 All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Today, we are very proud to announce the launch of a citywide curbside organics program, the largest in the nation. And reusing food scraps is not new. Not new at all. The irony is how long it's taken us to get here. For centuries, every society around the world understood the value of food waste. It's long been an important fertilizer allowing us to grow more food. However, our smart modern societies not only devalued food waste, we actually began paying others to take it off our hands, to send it to other communities backyards, costing us millions and generating carbon emissions. And today, we're getting back to our common sense roots, led by a refreshing common sense mayor and a mayor who stands apart for his focus and understanding on the integral role of food and food conservation and what it means for our individual and our collective health. And with our amazing operational executor, commissioner of sanitation, Jessica Tish, at the helm of the Department of Sanitation and with the critical daily work of the women and the men of the Department of Sanitation, we are launching the nation's largest curbside organics program. And it's common sense for many reasons. It's curbside. We're not asking people to fill out multiple forms and wait for every alternate day to set out a specific bin. It's integrated into your normal trash routine pickup. It's common sense because it makes fiscal sense. It's the most cost effective program to date. It's common sense because it takes a third of our trash out of our trash stream and away from rats. We can kill every rat. That's helpful, but we have to cut off their food source. That's a better way. And it's common sense because instead of paying other people to dispose of our valuable asset, food scraps, we're using it ourselves to compost, make biosolids and renewable energy. It's a big step for New York City after a history of incremental starts and stops. And so to introduce our nonstop mayor, I have Ingrid Martin, our chief advisor. It's also common sense because we have a great common sense deputy mayor, Mirish Joshi, who was one of the anchors to ensure that our great common sense commissioner who I had the pleasure to work with to close the deal to bring it to fruition is at the helm. So I was asked to share a little story with you. I was one of those who just throw my food anywhere. I didn't really care about recycling or paper goods, bottle goods, food scraps. But in working with our mayor from our days back in the Senate, all the way to our tenure here and under the leadership of our sanitation commissioner, I have been brought to the light. I don't know another way to say it. And I understand the value and the importance of composting. I am excited about this program going throughout all five of our boroughs. I am excited about it coming to my neighborhood in Prospect, Liffords Gardens in Brooklyn. So Brooklyn, get ready, be prepared. We cannot allow Queens to out do us. So it's a great program when we worked really hard to have happened in our city. And it happened as a result of the dedicated and students of our 110th Mayor, Honorable Eric Adams. Thank you. Good point. And I think your story is really something that we often don't acknowledge. You know, how did we communicate with people to in a language and in a conversation that they understand? Because even as we rolled out these initiatives, we rolled out in a monotone language as though everyone received it the same way. Many communities like Crown Heights, where you are from, Brownsville, Besties, South Jamaica, Queens, for far too long, even in NYCHA, they were not allowed to have farmers markets. We were overpassing them in a recycling program. We cannot have a language that just communicates to certain parts of the city and ignore others. That's why people are reluctant to embrace these concepts because they don't feel as though we are speaking to them. And, you know, when you have a highly educated person like Ingrid, a homeowner, is saying that, okay, I don't feel as though this is speaking to me. And for her to see that, okay, this program is speaking to me, we're going to get other Ingrids. We're going to get other people who have been historically left out of this process because of what Commissioner Tish is doing and how she's communicating. She's communicating in plain simple language that people understand. Today, we signed a bill that was introduced by Councilperson Velasquez. And some of the advocates stood up and talked about the items that we receive and takeaways that we could discard. And the advocate stood up and she stated for years, we've been trying to accomplish this, but this administration has gotten it done. That has been a universal tone that you don't hear often when people report what we're doing. Over and over again, people are saying, we have been trying to do this for years. We've been trying to do this for years. Just go back and do an analysis as some of our announcements. And you pull out everyday people saying, we've been trying to do this for years. No one wanted to listen. And finally, we have an administration that is actually not only listening, but we're getting it done. The largest composting program on the planet, on the planet. And it's because we're willing to take these steps. We started off in Queens, 13 million pounds. Commissioner Tish was clear that we're going to get it done right away. We're not going to sit around and just over analyze the process. We're going to be smart in how we're doing it. And she was able to accomplish that. But we're going even further. By 2024, New York City residents will have access to clean, convenient, curbside compost pickup from the Department of Sanitation. First time ever, many people have tried this. You got it done. You were able to accomplish it and it's really commendable. And for more than two decades of past administrations, great mayors like Mayor Bloomberg has attempted to do this. He did some amazing things around and learning from what other mayors have attempted to do, we built on that so we can actually get it done. Until now, New Yorkers had to bring their compost to a neighborhood drop-off location. Just was extremely not that convenient. I'll deal with, you know, all they had to deal with a one collection program or a once-in-a-while collection program. This was just was really unacceptable to New Yorkers. So as a result, we've witnessed a mountains of stinky trash bags on our sidewalks. And it was just not working. And we wanted to make sure that we were successful. So by the end of next year, New Yorkers in all five boroughs will be able to challenge like they did in Queens, as Ingrid said, Brooklyn's not going to lose. They're going to be able to place their yard waste and food scraps out on the curb year round. It would be the largest as I stated, composting in the nation. And it is a win for New Yorkers. And it's a win for all of us. The only one that loses are those rats. And you may not know it, but I hate rats. And our goal is to zero in on whatever it takes to address that. Separating food waste. We keep rats and trash bags off our streets. This is extremely important to keep moving forward. And we're saying loud and clear that this city deserves better and taking steps incrementally in each area that feeds our trash problem and our landfills is what we are focusing on. This this is an important initiative that we started last year in Queens. And now 8.5 million New Yorkers are going to be able to participate if we were able to remove 13 million pounds out from Queens. Imagine what we're going to do citywide. And that's where this energy is coming from. And being focused on this black goal, fertilizer, food waste, turning it into a way for people to be able to use it to grow healthy food. This is what Mother Nature always intended when she stated let's recycle that which is trash can become that which grows healthy food and feed us in the future. And we're going to return the composting to parks, plantains, and personal gardens. People will be able to pick this up for free. And of those who love gardening or growing urban farms have become extremely successful in this city. This is an opportunity to participate in that. So this is a real win. It's a real win for all of us and even the advocates, Julie and I, we've been talking about stuff like this for years. You have been a real partner and we cannot say thank you enough. And again, I want to thank the commissioner for a job well done. She's really continued to knock it out the park. Thank you. Now I want to introduce our sanitation commissioner, Jessica Tisch. Good afternoon. When I started at DSNY, Mayor Adams laid out for me his vision for composting in New York City. He didn't want just any old curbside composting program. He went much bolder than that. Something effective, something cost effective, something easy, something big, something built for everyone and every corner of the city. Not a niche program designed only for the truest of the true believers, but a mass market one. That is why this administration has developed a new model for curbside composting. Positioning it as a service that we offer New Yorkers rather than acting like placing composting at the curb is a favor they're doing for us. As part of that, we remove complex restrictions and requirements, signing up, opting in, expressing interest, ordering a specific type of bin. We made it simple. Just give us anything from your kitchen or anything from your garden in our bin or in your bin once a week on your recycling day and we'll come pick it up. We like to say if you cook it or you grow it, you can throw it and you know what? It worked. In the borough-wide program we started last October eight districts in Queens each diverted more material than park slope. Think about that. The beating heart of the composting belt where they've had curbside service for over a decade being outperformed by more than half of the districts in Queens and one district in particular Queens 12 which is Jamaica and St. Albans, they diverted more material than the entire seven district legacy program combined. Three times the material on average at less than one-third the cost per district compared to the old legacy composting programs. We knew that New Yorkers wanted to do the right thing and that if we just made it easy they would. If we talked to them less about reducing greenhouse gas and more about reducing green ooze, less about CO2, more about PU, less about methane, and more about giving rats hunger pain. Yatsy, this spring service restarts in Queens following a brief winter pause and becomes year round. There will be no further seasonal breaks in any borough. This fall service begins in Brooklyn and the following spring trucks begin rolling in Staten Island and the Bronx and finally on October 7th 2024 service will come right here to Manhattan completing the rollout of the first ever citywide curbside composting program. On that day the rats will be cowering in fear but there is more. Today we lay out a holistic approach to getting the rat food out of the black bags and out of the landfills once and for all. To that end we have just completed installation of 250 of our popular orange compost, smart composting bins where New Yorkers can drop off material 24-7 using an app to find and open the bins. Even while installation of these bins was ongoing, many of them had been regularly filled with pristine compostable material. We have placed them in a number of traditionally underserved communities including Bushwick Bed-Stuy, Washington Heights, Harlem, Castle Hill, Parkchester, Highbridge, the area around the Queensbridge houses and the North Shore of Staten Island. And with Manhattan receiving curbside collection service last today we are announcing that we are going to add an additional 150 bins across that borough from a small pilot of 25 bins in Astoria to 400 bins citywide in about one year. I can also reaffirm that we are on track to be conducting curbside composting service at every DOE school by the end of next school year. Finally we are announcing a special thank you to the people of Queens who helped prove this program to be a success. This spring all Queens residents will be able to pick up 40 pound bags of New York City compost for use in their yards and their gardens, at least one event per Queens community board. DSNY will continue to conduct more compost give back events in every borough as the program proceeds where the material that residents put out for composting is given back to them the following year as usable soil. Every piece of this holistic wraparound approach we are announcing today is a huge win for cleanliness, a huge win for sustainability. Any single piece of it would have been huge on its own but this mayor wanted composting to be easy in every corner of the city and now it will be. Do you want to use a bin? Next we'll hear from Julie Tai from the League of Conservation Voters. Thank you so much. I am one of those people who I am a true believer. Thank you all know that. I composted in my backyard when I lived in Albany. It was very easy, no rats, I promise. I'm Julie Tai, I'm president of the New York League of Conservation Voters. We're a statewide advocacy organization. I'm really happy to be here today with the mayor and the commissioner and the deputy mayor, special advisor, senior advisor to show our strong support for citywide curbside composting program. It's been a long time coming, you talked about that, it's been going back where we've been talking about the last few mayors. We know that this mayor actually is getting stuff done here. We're not just talking about it, we're not just having a plan about it, we're not talking about rhetoric, we're talking into real action. So we are excited. Now we asked during the campaign, as you mentioned, when you were in the when you were president, as you took office, I talked to the commissioner the first week she was in office and you listened, right? You are taking action to make that happen and we're really excited to see this move forward. Since the rollout can't happen overnight, we're really excited to see the expansion of the bins so that people can drop them off. They're really popular, personally. I'm using the Hudson River Park has some facilities that they make available on their park near the intrepid, that's where I go. Jeff asked me earlier if I compost, I do. We know that they're a big hit, as we already heard. It is really important to make sure that people are educated about it, that they know this is not just about methane, but I'm going to tell you it is also about methane. We know that we produce over a million tons of food waste every single year and it's four percent of the city's greenhouse gas emissions. That's 11 pounds of food waste per week per household. That's going to go a long way to maybe satisfy our rap population, but it's really bad for the environment. It's really bad for garbage. We know that when this material ends up in landfills, it releases methane and that greenhouse gas is three times more potent than carbon dioxide. For your kids out there who want to fight climate change, this is an easy way for you to take action personally. We make sure that we're getting that food waste and that yard waste out of our waste stream. We'll put it in a much better position for composting. I'm really happy to see that we're going to be giving that away because it is it is not a waste. It is a resource that we can and should be using. I mean it also can be turned into renewable energy just like DEP is doing at their anomeric digesters in Newtown Creek working with waste management to take food waste and sewage sludge. So that we're not only enriching our environment in our soils, but we're also creating new renewable fuels and fighting climate change. So on behalf of the New York League of Conservation Voters, I want to thank Mayor Adams for your leadership on this issue. To our fellow New Yorkers, we're confident this program is going to bring out about positive change to our city and our environment. And finally to the Mayor's least favorite New Yorkers, to our rats. The message is clear. No more free lunch, no more open dining. So thank you. A few questions. Commissioner Mead. Hey Mayor, I wanted to ask, I know rats keep getting brought up and it might have been too short of a trial to actually get any data, but is there any information that shows because of the composting program between the growth reduction of rats? A question. Do we have any data? That's a good question, Kate. You always ask good questions. Katie, I think it was, it was, the program was three months, so I'd like to look at it over a longer time period to really get meaningful results for you. So that's actually something that we've been discussing with the Deputy Mayor is like once we have more data looking at hope to see decline in rat complaints. I see a lot of rats and a lot of, I don't know if there's a larger plan for composting within restaurants because that... Yes, there are a number of rules that have kicked in over the past two years around requiring restaurants and food service businesses, a lot of different types of restaurants and food services businesses to separate out their organic waste. Obviously, when the commercial waste zones are implemented, that will make policing that much more straightforward. Thank you. Things that a lot of advocates in composting call for is mandating composting. Other cities that have composting programs rolled that after a couple of years. Is it something that you're planning to do? I know, you know, people seem to get used to it, but I can say that's really a way to make a dent and make people take part in this. Yeah, and we, it was in mandatory in Queens and we have an extremely successful program and so this is the first phase. Let's get New Yorkers used to it and we're seeing a participation that we were looking for and then as times move on, if we want to require it to be mandated, we would do so. But clearly, we're seeing the results that we want because I think New Yorkers want to do the right thing. I think Ingrid Comm is really touch-based. I know the community of South Jamaica Queens, I grew up there. For South Jamaica Queens to be leading the way, it's clear that we are speaking to people and not at people and I think that if we just automatically say we're going to mandate it, you know, people, you know, New Yorkers, whenever you say something is mandated, they start, you know, just responding differently. So we're doing a good job. 13 million pounds was great. So let's, we're going to continue to map it out. I trust Commissioner Tish, she got this. She knows what she's doing. As you pointed out, other mayors have tried to make progress on this issue and it failed. Come budget time. Composting is often on the chopping block. Are you promising now that that's not going to happen looking forward with this? When it comes down to budget, I can't promise anything. The asylum seekers this year, 1.4 billion. Next fiscal year, 2.8 billion. I cannot promise anything. I don't know what's going to happen at the border. I said it before and I'm going to continue to say, and I'm hoping, I'm happy to see a lot of my colleagues are now joining me. We need to, we need the federal government to get involved. This is going to impact every service New Yorkers receive. Every service. My goal is not to hurt those services that we could use to benefit our city, but everything we must look at. I have to continue to manage this real budget crisis we're having and it's being aggravated by the assignment crisis. I just want to ask the percentage of compost movement you guys want to Okay, different. I almost wanted to defer to you, since it's another crisis. Okay, to defer it. It's either a question for you mayor or the commissioner. When I went on the composting app, I noticed that it encourages people to use bags to throw out the compost with, including plastic bags. And I'm wondering if the sanitation department had a way separate out the plastic or doesn't it taint the compost? No, it doesn't taint the compost before it goes into the composting facility or the anaerobic digester. It's taken out of the bags. So we, it's separated. I assume once people start composting, it becomes regularly and the bins will fill up. I'm sure their bins at home will fill up. It seems like it's only weekly. Is there a plan if there's a lot of compost to increase the amount of service? Because then obviously racks will come. So is that a part of the plan? So that would be a great problem to have. I will be very happy today. I have that problem and I hope to have it. I think that that's why we're not just announcing curbside composting today. That's also where the smart bins come in. The smart bins are available 24 seven. They're collected regularly every day. So there are different options if you want to get rid of your compost material sooner than your weekly collection. There's also a number of green markets. Like it's not just the bins. There are hundreds of places across the city and in every community district where you can go and drop off your composting. So we just finished deploying 250 bins. That's complete as of last week. And they are across all five boroughs. And today we've announced that we're doing 150 more in Manhattan because Manhattan will be the last borough to get the curbside composting service. Let's see the app. I want to play with the app. We're going to monitor that. Okay. Yes. And you want to take your compost? These are my vegan scraps. This is right here. Rats are attracted to. And I'm going to hit unlock bin. What's in there? Is that your lunch? Done. Well, for this demonstration you're going to see them outside. How much can they hold inside? Enough that the bins don't get full regularly. So we have to collect from them and busy locations every day. This is the way you want to open it. Okay. So you don't have to touch it. Exactly. You ain't around because the press is going to be talking trash in a moment. And I need you to be here with me. So if I got to take that avocado and throw that bird of debt. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Mayor, what did you ask President Biden yesterday about the migrant crisis? Did you ask him for money? And what did he say? And then also separately, Huckle has her budget presentation today. She said that the state is going to be providing a billion dollars. But then the city and the feds are also going to be on the look for a bird. I'm not sure how much that is. How much are you anticipating the city will have to pay? Oh, we, you know, the budget proposal is new. It just came out. We're analyzing it. And, you know, Jock will give us an analysis of exactly of what it would be. And I shared with the president that what's big for me is the coordination. Having someone that's going to coordinate the entire effort that we have to deal with this crisis. And that was my primary conversation. And, you know, he stated that, you know, we need to sit down and, you know, collaborate on how to get this done. Yeah, we, the Omnibus bill passed with the 800 million. We don't know exactly what we are going to receive. We will look at that and make the determination, they'll make the determination, but we we're sure there's going to be some federal funding, but we want to get the issue resolved completely. Again, we're looking at the budget. Just, you know, just it was just recently released. We're looking at it and we'll come back and give a statement on exactly the governor's budget. And a question for you. Today as part of Governor's proposed budget, she proposed that New York City contribute more to the FDA. 500 million each year for access or ride and discount fairs for students. What did you think? We are looking at the governor's budget. We're going to analyze and give a statement on it once we dig into exactly what she's proposing. You think the city should contribute to the MTA's budget? I'll look at it and analyze it. We're refusing to go to the Herc, Brooklyn. It's not a standoff. We had over a thousand people who were in the hotel of the overwhelming number of them move. From my analysis, about 30 are still there. And I'm not even sure they're migrants. There are some agitators that just really I think is doing a disservice to the migrants and doing a disservice to the children and families. We're moving into the hotels that we are moving children and families into the hotel. Single adult males all over the city are living in congregate settings. Single adult males, children and families. We don't want to put them in congregate settings. And when I went to the Brooklyn cruise terminal, because you all know me, I like to go on the ground, I heard all of these complaints about no heat, no hot water, no food. When I went there and saw that clean bathrooms, heat, warm, some people were wearing shorts in size, and the migrants and asylum seekers, what they said to me, they said, thank you, Mr. Mayor, we would like to work. And that's why I'm pushing to make sure that they're able to work. We have, we did not hear one person there saying that they did not want to be there. And then yesterday, Commissioner Castro, some people were reluctant because of what they were hearing from some of the agitators, that they were going to be shipped out, and that's why we were taking them there. Commissioner Castro said, come join me, you come see for yourself. Are you thinking about changing anything in order to make more people approve of what you're doing? Listen, I haven't seen the poll, and you and I know polls go up and down, up and down, and we're just going to continue to do what we do, and that's produced for New Yorkers. I am really pleased with the administration and where they are, and we're going to continue to stay focused, no distractions, and grind. You heard that on the campaign trail, didn't you? Well, and I think that you are right. When you do an analysis that it is just unbelievable that we have an immigration policy that states for six months, you come into a city and you can't take a job for six months, and even after that six months, there's still a process. It's just unfair, and so we're saying that New York, Chicago, Houston, Washington, and the other cities, El Paso, that you have to pick up this tab for six months. Now, some of you are a long way from being 18, but can you imagine 18 to 24 year old men being told you could do nothing for six months? That's just unfair, and what we are calling for Congress to do, particularly our Republican congressional delegation, is to come with some real comprehensive immigration reform, but we need to make some real decisions right now, and I think that we should allow people to work, and some are working, and we're not receiving those tax benefits, so it's just a lose-lose for us, and that is why we're advocating for it.