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EPA Grant $98,000 for Waste Prevention at Bronx Housing Project; With Closing of Fresh Kills Imminent, Increase in Recycling and Reuse in Public Housing Seen as Vital to NYC Trash Reduction

Release Date: 01/20/1999
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(#99011) NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a grant of $97,799 to Cornell University's Waste Management Institute and Cornell Cooperative Extension's New York City office to establish a comprehensive waste prevention program at Forest Houses in the Morrisania section of the Bronx. The grant is an important stepforward in improving recycling rates among the city's 600,000 public housing residents, and reducing the amount of waste the city will have to ship out-of-state after the Fresh Kills landfillon Staten Island closes in 2001.

Forest Houses, a large 15-building complex operated by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), is home to over 3,200 people. EPA's grant to Cornell will promote resident awareness of the trash problem in New York City and the value of recycling, reducing waste and composting. In partnership with NYCHA and the Southeast Bronx Neighborhood Center -- a community center based in the Forest Houses development -- Cornell will also establish the complex's first material exchange program, which will enable residents to trade re-usable household items with one another, rather than throwing them away.

"New York City's waste situation will improve significantly if individuals and families take greater ownership of the problem, and, even in small ways, work to resolve it," said Jeanne M. Fox, EPA Region 2 Administrator. "EPA is optimistic that residents of Forest Houses will set the pace for public housing complexes around the city in recycling, buying products with recycled content, and promoting a cleaner and healthier environment."

New York City's 7.3 million residents produce 12,650 tons of garbage a day -- 8,500 tons of which is disposed of at the Fresh Kills landfill, which will close in December 2001. After 2001, New York City will pay to ship all its waste to disposal facilities outside of the city. An increase in recycling rates will reduce the amount of waste that must be shipped out, decrease the city's costs, and result in reduced methane emissions from the out-of-state landfills that will handle the city's trash. EPA anticipates that the Forest Houses program will prove a successful community model for other city public housing complexes to emulate.

Plans for the program are underway, with workshops for residents in reducing waste and recycling set to begin in the spring of 1999. The composting system and material exchange center will be operational in the summer and fall, respectively.

For more information contact:
Nina Habib Spencer, Press Office
EPA Region 2
290 Broadway
NY, NY 10007-1866
Voice: 212-637-3670 FAX: 212-637-5046 E-Mail: [email protected]