Scott Stringer wants to clean up New York City

New York City kicked off a “trash revolution” last year with the introduction of trash bins with lids. The rollout of residential and commercial trash containerization has been filed by some in the category of harder-than-it-looks municipal improvements, and therefore one that Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has actually made some progress on.

But former New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer is targeting sanitation as an area with far too little progress under this administration with what he calls a “10-Year Waste Management Modernization Plan.”

Stringer’s sanitation plan is one of several policy priorities he’s announcing as he makes his run for mayor official on Thursday. The former comptroller and former mayoral candidate has been fundraising for a year – he formed a committee to explore a run last January – and has participated in several mayoral forums already alongside most of the rest of the crowded Democratic primary field. As of this week, he’s raised just under $800,000 and has been awarded public matching funds that put him at just shy of $3 million. He’s shaped up decently in a couple of recent polls – coming second to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who isn’t even in the race yet – including one reportedly conducted for his own campaign that landed him at 13% of Democratic voters, behind Cuomo with 33%.

Thursday’s announcement makes Stringer’s run official, and puts some meat on the bones of his campaign.

“I think the people supporting me want a reformer,” Stringer told City & State this week. “They want someone who’s going to get this city back to where it has to be. That means reforming the NYPD top to bottom. That means making sure that we build a government of the best and the brightest, we get rid of the rascals that are about themselves. And I have a proven track record of being a reformer who gets results.”

A mentee of Rep. Jerry Nadler who served in the Assembly on the Upper West Side before becoming Manhattan borough president and then city comptroller, Stringer ran in the 2021 Democratic primary that Adams eventually won. Stringer had the support of a number of liberal and progressive groups and figures in that cycle, but his support faltered after he was accused of sexual misconduct by a woman who worked for his public advocate campaign in 2001. Stringer has said that he had a consensual relationship with the woman and continues to fight the allegation with a defamation lawsuit. He said he doesn’t remember a second woman who came forward with misconduct allegations dating to the 1990s. He finished the primary race in fifth place.

Stringer’s official launch this week puts him alongside other contenders who are slowly starting to launch actual policy plans. Under his sanitation plan, new construction and major renovations would be required to incorporate modern infrastructure such as recycling and composting chutes, trash compactors and space for communal trash bins. It would also shift the city to using more communal on-street garbage containers rather than individual bins for all buildings – a move the plan suggests would lead to more efficient collection and reduce clutter, as well as just look nicer. Where on-street bins don’t work, Stringer proposes piloting semi-underground containers. (A 2023 Department of Sanitation report found such containers are not scalable in the city.) Stringer also suggests expanding containerized recycling and composting, and incentives for buildings that use on-site composting. The plan proposes using AI-powered sorting technology at recycling facilities, building new composting facilities in neighborhoods around the city, upgrading collection trucks and investing in waste-to-energy plants.

Parts of the plan still need to be ironed out, Stringer acknowledges. Specific benchmarks are not yet included on the 10-year timeline. The campaign envisions funding for the improvements proposed would come through efficiency savings and grants, but it’s not clear if or how much additional city funds would be needed. “While there may be much-needed capital investments in 2025 to ensure the systems run smoothly and efficiently, and we will get into the exact budgeting when the time comes and we have better visibility on the state of the current infrastructure, New Yorkers should rest assured that we’ll save money over the medium and long term through smarter collection systems, reduced landfill dependency, and federal grants for sustainable materials management,” campaign spokesperson Sam Raskin said. The plan also includes mandating “Extended Producer Responsibility” – a system other states have used under which waste producers like e-commerce giants have to pay fees for packaging waste.

Though no fan of rats himself, Stringer doesn’t think the city should tackle its rat problems with the rat czar position that the Adams administration created – he thinks a well-funded Department of Sanitation can meet those needs. “These rats, they walk up to me and they ask me if I’m running for mayor. They have no fear,” Stringer said. “It’s clear that our Sanitation Department needs some help and some new, bold ideas, and that’s why I wanted to release this early.”