City, company initiatives reduce Hunts Point truck pollution, waste

Redirecting unused food to people who need it and then the inedible food to regional farms for composting is a big way to better a company’s sustainability scorecard.

At Hunts Point Produce Market in the South Bronx, that’s no small project.

Of course, nothing is small there, and that goes for the environmental impact of all the transportation required to move that food from the source to the middleman to consumers’ mouths.

Trucks move nearly 90% of New York City’s freight, compared to the national average of 70%, according to Freight NYC, an Economic Development Council plan to develop a freight system that is modern, environmentally sustainable and resilient.

That means more than 30,000 trucks passing over the George Washington Bridge daily, with some of the highest concentrations of truck congestion around Hunts Point, Charles Platkin, executive director of the Hunter College New York City Food Policy Center, told New York City Council Committee on Economic Development Nov. 20, 2019.

The 15,000 trucks that make the trip to and from the Distribution Center — Hunts Point Wholesale Produce Market, Hunts Point Cooperative Meat Market and New Fulton Fish Market — daily contribute to the significant air pollution in the Hunts Point area, Platkin said in his 2019 testimony.

The rate of hospitalizations for asthma in adults in Hunts Point is twice the city-wide average, according to the New York City Panel on Climate Change 2019 Report.

Progress has been made, however.

To combat the heavy pollution from truck traffic, the South Bronx Greenway was built to provide a protected path along the busy truck route. 

The Greenway also attempts to improve the quality of life for residents by adding new bikeways, parks and a safe connection between the waterfront parks and residential areas.

Then there’s the truck program.

“The Hunts Point Clean Trucks Program aims to decrease air pollution by replacing or retrofitting older, polluting diesel trucks with 2010 and newer Environmental Protection Agency emission-compliant vehicles,” Platkin told the council.

The program has handled more than 592 diesel trucks since it launched in 2012, cutting back on dangerous truck emissions in the Hunts Point area, according to the program.

There’s been a 96% decrease in particulate matter resulting from the old trucks and an 83% reduction of nitrogen oxide from the baseline of the old trucks, according to the program.

S. Katzman Produce started converting its diesel storage vans to electric about 10 years ago because of the high asthma rate in the Bronx, Stefanie Katzman said. 

“And we had electricity run from all our doors so when they come in here, we plug them in. We have about 100 storage vans we cycle through,” she said as she stood in her warehouse by the docks. 

“There are spots here we turn over five or six times a night. These don’t leave the market.”

In the Katzman transportation department, 30-35 trucks deliver six days a week, she said.

The conversion from diesel to electric was one of the biggest, most expensive sustainability initiatives the company has done, but they did it little by little over the years.

“You can actually see the difference. We have 100 fewer diesel vans. I can literally no longer see diesel fumes,” Katzman said.

Other initiatives

On the produce side, online grocery delivery service FreshDirect reduced the number of plastic bags used in packing fresh food for customers by 1 million bags in a comparable time period, said Scott Crawford, chief merchandising officer.

“This was at the request of our customers, who are looking for less waste and more sustainable options from the companies they choose,” Crawford said.

FreshDirect also continues to source sustainably, meaning local, organic and fair trade. The company’s organic fair trade bananas program with Equal Exchange has grown so much that it’s become FreshDirect’s No. 1 banana program, he said.

Companies such as Coosemans New York and D’Arrigo New York will give or sell at highly reduced price the leftover food that local farmers want to use for compost.

Joel Fierman, president of Fierman Produce Exchange, said he’s sustaining jobs.

“We have not laid off one person since the pandemic began, and we’re focused on keeping everyone working. How’s that for sustainability?” Fierman said.

Nathel & Nathel is trying to reduce or eliminate the paper used in billing and inventory management.

“I’m particularly concerned about it because not only is it good for the environment, it’s best business practices,” said Joshua Gatcke, fruit procurement buyer. 

Baldor Specialty Food’s fresh-cut facility makes 2,000 different items, such as the Urban Roots Veggie Side Kits, said Michael Muzyk, president.

That leads to a lot of trimming, peelings and roots and leaves that need to be discarded that used to all go to landfill,” he said. 

“Baldor was one of the first fresh produce processing plants to have zero waste go to landfill, and it’s still true to this day.”