NEW YORK—In March, the mayor’s office issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for plans to build a waste-to-energy facility. The RFP was open to any location within the city or 80 miles in the surrounding area, but Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island was the primary focus.
Fresh Kills stopped functioning as a waste disposal site in 2001 and local residents decried the move to reopen the site for waste treatment purposes.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg took Fresh Kills off the table as a location on Friday. A preliminary study conducted for the Department of Sanitation and the New York City Economic Development Corporation noted that odor and dust are likely environmental impacts of a waste-to-energy facility.
The city is exploring alternatives to incineration to turn trash into a renewable energy source within the city, as exporting the waste is costly.
“As the city pursues new technologies to reduce waste, we cannot afford to take one step backward toward the bad old days of Fresh Kills Landfill,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn in a statement. “Any such facility would have to go through the Council’s Uniform Land Use Review Process, and I can assure New Yorkers that we will not consider any proposal that threatens the environmental rights of any community.”
