Micro-Activity #14: Continue Drafting the Annotations

• Sanchez, Hazel. “Mayor’s NYC Green Plan Pushes To Rid City Of Single-Use Plastic.” YouTube, broadcasted by CBS New York, 12 Apr. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_E3V3wsonU.

This video talks about an executive order that New York City Mayor De Blasio stops purchasing unnecessary disposable plastic directly from New York City to reduce the city’s plastic pollution. Public institutions, including schools, hospitals, etc., announce that plastic wares, including plastic straws, are being replaced by products made of paper, corn, and bamboo. The executive order will help reduce the amount of plastic waste by 1.1 million pounds per year and further cut down pollution in urban, oceans, and marine life.

This news is a media focused on the purpose of delivering fact-based information to the public. The news is a representative mass media, so it’s not an appealing tone, but the reporter has an objective, serious and official tone. The purpose of this is to accurately report New York City’s new plastic-related executive order to New Yorkers.

“A change will decrease plastic pollution and reduce risks to wildlife” (Sanchez).

“The mayor says this is just one additional step the city is taking to prevent climate change” (Sanchez).

• United States. New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability. Mayor’s Zero Waste Challenge Final Report. New York City Mayor’s Office, Jul 2016, https://www1.nyc.gov/site/sustainability/initiatives/zero-waste-challenge.page.

This report contains the significance, process, and results of The Zero Waste Challenging target by encouraging New York City companies to discharge at least 50 percent of their waste, including environment-threatening plastics, from landfill by 2030. These organic disposal rules apply to hotels, stadiums, and food manufacturers based on standards. As a result, waste was converted to landfills at a high rate of 56.5% on average. Through this challenge, companies’ awareness of organic waste was improved, and they realized that they had to overcome the difficulties of composting in order to eliminate waste and achieve waste zero waste.

The site that produced the report is an organization that focuses on the development of New York City and the reflection of citizens’ opinions on city management. Therefore, the report was also written for New York City and its citizens. The report begins with an objective and worrying tone about the plastic and waste problems faced by New York City in its introduction, and then, based on the successful process and results of the challenge, delivers in a positive tone at the end. The purpose of this data seems to have shown citizens hope that this will reduce the amount of waste in New York City.

“More than 30% of that is food waste almost 40% is paper, and another 17% is metal, glass, plastic and other recyclables. Diverting this compostable or recyclable material from landfill or incineration represents a huge opportunity to preserve the environment, and is one of the hallmarks of a Zero Waste program” (New York City Mayor’s Office 1).

“Upper Management Support. The Challenge confirmed that it’s critical to gain leadership and management buy-in in order to make an operational, and often financial, commitment to zero waste goals, and in turn, make these goals achievable. Without the support of leadership and management it is very difficult and often impossible to reach waste reduction and diversion goals” (5).