update the “DC Fleet Management / Environmental Responsibility” webpage, which only mentions “alternative fuel vehicles” acquired in 2011 and 2012.

Parking Enforcement  

Tragically, 2023 was the District’s deadliest year for traffic fatalities in 16 years, despite the launch of Vision Zero in 2015. DC’s 2022 Vision Zero update notes that “many agencies share the responsibility to ensure safe operations on our streets,” and DPW plays a key role by enforcing parking violations. Repeat parking violators are often dangerous and reckless drivers.

We are concerned about the proposed budget’s $691,000 cut in funding for “vehicle immobilization/relocation” under parking enforcement, especially since the DC Council recently enacted much needed legislation that would prioritize the booting or towing of vehicles with repeat speeding or reckless driving violations. The mayor’s final budget should ensure those efforts are fully funded.

Thank you Councilmember Nadeau for convening this Budget Oversight Hearing and for the opportunity to testify.