Only 18% of trash from New York City homes is actually recycled. Some of it is just too small to be separated, and some types of plastics are not recyclable at all. A lot of the plastic we throw in the blue bin ends up getting diverted to landfills where it takes hundreds of years to break down. On top of this, we are the ones footing the bill. The Department of Sanitation estimates the cost of collection of recyclables at $686 per ton, and NYC taxpayers are the ones paying for it.
A bill is on the New York State Senate floor for 2022 that is designed to shift the financial burden of waste and recycling recovery from taxpayers to the producers.
Reported by Clark Adomaitis
Photo and music credits: Clark Adomaitis