NYC Recycles - A Pinko Semi-Annual Post-Lenten Investigative Reporting Megapost
Well, it’s the first odd-numbered Monday in April, and in Pinkoland that means it’s time for an Investigative Reporting Megapost! This installation: New York City municipal recycling.
Lately I’ve spent lonely nights wondering: what happens to that bottle of honey-mustard once it’s sputtered its last blob? Does my weekend-long pickled egg binge create unnecessary waste (well, besides the obvious)?
Is processing recycled materials more costly and less efficient than creating new raw materials (here’s an example from this blog). Does our trash really become something more useful in the next life? Or does it sail on the currents to some PET Valinor a thousand miles off the coast of California? A lifelong New Yorker told me a rumor that our recyclables fueled an experimental power plant somewhere in the Hudson Valley, but that sounds ridiculous and I may be the only one that’s ever heard that. Adrift amidst the speculations and misinformation, I can but turn to my clear collections bag and plaintively ask, like 90’s dance-pop sensation No Mercy, where do you go?
Like any good blogger, or bad investigative journalist, I turned to the internets in an attempt to sort out the truth. I then printed out what I saw on said internets, read it to my typist, photocopied her transcription, then recycled the whole it all (both materially and intellectually). And here’s what I found:
For starters, recyclables get recycled! How about that? Just because you think the guys operating the truck don’t look particularly environmentally conscious doesn’t mean they’re throwing your trash away. There are established markets for most recyclable materials in New York City (paper, metals, glass, and plastics). That is, the city is able to exchange those materials for money through a process known as capitalism! Operations known as Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs for short), buy, sort, and process the materials, which are in turn sold for use in manufacturing. In a sense, recyclable materials do go where the rest of our trash goes – Staten Island and New Jersey (and they don’t even come back on Saturday nights – hey-o!). But, it just so happens that large industrial concerns (like The Sims Group or Visy Paper) sort, process, and sell these materials instead of filing them away in a landfill.
Before Bloomberg cancelled curbside collections in 2002, 19.7% of the waste stream was captured for recycling. Since its reinstatement in 2004, the numbers have been creeping upward, but the most recent data I can find puts the figure around 13%. Just to give you an idea, the US national average is about 28% (see this BBC report for comparison with European nations). So the city is slowly getting better at recycling, and is working simplifying collections and attracting new processing facilities. That’s an accomplishment in and of itself, but it’s what happens to those recycled materials is really what’s important.
Two characteristics determine waste’s ability to be reused: recyclability and recoverability. Recyclability means the waste products are composed of materials that can be reprocessed for manufacturing. Recoverability is the extent to which that can be done for a specific material. Things like aluminum cans are 100% recoverable. Things like consumer electronics less recoverable, owing to the diversity of materials used and the difficulty of sorting them in an efficient. The most recent public data pegs the amount of NYC waste that can be recycled is pegged at 35.38%. A good half of the rest is organic waste, but things like construction and demolition and unrecyclable plastic packaging comprise significant portions as well.
Some notes on materials:
Plastics:
New York City has some quirky rules about recyclable plastics. Only PET and HDPE containers (#1 & #2) can be recycled, and of those only containers whose sides have a larger diameter that their mouths (think Pavarotti over Placido Domingo). The good news is that although recyclable plastic comprises only 2.14% of all garbage, it makes up 12.88% of all recycling collections (which still seems low, except this figure is most likely by weight, with metal and glass being comparatively much heavier).
Now, one could follow the trail further and say “but hey, products made from recycled plastics are not themselves recyclable.” To which I would say “shut up, you hippie ninny.” Most of the products made from recyclable plastic (like nylon webbing, PVC, and plastic lumber and siding) have useful lives measured in decades, and are not in any sense of the word ‘disposable.’ While it might be excessive to, say, buy individually wrapped peas, plastic waste can and is being reused creatively, and that is a Good Thing. So don’t give me shit about my pudding cup.
Metal:
Metals are probably the most efficiently recycled category of post-consumer goods. Steel is 100% recoverable, easy to sort (read: magnetic) and costs 60% less than steel made from iron ore. Recycled aluminum has an even greater advantage over natural aluminum because it does not have to de-oxidized for use (a process that consumes massive amounts of electricity). According to calculations from the Energy Information Administration, approximately 1 gallon of gas is saved for every 64 cans recycled. So there’s really not much to talk about. If it’s metal, stick it in that clear bag kiss it goodbye. It might come back full of green beans!
Paper:
The largest hole in the waste capture stream is white office paper. Unlike plastics, metals, and glass, paper degrades when processed and cannot be recycled indefinitely. Therefore, paper made from ground wood pulp is the best candidate for recycling. 22.78% of the waste stream consists of recyclable paper, and yet it comprises only 2.46% of the recycling collections (vs. around 32% for both plastic and metals). Furthermore, some 30% of the public wastebasket content is recyclable paper, and none of that makes it to recycling.
It seems like consumer education is what’s going to make the difference here. As of January 30th, the Council on the Environment of New York City has launched the ReMIX (Recycling Magazines Is Excellent) campaign to encourage magazine recycling. Look for it! It’s kinda lame!
Consumer Electronics:
Although they make up a mere 1.24% of the waste stream, consumer electronics and appliances are incredibly difficult to recycle, due to the diversity of materials used to manufacture them. There are MRF’s with the capability to process them, but they generally don’t do municipal curbside collections. They will usually arrange to collect materials if you contact them. Companies like “Cell for Cash” or Turtle Wings can help you justify your gadget upgrades. The city sponsors electronics collections twice a year. A chart with dates for each borough can be found here.
Summary:
If you’re someone who knows anything about recycling, none of the above should have been terribly surprising to you. But for laymen such as myself, it takes some effort to get a clear picture of the recycling process, even with comprehensive (but poorly organized) resources like the NYC Wastele$$ site. It’s clear that there is a lot of room for improvement, on the part of both citizens and city, but it’s good to know that progress is being made, and that taking steps to live green are paying off.
Additional cool fact: In this month’s issue of Wired magazine (16.04), there is a short profile of a company in Australia called Global Renewables with a program to separate some 75% of municipal waste streams for recycling. Pilot programs are being launched in the UK. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that it makes it here soon.
Sources:
National Resource Defense Council report on NYC Recycling
NYC Wastele$$ City Recycling Reports
Recycling Statistics for Western Nations
Council on the Environment of New York City
About The Author - Ben is a formerly aspiring icthyologist, musician, and theologian. He is now a advertising copywriter living in Brooklyn, where he resides with his wife, two cats, and a basement full of bicycle parts. - Visit Ben's site.
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