New Yorkers still landfill about 50% of all blue and green bin recyclables
According to NYC Open Data, each month 291,000 tonnes of MGP are recycled. But 283,000 tonnes still end up in the landfill. 282,000 tonnes of cardboard and paper are recycled. Yet 247,000 tonnes of paper go the landfill.
The city collects metal, glass, plastic, and cartons (e.g. MGP) in the blue. And paper and cardboard in the green bin. Not many sightings of the green bin if we are honest. Still, these two containers are the basis of the city's single-stream recycling system.
"I think the main problem (with New York recycling) is just getting more of the recycling into the recycling bin." - Clare Miflin, director of the Center for Zero Waste Design
Source: "Where Trash Belongs"
New Yorkers spend $221 per year to throw away 3700 pounds of trash
The New York City adopted budget of 2021 was $100 billion. $1.8 billion is on sanitation, or 2%.
Of the $1.8 billion, the majority — $1.2 billion — is spent on collection (42%) and exporting trash out of the state (23%) i.e. landfilling.
The city does have a budget for Waste Prevention and Resuse. It’s $56 million. Or 3%. That’s 20x less than sending
Source: DSNY / Mayor's Budget
New Yorkers spend $12 million on rent storing tote bags
The average one-bedroom rent is $3,900 and size is 850 square feet. Or $4.60 per square foot. The size of a tote bag is 1.2 square feet. Thus, $5.52 of rent to storing a tote bag. There are 2,183,064 rented apartments in NYC. $5.52 x all those apartments equals $12 million.
Source: Cues
The average American throws away 4.7 pounds of trashy daily; while New Yorkers throw away 4 pounds
4 pounds is about a loaf of bread + two empty wine bottles + a sweatshirt + a few wet diapers + some batteries. Though besting our compatriots in the trash game, we lose when it comes to recycling. They recycle about 32% of trash whereas we only recycle 17%. We still have work to do.
Source: DSNY Annual Report 2021
New Yorkers only recycle 17% of the city’s possible recyclables
We have one recycling center in the city: SIMS. They do tours. You should go. They’re run by a lovely woman named Kara. On the tour she says it best about why recycling is so poor in NYC:
“There’s way way too much stuff. The sanitation workers will not recycle anything if it’s in a black bag, even if it’s recyclable. So stuff ends up in the landfill. The bins aren’t easy. Who do you know with a green bin? We take plastics, but there are seven plastics. A lot of mixed materials -- most people don't know that a soup box is recycled as a metal, not paper. All these design issues let us miss stuff we should get and receive tons of stuff that should have gone to the landfill.”
Source: Politico
The average New Yorker throws away 46 pounds of clothing a year
Or about 110 t-shirts. Of this, 15% of household textiles are diverted with the remaining 85% of our used clothing entering landfills and incinerators. When we do divert, here’s what we do: 45% are reused as clothing, 20% are recycled into fibers and 30% are reused as wiping cloths, according to the DSNY.
Source: NY State Department of Environmental Conservation
