Mayor Eric Adams: What's up, Eric? How are you? Commissioner, good morning. Good to see you all. Just, I want to thank our students who are here, Darelle, Scarlet, Xavier, Kamani, Mamadou, Deborah, Sharon, Rhonda, Daniel, thank you so much for using the power of education, not only in the classroom, but in life. It just goes to show you your ideas can materialize into saving our planet. I always say we have two mothers, one gave birth to us, the other sustains us, and we have to love them both. And today with this idea that these great electeds are turning into a law, you are actually going to see your idea turned into a law. And our amazing commissioner of the Fire Department is going to make sure that we keep our cities clean and it's going to be cleaner because of your idea.
And so today I am holding a hearing and bill signing for two bills that reduces plastic waste and provides support for our students with disabilities. We took on... I don't know if you feel the same way I do, but a lot of people don't know it, but I hate rats. And so I am going to make sure rats hate me. But these two bills is dealing with plastic, something that... We must have all said it, we order something in the takeout and we wonder why is all this plastic utensil... We go home, we have utensils at home. And this was just a brilliant idea. And New York, we love to order out and take out, but we are getting overburdened with the amount of plastic utensils that come with it.
And I know this sounds familiar to all of us, and our goal is to constantly look at how do we remove trash from our environment, and this is a brilliant way to do so. When you think about the millions of takeout orders we have, how many times we've gone to the restaurant and we constantly take out items and we find these items ending up in our landfills. And so Intro 559-A prohibits food service establishments, couriers who deliver food, and food delivery platforms from providing eating utensils, extra eating containers, condiment packets, and napkins for takeout and delivery orders unless requested. Your idea is now in law. This bill makes our city cleaner, more sustainable and waste free.
Now the other bill we're introducing today, which is so important, is a personal one with me, a person with dyslexia, that I talk about often. Now, entering college and higher education for any student is going to get the support they deserve. It's already daunting enough to go into schools. You're full of anxiety when you go to college, leaving your high school environment, public school environment, but now we are looking out for our children with disabilities. We are ensuring that straight out of high school they're going to have the support that they deserve. And for far too long our students with disabilities have struggled in a system that wasn't fully able to meet them where they are so they are able to go to where they want to be. And being able to succeed in college and higher education involves more than just being able to attend classes and study, and we've always treated people with that. People need different things when they go to college.
I'm now just really pleased with Intro 661. It establishes a program to provide transition services for students with disabilities entering higher education. This is an amazing bill and I'm really proud to be signing it today. We are going to make it easier for high school seniors with disabilities to enter higher learning institutions. And so I just want to thank the entire team: Speaker Adrienne Adams — she's in charge of the City Council, she's the leader there; Council Member Marjorie Velázquez, for always moving forward, you're almost like a high school student; Council Member Eric Dinowitz; and all of the advocates who pushed for this legislation to go forward.
So at this time, we're going to open up to the public before I turn it over to my two electors. Thank you. So we have two members of the public that would like to speak at this time. Is that Raine Manley? Yes, mm-hmm. Yes, yes, mm-hmm.
Raine Manley: Hi, everybody. My name is Raine Manley. I'm here on behalf of the Reusable NYC Coalition, a group of organizations and individuals who have been pushing for our city's right to a place that's free from single use waste. We've been pushing on this bill for years, so we just want to say thank you for passing this common sense legislation — Council Member Velázquez, Council Member Bottcher, Speaker Adams, Mayor Adams. New York City deeply appreciates your commitment to reusable solutions. So just a big thank you from all of us.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for your consistency. And we have heard this often in our administration, we have been trying to do this for years and finally it's getting done. That should become our mantra. Everything that people have been trying to do, we are doing. But I thank you. It's your consistency and the consistency from the crew that we are able to make these things happen. The next speaker is Eric Goldstein.
Eric Goldstein: Good morning, Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Adams: Good morning.
Goldstein: Eric Goldstein from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Two great bills today, thank you in advance. And thank you to Council Members Bottcher and Velázquez and former Council Members Espinal and Van Bramer, who originally introduced this legislation, but you are taking it over the finish line.
According to the Sanitation Department, more than 20,000 tons a year of unused, unwanted plastic food ware is discarded every year. Much of it goes to landfills and incinerators, which are environmentally troublesome and often located in poor and Black and brown communities. A lot of it ends up as litter on our streets, in our parks, in our waterways. And of course, millions of New Yorkers have a kitchen drawer filled, as you've indicated, with these plastic spoons, knives, forks, ketchup and mustard packets and all of that stuff, they feel a little guilty about throwing it out and making more waste.
This skip the stuff legislation is an answer to that problem. It's supported by the environmental groups, by solid waste reformers, by our friends in the food industry, and as you see, by our school kids throughout the city. So we thank you. We hope that we'll be here on many other occasions to advance environmentally progressive legislation. It wouldn't be bad if our next bill was the universal composting legislation, more dolphins, fewer rats. And we thank you in advance. Thank you.
Mayor Adams: Thank you.
Goldstein: Tyre Nichols, rest in peace.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you for that. And when we come to composting, no one does it better than our commissioner, Commissioner Tisch. I think 13 million pounds was removed in Queens, so we are excited about the expansion. It's been a real hit. Many people wanted to get it done, but we are getting it done. And so I really thank the commissioner for that. I want to turn it over to Council Member Marjorie Velázquez, the sponsor of Intro 559-A.
City Council Member Marjorie Velazquez: First off, I'm so happy this podium has a step up. I'm short y'all. Good morning, everyone. I'm so excited today to finally get 559-A passed, and more importantly to have the students with us. Our future is bright with them, and today we show them that an idea can and does become a law. And this idea is their future. This idea is for them. So where I come from in the Bronx, it's for us by us. So there you go, take that mantra and understand that your future is in your hands, and thank you.
When we're talking about environmental justice, our Black and brown communities often face the toughest times, especially when it comes to waste. So this helps us, and a step forward to making New York for all, especially the Bronx, the forgotten borough. So I want to thank the administration for never forgetting us. As you see today, two proud Bronxites stand next to each other, making sure that we're building New York City from the ground up. So thank you to all the advocates that were involved in 559-A, thank you to Council Member Espinal, Council Member JVB for intro-ing this last session, and certainly thank you to my colleagues Bottcher and Brannan for joining me on this. This is a big step, and thank you all. I'm looking forward to working with you, Commissioner Tisch.
Mayor Adams: Thank you.
Council Member Velazquez: Thank you.
Mayor Adams: Thank you so much. And my good friend, Council Member Eric Dinowitz, to talk about Intro 55... What is your number, Eric?
City Council Member Eric Dinowitz: 660-A.
Mayor Adams: There you go. All right —
Council Member Dinowitz: If there's one thing I know it's that number. For months... I'm sorry if I'm too tall with this step up. So good morning everyone. This is a very exciting morning for me and for I think so many students throughout New York City. For years before I served in the City Council, I was a public school teacher here in New York City in our high schools teaching children with disabilities. And year after year, my students with IEPs would graduate and go off to college, and all of the supports that they had through their IEP, all of the accommodations they received every year were pulled away from them. And they either had to start the entire process of getting accommodations over again, getting those supports again, or simply didn't have the opportunity to have them. Some of them struggled in school more than they should have, and some of them didn't get to make it through college.
And with this bill, with this bill being signed today, we are able to provide our students with disabilities the transition services that they deserve and they need and give them every opportunity to succeed in higher education. So of course, I want to thank, first and foremost, my wife who's here —
Mayor Adams: (Inaudible.)
Council Member Dinowitz: She didn't want attention, but... My staff who's here, Adam, (inaudible) and Jenna, and from the Council staff, Regina. And I think on a more personal note, mayor, I think more than anything, you speaking so openly and honestly about dyslexia I think does so much for our young students who struggle to even recognize in themselves that they have a disability and confront and advocate for themselves. And I think you taking every opportunity to talk about it, and our young people seeing the mayor of New York City openly talking about having a learning disability does wonders for them and is going to set us on a path forward where our students with disabilities can continue to thrive. So thank you and thank you to my friends and to the advocates and everyone who supported this legislation.
Mayor Adams: Thank you, thank you. Thank you. So we're going to sign the bill … Thank you.