After six years on the job, Kathryn Garcia is considering a mayoral run. In an exit interview, she discourages layoffs, updates waste zone timing and says “zero waste” by 2030 is likely unattainable.
New York Department of Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia is stepping down as the city continues to work through many pandemic challenges at a potential inflection point in its waste history.
Since being appointed to run the nation’s largest sanitation department (DSNY) in March 2014, managing approximately 10,000 employees, Garcia said she has worked to ensure “a lot of pieces of different puzzles really came together” for city waste infrastructure. This included overseeing the construction of delayed marine transfer stations, signing major disposal contracts, supporting the passage of long-debated legislation, making internal systems paperless, launching a procurement program to support businesses owned by people of color and women, and more.
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But she has also seen setbacks in her tenure, with progress toward a 2030 “zero waste” goal hard to achieve in recent years and what was once the nation’s largest curbside organics collection program frozen amid $106 million in budget cuts. A major plan to reshape the city’s commercial waste sector has also been delayed multiple times due to the pandemic’s economic disruptions. Now, the threat of even more cuts is looming in the months ahead.
Garcia tendered her resignation to term-limited Mayor Bill de Blasio last week, calling cuts and layoffs at the agency so far “unconscionable,” according to multiple reports. Now, she may run for mayor in 2021 and would draw on a long resume at multiple city agencies, beginning with her days as a DSNY intern.
Waste Dive recently spoke with the commissioner ahead of her final week on the job.
The following interview has been edited for brevity.
