Testimony of Susan Schorr, Chair, Zero Waste Committee
Committee on Public Works and Operations Performance Oversight Hearing
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Introduction
Councilmember Nadeau, thank you for the opportunity to testify at this Committee on Public Works and Operations Performance 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. Here in DC, we have more than 2000 dues-paying members and many thousands more supporters.
Sierra Club thanks Councilmember Nadeau for introducing a strong, equitable District bottle bill.
Councilmember Nadeau, on behalf of the Sierra Club DC Chapter, I wish to thank you for introducing, with ten other Councilmembers, the District Recycling Refund and Litter Reduction Amendment Act of 2025. This landmark legislation will cut bottle and can pollution across the District, and address an environmental injustice that has blighted neighborhoods, parks and waterways along the Anacostia River for decades, exposing residents to microplastic and PFAS contamination. The legislation will significantly reduce plastic pollution in the District, create green jobs, cut greenhouse gasses, and fund water filters to stop lead exposure from lead service lines. It’s an amazing piece of environmental legislation! We congratulate you and your office for your vision.
The Sierra Club and the 25 members of the Return, Refund, Recycle Coalition for DC (3RC), of which the Sierra Club is a founding member, fully support Council passing this bill as soon as possible. The bill was referred sequentially to the Committee on Business and Economic Development, and then to the Committee on Transportation and the Environment around. We call upon Council to hold one hearing on this bill as soon as possible.
More information flow is needed to further collaboration
The Sierra Club DC Chapter, like other environmental stakeholders, is motivated to work collaboratively with DPW and its Office of Waste Diversion (OWD). While we have had some productive exchanges over the past year, the lack of regular quarterly stakeholders meetings and exchange of information impacts our ability to support OWD’s waste diversion efforts. Some of the information we have been requesting over the past months was released only on the eve of this hearing, including that the 2023 Waste Diversion report is expected in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. Yearly waste diversion reports are necessary to measure success and identify next steps. While CM Nadeau organized a roundtable on October 11, 2024, which led to several additional meetings with DPW, there have been no quarterly stakeholders’ meetings since March 19, 2024, close to one year. Likewise, in the absence of Benning Road Advisory Team meetings, we had to wait for DPW’s Pre-Hearing Questions report for an update on the renovation of the Benning Road Trash Transfer station as a zero waste campus. The second meeting of the Benning Road Advisory Team scheduled for April 2024 was canceled and no further meetings scheduled. And, despite repeated requests, we have never received a full briefing on DPW’s visits to California or Europe to research zero waste campuses and reusable food ware. We want to ensure that the District zero waste campus will foster greater building material and household appliance re-use. The bottle bill gives rise to a need for beverage container redemption centers and processing (or baling) of containers for recycling. We urge DPW to consider leasing space in the zero waste campus both for a redemption center and processing facility. Both may generate income DPW could pump into expansion of zero waste services for residents. There should be more opportunities to provide this input. We call for regular, quarterly stakeholders meetings, and a Benning Road Environmental Advisory Team with larger participation from environmental stakeholders than the current Benning Road Advisory Team which has met only once and has only one environmental representative.
Waste diversion means expanding composting services in the District
We also welcome updates on DPW’s plans to expand composting services in the District beyond the current 9,000 households enrolled in the curbside compost program, households that bring their compost to farmers markets and the soon-to-be-launched “smart” compost bins.. DPW sharing its plans will help environmental stakeholders to better advocate for DPW’s composting services in the upcoming budget oversight hearings. But we currently lack information. We would appreciate if this hearing can provide answers to a number of questions on composting services:
- How many tons of food waste were diverted by the curbside compost collection program?
- How many tons of food waste does DPW forecast will be diverted through the “smart” compost bins, which DPW’s Pre-Hearing Questions report (“Pre-Hearing report”) notes will be operational this month?
- DPW’s report notes that the agency “hopes to expand” the curbside program in the next fiscal year. We request that DPW share its plans in this hearing, along with any expansion plans for its smart bin, farmers market, and other programs, including the estimated number of households/participants to be served.
- What is DPW’s plan to bring curbside compost collection in-house, what are the expected capital and operational expenses for this move, and when will DPW begin investing in needed capital resources? We understand that DPW believes it would cost $55 million over time to bring curbside compost collection in-house. Can DPW confirm if this budget includes compost collection trucks, and if the plan is to procure electric compost collection vehicles?
- We understand that DPW believes current laws include a trigger — that DPW offer curbside compost collection to all DPW-served households — to require compost collection in multifamily housing. We ask DPW to identify the relevant law and request this committee to consider solutions, such as updating the legislation, to ensure that residents in multifamily housing also have access to composting collection.
We request that DPW provide written updates on the waste diversion results of all of its residential and commercial compost programs, including on its website. Reporting on these results helps build support from residents and elected officials alike. The Zero Waste Omnibus Amendment Act of 2020 authorizes DPW to expand the commercial compost program to other entities than those listed in the legislation. Does DPW plan to expand requirements, for example to collect food scraps in restaurants?
DPW needs to plan for more effective recycling
There is a lot of room to improve recycling in the District. The bottle bill will be a good first step in the move away from single-stream recycling and its contamination which results in materials unnecessarily going to landfills and incinerators. Once most beverage containers are out of curbside recycling, we can more easily separate paper and cardboard from other materials, leading to greater income for DPW from recycling end-markets.
It would also be helpful to understand the timeline for award of the District recycling contract; we understand that the deadline for the Request for Proposal was postponed from the end of January until this month. We trust the new contract will require reports from the selected Material Recovery Facility (MRF) on which materials the MRF sends to be recycled, and which materials on the Mayor’s List of Recyclables (“Mayor’s List”) it charges DC taxpayers to send to a landfill or incinerator. We also welcome learning the timeline to update the Mayor’s List. As noted in several previous testimonies, the Mayor’s List should make clear that black plastic is not recyclable.
Looking to the future, we request that DPW seek funding in FY2026 to conduct a save-as-you-throw pilot; DPW’s Pre-Hearing report notes it currently lacks funding for this pilot. We also request information on which parts of the Zero Waste DC Plan OWD will implement in the year ahead, and which actions in the Zero Waste DC Plan OWD is coordinating with other government agencies, for example, any efforts OWD is taking with DC Public Schools to re-establish their compost programs which ended during the pandemic, and OWD’s efforts to bring recycling to residents of public housing.
DPW should show its progress toward electrifying the District’s fleet
As part of the District's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the Climate Commitment Amendment Act of 2022 requires that all vehicle purchases or leases by the District government be zero-emission vehicles, starting in 2026.
We would like to know if DPW is on track to comply with that 2026 timeline, as this is a crucial component of the District’s goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.
We urge DPW to release a comprehensive plan outlining annual benchmarks for transitioning its fleet of over 3,000 vehicles to zero-emission models by 2045. This plan should include a breakdown of the number of EVs expected to be acquired as part of the approved budget for fleet replacement from FY25 to FY30.
We would also like to know how many EVs have been acquired so far in FY25, and how many are expected to be acquired during the remainder of the fiscal year.
Furthermore, we understand that DPW has funds currently budgeted through FY27 for the installation of EV charging stations to support the electrification of its fleet. We ask DPW to provide details on how many chargers are planned to be installed during this period.
DPW should prioritize removing dangerous cars from our street
Tragically, 2024 tied with 2023 as the District’s deadliest year for traffic fatalities in 17 years, despite the launch of Vision Zero in 2015. Victims included 19 pedestrians, two cyclists, 10 motorcyclists, 20 people in cars, and one unknown. According to the Vision Zero 2022 Update, multiple agencies, including DPW, share responsibility for ensuring street safety, and DPW plays a pivotal role in enforcing parking violations.
A significant concern remains the presence of repeat offenders—drivers with a history of dangerous behavior, often identified through parking violations. The D.C. Auditor’s second report on Vision Zero, released last June, found that DPW had not been targeting these repeat dangerous drivers through its booting and towing programs, which are key tools for addressing unsafe vehicles on the road.
We were encouraged by the launch of DPW’s High-Dollar Scofflaw Pilot last year, which aimed to remove dangerous vehicles with high unpaid fines from our streets, and we’re pleased to see it expanding.
We commend the D.C. Council for passing Councilmember Nadeau’s Fraudulent Vehicle Tag and Parking Enforcement Modernization Amendment Act, which will enhance DPW's ability to identify and remove unsafe vehicles from the road by prioritizing the booting and towing of abandoned, unidentifiable, or dangerous vehicles with traffic safety infractions. These provisions will directly support efforts to remove dangerous repeat offenders and improve overall road safety.
It is imperative that the funding for the new law be fully allocated and utilized to protect the safety of all District residents.
It is also important for DPW to address bike lane obstructions to include timely clearing of snow, ice, and leaves, to ensure safe lanes.
Thank you Councilmember Nadeau for convening this performance oversight hearing and for the opportunity to testify.