Sustainable South Bronx: A Model for Environmental Justice

In the South Bronx of today, we handle more than 30 percent of New York City’s waste and process up to 70 percent of its sewage sludge; we have a sewage treatment plant, four power plants, and the emissions of 60,000 diesel truck trips that move the region’s food and garbage through our neighborhood every week.

The South Bronx is not alone. Communities like it across the nation and around the world are point sources for the greenhouse gases that everyone wants to curb now. The truck routes supporting hyperconsumption and the waste that consumption brings, the power plants, the chemical plants, the refineries, the waste-treatment facilities are all concentrated on top of our poor citizens, often communities of color.