NJ AND NY TRASH FREE WATERS PARTNERSHIP PLANNING MEETING FEBRUARY 12, 2015 | EPA REGION 2 OFFICESNEW YORK CITY

A SUMMARY BY THE SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENTAL FINANCE CENTER

 

NEW JERSEY AND NEW YORK U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY TRASH FREE WATERS

PARTNERSHIP PLANNING MEETING

February 12, 2015, EPA Region 2 Offices, New York City

SUMMARY REPORT

Syracuse University Environmental Finance Center May 8, 2015

Contents

I. Executive Summary 1

II. Planning Meeting Agenda and Objectives 2

III. Key Meeting Themes 2 IV. Proposed NJ/NY Trash Free Waters Partnership Projects/Actions 3 Bottles 3 Beads/plastics 4 Butts 4 Boxes 5 Bags 5 Education/Messaging 6

V. NJ/NY TFW Partnership Next Steps 7

Appendices:

A: February 12th New Jersey/New York Trash Free Waters Partnership Planning Meeting Agenda 8 B: Guest Presentation Highlights 9 C: NJ/NY Trash Free Waters Partnership Project/Action Ideas Generated During the February 12 Planning Meeting 10 D: Participants and Sources of Input for the Planning Meeting Summary 11

Disclaimer: This document is an informational record of a discussion held on February 12, 2015. It was prepared for informational purposes only. The information presented herein should not be cited or quoted as the endorsed views or policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Syracuse University Environmental Finance Center (EFC), or the organizations represented by the meeting participants.

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I. Executive Summary The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has expanded its national Trash Free Waters (TFW) program to the New Jersey/New York (NJ/NY) region to develop a strategic approach to support aquatic trash prevention and reduction initiatives with public, private, and nonprofit stakeholders. The NJ/NY Trash Free Waters Partnership places a strong emphasis on collaboration. Specifically, it seeks to help states, municipalities, and businesses work together to develop innovative aquatic trash management strategies and projects in targeted geographic areas. The TFW program serves as a catalyst for issue analysis, facilitated dialogue, strategic planning, and program implementation. Regional TFW strategies and projects are being developed to reflect stakeholders’ needs and concerns. By supporting such efforts, the goal of the NJ/NY Trash Free Waters Partnership is to develop a focused set of actions and projects that significantly reduces the volume of trash entering watersheds and ultimately the marine environment, approaching zero loading of trash into U.S. waters within 10 years. On February 12, a second planning meeting was held to guide the NJ/NY Region to approach this goal. The February 12 NJ/NY TFW Partnership Planning Meeting (Planning Meeting) served to build on the initial October 30, 2014 Planning Meeting and subsequent Working Group calls. The October Planning Meeting sought to 1) Gain a better understanding of the current state of aquatic trash issues in NJ and NY, 2) Develop strategies to reduce trash entering NJ/NY waterways and, 3) To create Working Groups centered on targeting themes and strategies. These Working Groups are composed of local government, non-profit and private members and are focused upon creating and implementing tangible projects to reduce aquatic trash consisting of Plastic: Bags, microBeads/microplastics, beverage Bottles, single use food service Boxes (including,polystyrene), and cigarette Butts. Collectively, the waste streams are referred to as “PB5.” After the initial October Planning Meeting, the PB5 Working Groups created an extensive list of project ideas and actions. At the February 12 Planning Meeting, this project list was narrowed down to a more manageable set of tasks and project ideas with achievable, timely and measureable outcomes. This focused list of projects will be further prioritized during the next round of Working Group calls. This set of “Core NJ/NY TFW Projects” can form a NJ/NY Strategy and Projects Document moving forward with “Periphery Projects” kept on record for possible future implementation. An Education/Messaging Working Group was created at the February 12 Meeting in order to address crosscutting educational themes that exist throughout the PB5 Working Groups. It was also recommended that a Data Aggregation Working Group be formed that would focus upon compiling data/research that already exists in order to reduce redundancy and resources. A Steering Committee, composed of PB5 EPA Team Facilitators, other EPA representatives, and EFC staff members, is being formed in order to provide a cohesive voice and direction for the NJ/NY TFW Program going forward.

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II. Planning Meeting Agenda and Objectives The February 12, 2015 NJ/NY Trash Free Waters Partnership Planning Meeting (Planning Meeting) served to build on the initial October 30, 2014 Planning Meeting and subsequent Working Group calls. The October Planning Meeting sought to 1) Gain a better understanding of the current state of aquatic trash issues in NJ and NY, 2) Develop strategies to reduce trash entering NJ/NY waterways and, 3) To create Working Groups centered on targeting themes and strategies. These Working Groups consist of members of local governments, non-profit and private industry and are focused upon creating and implementing tangible projects to reduce aquatic trash consisting of Plastic: Bags, microBeads/microplastics, beverage Bottles, single use food service Boxes (including polystyrene), and cigarette Butts. Collectively, the waste streams are referred to as “PB5.” The February 12 Planning Meeting objectives were as follows1:

• Narrow down and prioritize projects and related action items that have been proposed as a result of the October Planning Meeting and subsequent Working Group calls;

• Identify gaps in stakeholder engagement and individuals/organizations that can fill these gaps;

• Identify which Working Group will implement each specific action item and who will be the “Team Leader” for each item; and

• Identify resources necessary to complete project actions and establish a timeline to complete project actions.

In the words of Judith Enck, EPA Regional Administrator Region 2, “The goal of this meeting is not to build consensus, but to get results!” This meeting provided the following opportunities: 1) To discuss current themes and trends in aquatic trash prevention through presentations and facilitated discussion, 2) Working Group leaders were able to present potential project ideas to the group for input, and 3) To allow Working Groups to meet and refine their respective list of project ideas and discuss next steps.

III. Key Meeting Themes The February 12 Planning Meeting offered the opportunity for participants to engage with three presentations (Appendix B), focused on 1) New York City’s Ban on Polystyrene Foam Containers (Kathryn Garcia), 2) Plastic Pollution in the World’s Oceans (Marcus Eriksen), and 3) Plastic Packaging Reduction Efforts in California (Miriam Gordon). During the stakeholder discussions that followed, four themes surfaced that set the tone for the remainder of the Planning Meeting:

• New materials generation (focused on reusable materials) and source reduction are the most important steps in reducing marine debris;

• Negating and reversing the “throwaway culture” that was perpetuated in the 1950s is key; • Including stakeholders outside the solid waste and water realm to reach a larger audience is

desirable; and • It is important to remember that projects should be flexible and that what works in one

community or region in terms of trash reduction may not work in another.

                                                                                                               1  For full agenda see Appendix A: February 12 New Jersey/New York Trash Free Waters Partnership Planning Meeting Agenda  

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These themes, as well as the SMART (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant/Realistic/Rewarding, Timely) guidelines, helped to guide participants as they worked to narrow down the list of proposed projects ideas that were created as a result of the October Planning Meeting and subsequent Working Group calls.

IV. Proposed NJ/NY Trash Free Waters Partnership Projects/Actions The NJ/NY TFW Partnership is focused upon creating achievable, measurable and timely projects that will reduce the amount of trash entering our Nation’s waterways, with the goal of achieving zero trash loading within 10 years. The October Planning Meeting and following PB5 Working Group calls resulted in an extensive list of proposed project ideas. While each proposed project represents a needed initiative, we understand that there are a limited amount of projects that can be successfully completed in a reasonable timeframe. Due to this fact, a main goal of the February Planning Meeting was to prioritize immediately actionable projects and create a list of future projects that could be drawn upon as time and resources allow. The following list contains all proposed projects, broken down by PB5 Working Group. Proposed projects that have been deemed immediately actionable are highlighted in gray and have the potential to be the NJ/NY TFW projects moving forward. This focused list is not the final set of proposed actions, but instead represents the pool of projects that fit within SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant/Realistic/Rewarding and Timely) guidelines. This potential project list will be further narrowed as each individual Working Group sees fit. The final projects that come out of the next round of Working Group calls will be the “Core NJ/NY TFW Projects” that will be immediately pursued and will be accompanied by “Periphery Projects” that may be revisited at a later date. It is important to note that an Education/Messaging Working Group has been added to the PB5 structure to serve a crosscutting communication and public outreach role. This addition will be further discussed in the “NJ/NY TFW Partnership Next Steps” section of this paper. Bottles (Team Leader: Venetia Lannon)

• Hydration station subcommittee: o Explore development of a “roadmap” to initiate pilot projects and then install

hydration stations to promote reusable bottle use o Explore regional National Estuary Programs (NEP) for potential

guidance/partnership o Identify Port Authority Point of Contact for airport single-use water bottle

reduction efforts (EPA) o Engage New York Water Environment Association (NYWEA)

• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)/Upstream subcommittee: o Coordinate corporate outreach for upstream solution (EPR) with an emphasis on

thinking beyond plastic o The Plastic Disclosure Project will continue to reach out to Poland Springs

• Education subcommittee: o Develop a campaign to promote high-quality tap water to encourage reusable bottle use o New York – New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program (HEP) will publish a Trash Free

Waters article its next newsletter o National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will check what has been

posted on the Marine Debris Program blog re: bottles

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o Look to ways to educate environmental commissions and watershed groups: § Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC) will see if

Sustainable Jersey has information that could be used • Legislation/Policy subcommittee:

o NYWEA will poll MS4 communities on what kind of help they need in enacting legislation

o New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) (Albany) will begin looking into what has been done on the legislative front for plastics

Microbeads/Microplastics (Team Leader: Rebecca Ofrane)

• Sample groundwater and streams in Long Island (and other areas) to see if microplastics have made their way to ground water: o Are toxins released into soil? o Are they entering drinking water? o Are they migrating from soil back to surface water?

• Assess sewage influent and effluent in order to determine the efficacy of filtering systems: o Are some systems more impactful than others? If so, what would the cost in

dollars be to municipalities if they upgraded their systems? § Place a monetary value on positive behavior change (positive behavior

change means that municipalities will not have to upgrade their systems)

• Implement a public outreach campaign that utilizes factsheets to leverage public support and action to engage dentists and dental associations

• Engage educators and kids in schools, estuary programs, and nonprofits to reduce the use of products that contain microplastics (positive behavior change): o Focus on personal hygiene items that contain microbeads o Leverage apps like Beat the Microbead o Teach people how to measure their plastic footprint o Plan demonstration using samples of microbeads and make beads more tangible

to adults/children • Predict where the next wave of microplastic action will occur (after personal hygiene

products) • Ban the bead product drive:

o Raise awareness of microbead problem and provide an easy avenue for product disposal • Work with and encourage industry members to step up and make a public statement

regarding their products and utilize positive messaging for their benefit: o For personal hygiene products and whatever sector is determined to be “the next wave”

of microbead action

Butts (Team Leader: Daniel D’Agostino)

• Develop a partnership with the American Lung Association, aiming at a source reduction, and add environmental impacts to the list of reasons why people should not smoke

• Create an educational campaign for college campuses to reduce cigarette butt litter • Create a template for local legislators to use to get cigarette smoking banned from

beaches or public parks to help reduce cigarette butt litter in these areas

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• Work with CVS to promote the positive marketing associated with their product sale choices (such as their choice to stop selling cigarettes in stores) and encourage other companies to enact similar decisions

• Research the reusability and contents of electronic cigarettes • Research banning cigarette filters • Place monetary value on cost of cigarette butt clean up • Look into feasibility of reverse vending machines for cigarette butts • Gather data from relevant organizations:

o Ocean Conservancy o Americans for Nonsmoker’s Rights

• Research smart water regulation and storm drain filters that will help keep cigarette butts from entering storm drains

• Increase number of cigarette butt receptacles and encourage people to use them Boxes (Team Leader: Maureen Krudner)

• Develop food container materials reductions guidelines for local restaurants, schools and businesses to reduce disposable waste and monitor associated trash reductions

• Begin and promote an outreach campaign partnering with health and nutrition groups (Cafeteria Culture and Urban School Food Alliance) in order to make the public more aware of impacts of using plastic boxes as food containers o Research to demonstrate which food containers are healthiest and FDA-approved o Create shift away from processed and packaged foods, potentially starting with

school cafeterias, to encourage source reduction • Create certification program for business owners (restaurants/vendors) to incentivize a

reduction in disposable food-related packaging: o Replacing condiment packets, not giving out straws or disposable utensils, discounts for

customers who bring own water bottles/to-go containers • Research NY/NJ health codes that would prevent consumers from using their own reusable

food containers in restaurants: o Do local health departments follow state codes?

• Engage larger businesses/franchises at corporate level so that change can be made at local branches: o McDonalds (this also came up in Bottles working group)

• Work with Plastic Pollution Coalition: o Work to raise awareness, engage media, actors, and public figures o Leverage “Think Beyond Plastic” competition

• Work with businesses to transition away from disposable food containers: o Food truck vendors o Vendors who serve disposable cups (work toward ordinance/policy that requires them

to charge a fee) o Work with businesses to be more open about filling water bottles

Bags (Team Leader: Jennie Romer)

• Conduct surveys to see whether shoppers use plastic, paper, or reusable bags before legislation is enacted to serve as a baseline for comparison after legislation is passed: o HS students conduct surveys and EPA summer interns analyze data and create

report

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• Research to gauge the impact of plastic bag bans in locations that have enacted legislation

• Leverage the NYC plastic bag ban bill to encourage others in the tri-state area to follow suit o Letter-writing to NYC council members who do not yet support the bill o Offer support to Princeton, NJ as they strive for a bag ban

• Continually monitor the status of plastic bag bans in NJ/NY • Look at various ordinances adopted by Municipal Solid Waste Management District /

County Wide Recycling District • Speak at forums • Create list of best practices for proper plastic bag ban legislation structure:

o Learn from other states and municipalities • Think outside of the realm of plastic bags:

o Other flexible plastics, like chip/snack bags and drink pouches cause major problems too

• Engage with Sustainable Jersey • Engage with environmental justice and social justice groups • Engage with recycling industry and sanitation departments

Education/Messaging (Team Leader: Debby Lee Cohen)

• Research various levels of NJ/NY health codes regarding cross contamination when serving food/beverages in a customer’s own container and publicize results

• Communicate health impacts of PB5 • Coordinate an outreach campaign to raise awareness regarding prevalence of plastic

water bottle use o “Back to Tap” type of campaign

• Leverage social media, such as BagItNYC’s interactive Instagram GIS plastic bag mapping, to create TFW recognition and brand

Participants at the Planning Meeting also felt that there was a need to create a Data Aggregation Working Group that would focus on data aggregation and reducing research redundancy. Potential specific projects include:

• Tracking global microplastics research and sampling methods; • Developing a simplified beach cleanup data collection method based on existing NOAA

method; • Consolidating and standardizing relevant PB5 data (especially from beach cleanups) that is

already available (possibly NYC and Littoral Society data); and • Focusing on waste by brand and region in order to create location specific reductions plans.

As previously mentioned, the February Planning Meeting allowed time for discussion and idea sharing. As a result, a lengthy list of new project/action ideas was created (Appendix C). This list of project ideas could become actionable in the future, but for the time being the main NJ/NY TFW efforts should focus upon the above list of bolded project ideas. This focused list is not the final set of proposed actions, but instead represents the pool of projects that fit within SMART guidelines. This potential project list will be further narrowed as each individual Working Group sees fit. The

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final projects that come out of the next round of Working Group calls will be the “Core NJ/NY TFW Projects” and will be accompanied by “Periphery Projects” that may be revisited at a later date. V. NJ/NY TFW Partnership Next Steps A list of actionable items and potential projects was created, but they have not been adequately prioritized and delegated. This task is one that individual PB5 Working Groups will focus on addressing during their next round of calls. These prioritization-centered calls should occur within a month or two following the February meeting. A Strategy Document with projects will be created after the EPA and Syracuse EFC receive and review the core NJ/NY TFW projects proposed by the Working Groups. In order to help the Working Groups focus their actions, it is suggested that they break up into subcommittees similar to the Bottles Working group (e.g., Hydration State Subcommittee and Upstream Solutions Subcommittee). It was suggested that one, and possibly two, additional Working Groups should be created to focus on crosscutting issues such as Education/Messaging and Data Aggregation. The Education/Messaging Working Group began to form at the February Meeting and consists of members from some of the other Working Groups. The Education/Messaging Working Group is focused upon crosscutting educational strategies centered on reducing loadings of all PB5 areas. The potential Data Aggregation Working Group would ideally consist of government employees or members of organizations that have access to and the ability to aggregate data that already exists in order to reduce redundancy and share with the other Working Groups. It should be decided if this is a task that the proposed Steering Committee is responsible for completing. This Steering Committee may be composed of each of the PB5 Team Leaders and the Education Team Leader, EPA representatives and EFC staff members, and would address overlapping strategies within the Working Groups. As project ideas developed during the last meeting, it became apparent that additional stakeholders should be invited to participate in our efforts to reduce litter and aquatic trash. Suggested stakeholders to include in future discussions are:

• NYC Department of Health • NYC Department of Consumer Affairs • Ecovative Solutions • American Lung Association • As You Sow • Nutrition groups • Health Groups

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Appendix A February 12 New Jersey/New York Trash Free Waters Partnership Planning Meeting Agenda

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  Appendix B Guest Presentation Highlights Kathryn Garcia, Commissioner, NYC Department of Sanitation New York City’s Ban on Polystyrene Foam Containers

• Overview of NYC Polystyrene Foam Ban o NYC receives 280,000 tons of polystyrene per year and 90% of this is from single

use containers o Local Law 142 gave power to make determination on whether polystyrene can be

recycled • Prior to enacting the ban, NYC assessed whether it would be viable to recycle polystyrene.

The response was No – Recycling this material would require a capital investment of $2-3 million and most of the polystyrene foam NYC is producing is contaminated, which would require washing, etc., and recycling is therefore not a viable option.

• The ban will go into effect July 2015 and be enforced starting July 2016 Note: Garcia also highlighted everyday logistical challenges faced by DOS especially in the winter months (i.e. bags that freeze to the ice, etc.)

Marcus Eriksen, Director of Research and Co-Founder, 5 Gyres Institute Plastic Pollution in the World’s Oceans

• Overview of 5 Gyres Institute and data provided on the amount of small plastic particles found in research samples

• Discussion of the ecological impacts of plastic particles such as: o Animals that feed/“graze” on plastic particles o Microplastics attracting toxins (PCBs, etc.) o Plastic clothing microfibers entering the water system

• Stated that we should move away from “Pacific Garbage Patch” terminology and instead call ocean plastic pollution “Plastic Smog”

Miriam Gordon, State Director, Clean Water Action Rethinking Disposable Food and Beverage Packaging

• Overview of available data, related reports, and successful model programs. Materials are overwhelmingly (approximately 70-80% in each study presented) made up of single-use beverage and food containers. Study of a successful model: Waste reduction strategies employed by a food vendor “Docs of the Bay Food Truck”

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Appendix C NJ/NY Trash Free Waters Partnership Project/Action Ideas Generated During the February 12 Planning Meeting

• EPA/EFC can create an award program for businesses that are proactively trying to improve their practices

• Work to label microplastics as hazardous waste • Try and find NYC beach smoking ban data, both before and after ban, in order to assess its

efficacy (Steven Brautigam from NYC Department of Sanitation mentioned he could provide details on ban but did not have efficacy data available)

• Work toward passing a mandate that would charge a fee for disposable cups • Create specific customer engagement campaigns targeted at certain industries to get people

thinking about amount of waste generated by their actions (beverage and food packaging would be the “biggest bang for your buck”)

• Work toward passing an ordinance that would ban using disposable goods at sit down events • Work toward passing a ban take out packaging with any material for which there is no

recycling market in that area • Research whether smoking bans actually reduce litter • Incentivize return and recovery of fishing gear • Create program similar to Rethink Disposable

o Form jurisdictional partnerships o Promote voluntary waste reduction practices by food businesses

§ Help vendors reduce their overall waste stream and quantify the weight of waste reduced as well as cost saving achieved

o Research regulatory options o Consumer engagement o Don’t compartmentalize

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Appendix D Participants and Sources of Input for the Planning Meeting Summary Organizations:

• 5 Gyres: Marcus Eriksen • American Littoral Society: Lisa Scheppke • American Lung Association: Michael Seilback • Association and New Jersey Environmental Commissions: Nandini Checko • Barnegat Bay Partnership: Karen Walzer • Cafeteria Culture: Debby Lee Cohen, Atsuko Quirk • Citizens Campaign for the Environment; Jordan Christiansen • Clean Ocean Action- Catie Tobin • Clean Water Action- Miriam Gordon • Clean Water Action- New Jersey: Amy Goldsmith • Clearwater: Dave Conover • Columbia University: Bora Kim • Container Recycling Insitute: Susan Collins • Cornell University: Jean Bonhotal • Delaware Estuary: Lisa Wool • GrowNYC: David Hurd • Hackensack Riverkeeper: Caitlin Doran • Hutchinson River Restoration Project: Eleanor Rae • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: Keith Cialino, Nancy Wallace • Natural Resources Defense Council: Eric Goldstein • Neighbors Allied for Green Growth: Valentina Cuomo, Kay Real • New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission: Bill Shadel, Gabriela Munoz • New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP): Virginia Loftin • New York City Department of Environmental Protection(NYCDEP): Pinar Balci, Emily

Lloyd • New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY): Steven Brautigam, Kathryn Garcia • New York State Association of Reduction, Reuse and Recycling (NYSAR3): Ken Armellino • New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC): Cassandra Bauer,

Venetia Lannon, Tom Lynch • New York State Office of the Attorney General: Jennifer Nalbone • New York State Sea Grant: Amy Mandelbaum • New York State Water Resources Institute at Cornell University • New York/ New Jersey Baykeeper: Sandra Meola • Onondaga County: Madison Quinn • Onondaga Watershed Coordinator: Aimee Clinkhammer • Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission: Brian Davenport, Ashley Slagle • Plastic Pollution Coalition: Dianna Cohen • Plastic Tides: Gordon Milton • PlasticBagLaws.org: Jennie Romer • Product Stewardship Insitute: Scott Cassel • Rutgers University: Judith Weis

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• Stony Brook Mill Stone Watershed Association: Amy Soli • Syracuse University Environmental Finance Center: Laura Cardoso, Susan Fassler, Laura

Flagg, Katie Kayajanian, Mark Lichtenstein, Lisa Ruggero • Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency: Michelle Bergkamp • United Nations Environment Programme: Carla Friedrich

EPA Headquarters

• Laura S. Johnson EPA Region 2

• Robert Alvey • Christine Ash • Lynn Capuano • Dale Carpenter • Daniel D’Agostino • Judith Enck • Jeff Gratz • Claudia Gutierrez • Maureen Krudner • Judy-Ann Mitchell • Sonia Mohabir • Robert Nyman • Rebecca Ofrane • Lisa Plevin • Annette Poliwka • Irene Purdy • Phillip Ritz

EPA Region 9

• Molly Martin