Letter Report on the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs’ Compliance with Local Law 36

LETTER REPORT IN BRIEF

This brief summarizes our audit findings regarding the compliance by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs’ (“DCA”) with Local Law 36, which governs waste prevention, reuse, and recycling by City agencies.  The objective of this audit is to determine if DCA is complying with the local law, which is intended to make City agencies, and ultimately the City as a whole, more sustainable through efforts that promote a clean environment, conserve natural resources, and manage waste in a cost-effective manner.  In addition, in the course of the audit, we noted efforts made by DCA to follow additional recycling rules established by the Department of Sanitation for the City of New York (“DSNY”) pursuant to Local Law 36.  Our audit of DCA is one in a series of audits we are conducting of compliance with the local law.

In 1989, New York City established Local Law 19, codified as Administrative Code §§ 16-301, et seq., to establish an over arching “policy of the city to promote the recovery of materials from the New York City solid waste stream for the purpose of recycling such materials and returning them to the economy.”  The law mandates recycling in New York City by residents, agencies, institutions, and businesses, and includes a series of rules to guide implementation.  Local Law 19 requires the City to establish environmental policies to conserve natural resources and manage waste in a sustainable and cost-effective manner.

In 2010, the City enacted Local Law 36 by which it amended the recycling provisions of Local Law 19 (Administrative Code § 16-307) to require each City agency to develop a waste prevention, reuse, and recycling plan and submit the plan to DSNY for approval by July 1, 2011, and each year after.  Local Law 36 also requires each agency to designate a lead recycling or sustainability coordinator for the agency and, where the agency occupies more than one building, to designate an assistant coordinator for each building the agency occupies.  By July 1, 2012, and in each year thereafter, the lead recycling coordinator for each agency is required to submit a report to the head of its agency and to DSNY “summarizing actions taken to implement the waste prevention, reuse, and recycling plan for the previous twelve-month reporting period, proposed actions to be taken to implement such plan, and updates or changes to any information included in such plan.”

In addition, Local Law 36 requires the Commissioner of DSNY to adopt, amend, and implement regulations governing recycling by City mayoral and non-mayoral agencies.  DSNY is also responsible for consolidating the information contained in agency reports and including this information in the Department’s annual recycling report.

Results

Our audit found that DCA generally complies with Local Law 36 and in particular that DCA has policies and procedures in place for handling certain waste and recyclable materials.  However, we found that DCA did not submit its waste prevention, reuse and recycling plan to DSNY until the fall of 2013, after this audit had commenced, notwithstanding Local Law 36’s requirement that such a plan be submitted to DSNY by no later than July 1, 2011.  Further, we found that DCA did not submit the required annual reports to its Commissioner or to DSNY.  At the same time, we found that DCA was in compliance with certain Local Law 36 requirements such as recycling designated materials.

In addition to these findings, we observed that DCA has made additional efforts to address waste prevention, reuse, and safe handling of hazardous waste beyond the requirements of Local Law 36.  Specifically, DCA has enacted a policy to reduce personal printers and encourages staff to print using central printers in an effort to reduce waste and paper usage.  We also found that DCA follows the City’s rules for handling electronic waste and utilizes the citywide contract with Veolia ES Technical Solutions for hazardous waste removal.  These measures were taken in accordance with DSNY’s additional guidelines enacted pursuant to Local Law 36.

The audit recommended that DCA submit the required annual reports to its Commissioner and DSNY by July 1st of each year as required by Local Law 36.
.
Agency response

The agency stated: “We are pleased to report that DCA does have in place a Waste Prevention, Reuse and Recycling plan and will provide an annual report to the DSNY commissioner in advance of July 1, 2014.”