Sustainable South Bronx

The Solid Waste and Energy program at SSB aims to address the problems associated with the unjust clustering of polluting facilities that receive waste in all its forms, including rotting garbage, construction and demolition debris, fill material, waste water, and sewage sludge. It also works to address wasteful energy consumption and dirty energy generation that is located in the South Bronx. SSB tackles these problems through a combination of advocacy activities aimed at winning increased community accountability for polluters, more protective government policies, and implementing environmentally sound and community friendly alternatives to current practices.

Truck-based transfer stations and garbage equity
The South Bronx handles a full 25% of New York City's waste and has 15 waste transfer stations located within a one-mile radius. As part of the Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods (OWN) SSB forcefully advocates to re-distribute NYC's garbage equitably throughout all parts of NYC, and to make garbage export less noxious, by eliminating long haul diesel trucks and replacing them with barge and rail export options. SSB also works to get the best protections available for stations located in the South Bronx, and to establish benefit projects that serve to mitigate negative environmental impacts.

Zero Waste Campaign
If city-wide garbage equity is important for shorter-term reduction of impacts from waste, the mid-term elimination of the root cause is Zero Waste. If New York City plans and invests appropriately, by 2025 it could have virtually no waste in need of export and it could create jobs and save money in the process. SSB is a part of a city-wide coalition that helped to create the report Reaching for Zero: A Citizen's Guide for Zero Waste, which can we make this a link to http://www.consumersunion.org/other/zero-waste/ which lays out an action plan for the City to achieve that goal and which influenced the City's Solid Waste Management Plan.

Bronx Recycling Industrial Park (BRIP)
SSB, in partnership with Green Worker Cooperatives, Pratt Instituted Center for Community and Environmental Development, Sustainable Enterprise, and the Hugo Neu Corporation, is working to develop a center for recycling; recycling-based manufacturing; and reuse industries, at the Oak Point site in Hunts Point. The BRIP, essentially a collection of businesses in which the waste and by-products of one business would be the raw material for another one, would reduce the generation and export of waste from The Bronx, assist in shutting down existing truck-based construction & demolition waste transfer stations in the South Bronx and provide 300-500 quality jobs to South Bronx residents.

New York Organic Fertilizer Company (NYOFCo)
NYOFCo is a private facility that processes 50% of New York City's sewage sludge into fertilizer pellets. SSB works to hold NYOFCo accountable for the offensive odors it emits into the community over a 2-mile radius and to secure protections to limit the release of toxic chemicals and pathogens that its stacks emit.

Hunts Point's Sewage Sludge Treatment Plant aka Water Pollution Control Plant
Occupying 39 acres along Hunts Point's waterfront, the sewage sludge treatment plant is undergoing an expansion by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. SSB is helping to oversee the expansion and advocates for changes and mitigations that take into account the impact of the current facility, acknowledge the irreplaceable resources taken by the expansion, and support the priorities of the community.

Power plants and power plant alternatives
The South Bronx is a constant target for the siting of new, polluting power generation facilities. In 2001, the New York Power Authority fast-tracked two 79.9 mw power plants into the Port Morris community which began violating their permits shortly after beginning operations. SSB was an active opponent to these power plants and through our participation in Communities United for Responsible Energy (CURE) has won city-wide and local mitigations from NYPA. Currently, a power plant developer named Steven Smith is proposing to build a 1075 megawatt plant at the Oak Point site in Hunts Point. SSB has helped to develop an alternative vision for the site (see Bronx Recycling Industrial Park above). In addition, projects aimed at energy conservation, such as greenroofs, help to reduce the need for new energy generation.