Saturday, June 26, 2010

Recycling rate is pretty abysmal

From the NY Post:

The city's green agenda has a big black spot -- a plummeting recycling rate that by the end of the month could reach its lowest level in five years, The Post has learned.

Records show that just 15.9 percent of residential waste was recycled in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, which ends on June 30. Over the same period in 2009, the rate was 16.4 percent. In 2008, it was 16.7 percent. When construction debris and commercial waste are included, the decline is even more dramatic. The "total diversion rate" collapsed to 24.6 percent from 33.5 percent a year earlier.

The city's Web site, however, still boasts that it has "the largest, most ambitious recycling program in the country."

11 comments:

Dee Truth said...

I have a great idea! Let's recycle mayors. Works for me.

Anonymous said...

I agree withe Dee.

But, why?

Please someone tell me about the recycling programs' success'. How many trees have I saved or sumpin?

Anonymous said...

Human nature. People are lazy but it is a great way to raise revenue. People throw out their recyclables with regular garbage, give them a summons. It's an idea I can live with.

Anonymous said...

If the city's program is so ambitious, why don't they go by the universal recycling codes found on plastics, instead of having generalized statements about jugs vs. deli containers? Those numbers were put in place for a reason, but for some reason NYC won't use them.

Anonymous said...

And what ????

Take good hard work away from the mehikans or chiiiinese who scavenge my blue container 2-3 times a week....

Anonymous said...

This is just another revenue generator for the city. No one ever gets a ticket in the poor neighborhoods for not recycling, but if you go to a middle class neighborhood -- one that recycles -- you'll see that people get tickets because someone dropped something in their garbage can. The whole program is a farce and should be terminated. Now instead of one truck that collects garbage, you have another for recycling. What a waste of energy.

Anonymous said...

Yeah who needs recycling when we have no land fills anymore and it gets shipped to other states like Ohio.

Its just pathetic if NYC cant recycle properly when so many other states have even tin, different colored plastics, and glass separated in different bins.

Anonymous said...

First of all, it makes no sense that Krappy tagged this post "government waste." The connection is...?

Secondly, maybe these recycling rates are plummeting because that's the curbside pickup figures. If more people are jobless, and the jobless are scavenging what gets set out curbside, then obviously the curbside pickups of recyclables would drop. I'm guessing this is a recession phenomenon. Maybe the respectable journalists on this website could do some in-depth follow-up research on this.

Queens Crapper said...

a) Recycling costs more money than it makes for the City, and is woefully inefficient, hence the "government waste" tag.
b) Read the rest of the article for the answer to the rest of your question.
c) Why don't you do the in-depth research yourself and get back to us.

georgetheatheist said...

"Recycling is Garbage"

Rinsing out tuna cans and tying up newspapers may make you feel virtuous, but recycling could be America's most wasteful activity"

- John Tierney, New York Times Magazine, 30 June 1996

http://www.williams.edu/HistSci/curriculum/101/
garbage.html

Anonymous said...

http://ezinearticles.com/?Recycling-is-Supporting-the-Environment---Become-Part-of-It&id=3447115