Community leaders joined City Council candidate of the 43rd district, Nancy Tong (D-Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach) in criticizing initiatives that target the 5 cent recycling bill last week.
Warren Chin, executive director of the Asian Community United Society, called out Republican candidate, Liam McCabe’s Neighborhood Beautification Plan in an open letter, claiming it unfairly targets residents who use the bottle bill as a means to make ends meet.
“I understand many candidates have their concern in regard to recycling bottles and cans,” said Chin. “I think this is a wake up call for state legislature to start to make some change to this old law. But unless a better solution is proposed that can both take care of the full-time recycler and protecting the environment, the current law should stay as it is.”
In his plan, posted on Facebook last Wednesday, McCabe proposed to end the bottle bill and instead hire residents to clean up areas around collecting sites in which he claims is responsible for the “most friction and leading to the most mess” in the district. Team members will work from 1 – 3 hours daily to help clean up sidewalks and work to create green spaces in the borough.
“My plan gives people a chance to make some money in a way that it is healthier for them and for the neighborhood as a whole, than collecting bottles and cans,” wrote McCabe.
In addition to pointing out that the bill targets bottle collectors trying to make end meet, Warren, in his open letter, pointed out that door-to-door campaigning can also be considered a form of trespassing.
“Moreover, your campaign also has been trespassing on people’s home as well,” wrote Chin. “Most of the signatures in your petitions from your campaign staff are [obtained] by trespassing people’s home when they knock on people’s doors, uninvited and without appointment.”
McCabe’s Neighborhood Beautification Plan comes on the heels of another initiative opposing the bottle bill. Two weeks ago, John Quaglione, another of the four Republican candidates running for the District 43 seat, issued a press release calling to ban the bottle bill. Quaglione acknowledged the bottle bill is under state and not city jurisdiction, but promised to author a Home Rule Message to the state legislature to retract the bill.
Tong, the only Asian-American and Democratic woman candidate running for the seat, originally opposed Quaglione’s plan two weeks ago in a KCP article on the topic. Tong also responded to community leader Chin’s open letter.
“In response to the 5 cent deposit for beverage containers, my stance on it remains clear. It is necessary for our community to keep streets litter free,” said Tong. “The deposit does not count as a tax or a fee, as residents can easily if they so wish return the beverage containers for their deposit back. It essentially curbs littering.”
“What I think individuals, including myself are against, is trespassing,” added Tong. “This issue is something that needs to be solved by ticketing repeat offenders who trespass into people’s property to collect bottles. Yet I want to make clear that bottle bill should not be lumped together with trespassing.”
