NYC Closer to Cutting Container Recycling

The budget introduced by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg would cut New York’s residential recycling program to handle only newspapers and some other paper grades. The city’s sanitation department would suspend its recycling of metal, glass and plastic for 18 months.

Many containers are not typically placed in curbside bins, but are recycled separately under New York state's deposit and return system.

According to an AP report, the city collects more than 300,000 tons of glass, plastic and metal commodities annually, but it is paying more to recycle them than it would to send them to out-of-state landfills.

Although environmental groups and other recycling advocates have loudly protested the mayor’s plan, the recycling cutback is part of the budget that the mayor’s administration will introduce to the city council.

It is unclear to what extent council will either oppose or support the plan, though some members have expressed opposition. The AP report notes that city council member Michael McMahon of Staten Island, who is head of the council committee on sanitation and solid waste, believes the city has never committed fully to establishing and supporting the recycling program.

Since the closing of the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, the city has been shipping its trash out of state. Some recycling proponents say that without a recycling option, out-of-state landfill owners will be able to charge New York City more per ton to accept its trash, knowing the city has few alternatives.

Even so, the Bloomberg administration says the numbers show that recycling has not been a fiscal windfall for the city. The administration places a $240 per ton cost on the recycling off containers, while trash disposal costs are currently in the $130 per ton range. Paper recycling remains a better option, costing the city about $87 per ton, according to the Bloomberg administration.

The purity or quality of the containers collected has also been a problem, according to the Department of Sanitation. As much as 40 percent of the glass, metal and plastic collected is too contaminated to be sent to consumers of the materials.

Bloomberg is promising to reconsider the recycling program during the 18-month container recycling suspension, according to the AP report. It suggests the suspension could allow the city to re-design the recycling program to be less labor intensive and more efficient.