Sort your trash!

From CBS 2:

When it comes to cardboard, a little cheese on the pizza box is OK, Aiello reported. Lid soaked with grease? Tear it off and toss it in the garbage.

Experts say disposable paper cups are a common recycling blunder. Most have been treated to be leak-proof, making them difficult to recycle.

Bottom line: Every municipality has a website or annual mailing, spelling out how to do the recycling thing the right way.

I think washing garbage is incredibly stupid, especially considering that they get washed at the recycling center anyway.

One man's trash is another man's treasure

More from the NY Times.

Forget what you heard about the economic benefits of the film industry and recycling

From the Wall Street Journal:

Proponents argue that film tax credits create well-paying jobs for local residents. Some even suggest that the incentives pay for themselves by boosting the economy and increasing government revenues. The Motion Picture Association of America claims: “Pure and simple: film and tax incentives create jobs, expand revenue pools and stimulate local economies.”

But real life is no Hollywood dream. Nearly every independent study has found that these arguments are more fiction than fact. The left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities put it best in a 2010 report: “State film subsidies are a wasteful, ineffective, and unfair instrument of economic development.”

From the NY Times:

In New York City, the net cost of recycling a ton of trash is now $300 more than it would cost to bury the trash instead. That adds up to millions of extra dollars per year — about half the budget of the parks department — that New Yorkers are spending for the privilege of recycling. That money could buy far more valuable benefits, including more significant reductions in greenhouse emissions.

It would take legions of garbage police to enforce a zero-waste society, but true believers insist that’s the future. When Mayor de Blasio promised to eliminate garbage in New York, he said it was “ludicrous” and “outdated” to keep sending garbage to landfills. Recycling, he declared, was the only way for New York to become “a truly sustainable city.”

But cities have been burying garbage for thousands of years, and it’s still the easiest and cheapest solution for trash. The recycling movement is floundering, and its survival depends on continual subsidies, sermons and policing. How can you build a sustainable city with a strategy that can’t even sustain itself?

Styrofoam is back

From Crains:

A state judge has overturned New York City's ban on plastic foam containers, finding the nearly 30,000 tons of dirty meat trays and to-go cups now sent to landfills can be recycled in a cost-effective way, according to a decision made public Tuesday.

The ban went into effect July 1 after lawmakers voted in 2013 to approve it unless a yearlong inquiry found the foam could be effectively recycled. An industry group of manufacturers, recyclers and restaurant-owners then sued, arguing that the ban was based on politics, not policy and that recycling was feasible.

The environmental initiative was spearheaded by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, and supported by current Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat.

But state Supreme Court Judge Margaret Chan ruled that Department of Sanitation Commissioner Katheryn Garcia didn't properly take into account industry estimates of the market and recycling opportunities generated during the yearlong review period when she decided that plastic foam couldn't be recycled economically and in an environmentally friendly way.

Ms. Garcia didn't "clearly state the basis of her conclusions when the evidence contrary to her findings were clearly before her," Ms. Chan wrote, noting industry estimates that 21 companies would buy used containers from the city. She also noted the city would save $400,000 annually if 40 percent of its wasted plastic foam wasn't sent to landfills, though as much as 75 percent could be recycled following machinery improvements.

Coney Island's wooden boardwalk is now in Italy

From Brooklyn Daily:

Wood from the Riegelmann Boardwalk that was supposedly damaged during Superstorm Sandy is being reused in Italy — as a boardwalk.

In a classic case of one city’s trash being another’s tesaro, architects who designed the U.S.A. Pavilion at Milan’s Expo 2015 used lumber from Brooklyn’s Boardwalk to build an indoor boardwalk at the Italian World’s Fair. The city has for years been trying to convince residents that concrete and synthetic boards are better suited for beachfront walkways — and has routinely replaced portions of the wooden Boardwalk, which stretches from Coney Island to the edge of Manhattan Beach, with non-wood options — upsetting old-school Boardwalk advocates who say it is the wood that makes it good.

Lublin Dental Center
And to them, the ironic move to repurpose Boardwalk wood to make a boardwalk could be the last straw.

“What a travesty — shipping our Boardwalk’s wood off to another country to be re-purposed and enjoyed there, while we have plastic and concrete shoved down our throats,” wrote Coney–Brighton Boardwalk Alliance president Rob Burstein in a letter to us when he heard of the Italian job.

Biber Architects designed the Milan boardwalk and purchased the timber from salvagers Sawkill Lumber, who harvested the historic planks for the city after Sandy “wrecked” the wooden walkway in 2012, a Biber spokeswoman said.

Problems with recycling program

From Crains:

New plastic to make water or soda bottles—called polyethylene terephthalate, or PET—typically costs about 10% more than the recycled kind. But since the start of the year, prices for virgin PET—also known as No. 1 plastic—have fallen to 67 cents a pound from 83 cents, according to Plastics News, a sister publication of Crain's. Meanwhile, recycled PET has held steady at 72 cents.

Much of the decline stems from the plunge in oil prices. Consumers understandably rejoiced last year when the price of gasoline fell by half, but oil's drop all but obliterated the economics of pulling out the plastic from the 23,500 tons of trash produced by New Yorkers every day.

But plastic recycling is also a victim of its success. Most recycling programs around the country started modestly, targeting plastics used to contain soda or milk. But in recent years, recycling has grown more ambitious and now includes lower-quality plastics, such as those used for shower curtains, shopping bags and takeout containers. Expansion was good environmental policy, but when high- and low-quality plastics are collected together, they have to be separated by hand, which significantly raises the cost of recycling.

New York City's program of picking up recyclables on curbsides doesn't appear to be in jeopardy. The city has a long-term contract with Sims Municipal Recycling that obligates the vendor to process residents' plastic, glass, cardboard and other items at a Brooklyn waterfront factory that opened 18 months ago. Sims wouldn't comment but told Crain's last year that it was struggling to find markets for rigid plastics, a new addition to the city's recycling program. Some had to be shipped to landfills.

DSNY hunts scavengers

From CBS 2:

Unwanted items are often left on New York City sidewalks for garbage pickup, but turning someone else’s trash into your treasure could land you in trouble with the law.

As CBS2’s Weijia Jiang reported, such scavenging is even costing the city money.

You may not know, but as soon as anything is left on a curb, it becomes the property of the city. It is illegal to grab and go.

CBS2 saw one man allegedly try to do it.

“When the super gave me the authorization, ‘Come pick it up,’ I think it’s no problem,” he said when Jiang pointed out that picking up discarded items is illegal.

Inside the man’s van was a residential microwave, refrigerator and washing machine – all appliances containing metal, police said.

Only sanitation crews or licensed vendors are authorized to take items. When they pick up less, the city loses money.

For that reason, police look for scavengers around the clock.

Bye, bye, brown bins?

From WNYC:

New York City's fledgling composting program has hit a major snag.

The nearly two-year-old pilot project takes food scraps from about a dozen neighborhoods and 400 schools as part of an effort to reduce waste. But the facility that processed most of that organic material was shut down last month, forcing the city to send the bulk of what's picked up to landfills.

The problem stems from the highly-contaminated nature of New York City's organic waste, known in the composting industry as "feedstock." Most composting companies are small operations that take feedstock that's relatively easy to break down, like rotting fruits and vegetables, leaves, and grass clippings.

But the Peninsula Composting Group's facility in Wilmington, Del., was more aggressive. It took that stuff and more, including discarded eggs and dead chicks from hatcheries, manure-filled animal bedding, and decaying meat and bones. The $20 million, 27-acre facility also took material that was highly contaminated with plain old garbage, using magnets to pull out metals and employees to pick out plastics and other non-organic stuff.

In October, Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control refused to renew Peninsula's permit. That decision followed a public hearing that drew 200 people. Most in attendance testified against Peninsula, describing odors that were so awful they induced nausea and prevented children from playing outdoors.

Peninsula's closure is a big blow to New York City. The Department of Sanitation had relied upon Peninsula's leniency, because the city's composting waste stream right now is filled with a lot of contaminants, especially plastics. Deputy Sanitation Commissioner Bridget Anderson, who oversees the composting initiative, said the department allowed people to use plastic liners in the brown bins they set at their curbsides to get them to give the program a try.

"We're stuck right now in this place where we're trying to encourage the front end behavior and also figure out how to manage the processing side," she said. "So there's a little bit of a chicken-and-egg issue."

DEP looking to recycle toilets

From the Queens Courier:

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is looking for contractors to crush 200,000 toilets so the city can put the porcelain bits to other uses.

The DEP announced in May of this year that it is launching a $23 million program to replace 200,000 inefficient toilets in up to 10,000 buildings across the five boroughs. An inefficient toilet can use up to five gallons of water per flush, compared to a high-efficiency toilet, which uses only 1.28 gallons or less per flush.

But what to do with all the old fixtures?

The city intends to use the crushed porcelain in the reconstruction of sidewalks and bioswales, landscaped areas built to absorb storm water.

The porcelain from the toilets will create a flat, compact layer on which the city can lay the concrete for the sidewalk, according to Christopher Gilbride, a DEP spokesman. It will also replace the crushed stone in bioswales.

Just leave mine be, please.

Glendale unites with Lindenhurst against stink trains

From NBC:

There's new outrage over plans to expand a recycling plant in Lindenhurst on Long Island. Some people who live nearby have been against the move, which they say would cause noise, odor and safety issues. And now neighbors in Queens are getting in on the fight. Greg Cergol explains.

Recycling not all it's cracked up to be

From Crain's:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg told New Yorkers seven months ago, "If it's a rigid plastic—any rigid plastic—recycle it." But not all of the rigid plastic city residents have been bagging with their metal cans, beer bottles and juice boxes since that announcement is being recycled.

Nearly all of the rigid No. 6 plastic—commonly used in cups, plates and other objects—delivered by the city's trucks to its recycling vendor, Sims Metal Management, has been shipped to dumps because Sims can't sell it.

"Right now that is going to landfill," said Tom Outerbridge, general manager for Sims.

Last April 22 was Mr. Bloomberg's 12th and final Earth Day as mayor, and he doubtless wanted to announce something significant about recycling that week. But the expansion of recycling program to include all rigid plastic was ahead of its time—at least by a few months.

In December, Sims will open a Brooklyn facility that uses optical-sorting technology to automatically separate different kinds of plastic.

"With this plant open, I'm going to be able to start producing straight, segregated loads of [No. 6] polystyrene products and I'm told there will be some people who will buy it," Mr. Outerbridge said.

He acknowledged that it would have been better for Sims and the city to wait until the sorting technology was ready before expanding curbside collection of plastic.

The cost of sending waste to landfills is currently about $85 a ton. That number is expected to rise in the years to come, as landfill space becomes more scarce and transportation costs increase. If Sims continues to struggle to sell No. 6 plastic, it could ask the city to take action, such as encourage the use of PET, a more marketable type of plastic.

"I'm not 100% confident that we are going to have a reliable market" for rigid No. 6, Mr. Outerbridge said." If it comes to that, he said, "I would go to the City Council and say, 'Hey, we tried, and I don't like to be the person to say get rid of this material, but no one will buy this material on an ongoing basis, [so] we would like the city to advance some legislation to transition from [rigid] polystyrene to PET.' "

Now Bloomie is proposing banning styrofoam:

Council pushing disposable bag fee

From the Politicker:

City Councilmembers and advocates announced a plan today to slap a 10 cent charge on all plastic and paper carry-out bags at grocery and retail stores across New York City.

Customers would be required to bring their own bags or pay the fee, which stores would get to pocket, according to the proposed legislation, unveiled this afternoon at City Hall.

The legislation, which will be formally introduced at a Council meeting Thursday, is aimed at reigning in “wasteful” plastic bag use in the city, where it’s not uncommon for grocery stores to double-bag single quarts of milk.

According to the bill’s proponents, New Yorkers use approximately 5.2 billion plastic bags per year–the vast majority of which are not recycled. The city also spends an estimated $10 million a year to transport those 100,000 tons of plastic bags to landfills each year, they said.

“Many agree that it is time to move forward on addressing this environmentally-harmful problem,” the group said in a release.

The legislation would also force the city to begin widespread distribution of free, reusable bags. Restaurants would be exempt from the rule, Stores that break the rules twice would be slapped with $250 fines.

A spokesman for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, whose support is likely necessary for the bills to pass, declined to say whether or not she supports the bills.

A spokesman for the mayor said the office is reviewing the legislation.

Unfair ticketing in Woodhaven

From The Forum:

Owners have faced forking over as much as $350 per ticket – once fines have accrued while an individual fights the ticket in court – for garbage problems that are not their fault, but rather stem from people who dump everything from mattresses to pieces of paper on others’ property, according to Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association President Ed Wendell and Woodhaven Business Improvement District Executive Director Maria Thomson. The two civic leaders said individuals – many of whom are likely living in illegally converted apartments where the landlords will not allow them to properly discard garbage in an effort to not draw attention to the sites – will often dump late at night or in the day’s earliest hours. Not long after people have shed their garbage, Wendell and Thomson said the city will ticket owners for such violations as improperly disposed garbage or not recycling – and then remove the garbage before the owners know any of this has transpired.

New recycling rules for plastic

From NYC.gov:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor for Operations Cas Holloway and Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty [Wednesday] announced the expansion of the City’s recycling program to include for the first time the recycling of all rigid plastics, including toys, hangers, shampoo bottles, coffee cups and food containers. The expansion of plastics recycling – which begins today – is part of the City’s Solid Waste Management Plan and is made possible, in part, through a partnership with SIMS Municipal Recycling whose recycling facilities are equipped to handle the broad range of plastic recycling. The recycling expansion will result in more than 50,000 additional tons of waste a year no longer ending up in landfills at a savings to City taxpayers of almost $600,000 each year in export costs, and for rigid plastics, it is recommended that New Yorkers should rinse and recycle it.

“Starting today, if it’s a rigid plastic – any rigid plastic – recycle it,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “There is no more worrying about confusing numbers on the bottom of the container. This means that 50,000 tons of plastics that we were sending to landfills every year will now be recycled and it will save taxpayers almost $600,000 in export costs each year.”

More recycling coming soon

From DNA Info:

New York City will start recycling more plastics soon, letting New Yorkers put more than just plastic bottles and jugs in their recycling bins.

The move comes after several years of plummeting recycling rates — as low as 9 percent in East Harlem in 2011 — and a recent push by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to improve the city's recycling performance.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Sanitation confirmed the change, but would not specify when.

"The Department is planning to add more plastics for recycling in the near future," spokeswoman Kathy Dawkins said in an e-mail.

Exactly what types of plastics will be included have yet to be announced, Dawkins said.

The Sanitation Department currently accepts only plastic jugs and bottles for recycling. Other commonly used plastics — like yogurt containers, frozen food trays and plastic cups — need to be thrown out.

We're less trashy these days

From AM-NY:

New Yorkers have been taking out less trash over the last decade but the city is still paying a high price to keep the streets litter free.

The city's Independent Budget Office released a report Thursday that shows the average New Yorker produces a little less than two pounds of waste a day, which is about a pound less than in 2000.

The report, which crunched data from the Department of Sanitation, U.S. Census and the Mayor's Management Reports, found the amount of products that Big Apple residents recycled dropped about a pound over the last 12 years.

Doug Turetsky, a spokesman for the IBO, said the drop didn't mean that New Yorkers are becoming more environmentally unfriendly, rather people are using less recyclable materials.

One thing that hasn't dropped is the money to haul those smaller piles of garbage from the curb. The report found that it costs the city 70 cents per person to dispose of its trash, a number that remains unchanged since 2000.

Group pushes for plastic bag ban

From WPIX:

The same people behind the brand new plastic bag ban/paper bag charge law that went into effect in San Francisco on Monday, have their sights set on New York City.

Environmental group Clean Seas Coalition says disturbing images like plastic patches swirling in the Pacific Ocean to plastic bags hanging in trees in Central Park has them pushing to ban those bags for good across the country.

So who stands to profit from the plan? That varies from city to city. Romer says depending on the structure of the ordinance, the money will either go to the retailer or to the city to create some kind of environmental fund.

The plan pushes people to pick up reusable bags. While customers can buy the reusable ones at Gristedes Market in Midtown Manhattan, they blow through the free plastic ones.

But in the end, will it be money wasted, or more paper and plastic trashed?

An idea that's literally full of crap

From the Daily News:

CCNYC is looking to start a composting program for dog poop. Modeled on similar pilot programs in upstate Ithaca and Cambridge, Mass., the group hopes to put small, anaerobic composting stations at several, high volume city dog runs.

The poop would be collected in biodegradable plastic bags then deposited into the composting stations where bacteria would break down the poop.

Though health regulations prohibit using dog waste generated fertilizer in a vegetable garden, Kostmayer said the product can be used to nourish grass on a baseball field, parks and even for landfills.

Using biodegradable bags would reduce plastic bags in city landfills, reducing the amount of waste in the city’s waste management system.

Cambridge’s pilot program used a $100,000 “anaerobic digester” which turns the gases given off by the decomposing poop into electricity.

Though he’s doubtful the city would be willing to commit that much cash to a pilot program, if successful, running all of the city’s dog waste through such a device could generate enough electricity to light 750 homes, Kostmayer said.

Even paper has street value

From the NY Post:

City sanitation cops are following a paper trail to bust a new breed of thieves.

Sly scrap bandits have taken to swiping bags of paper and cardboard left on curbs for the city’s Sanitation Department, following a dramatic rise in the value of the recyclable material, officials said.

Mixed paper has more than doubled in price over the past two years, going from around $40 a ton to as high as $120.

That huge price increase has been fueled by dwindling amounts of paper ending up in the recycling bin, as consumers switch to electronic forms of communication.

“When you approach this value, it becomes a market for unsavory characters,” said Hank Levin, whose Pratt Industries on Staten Island handles half the city’s curb-side paper pickup.

“[Thieves] can take a couple of tons off of the street in a night and get about $250.”

Cops with the city’s Department of Sanitation this year have already impounded 49 vehicles — mostly vans and small, rented moving trucks — for allegedly being used to pilfer bags of mixed paper off the streets.

That’s up from last year, when only 40 vehicles were impounded for similar crimes over 12 months.

Clampdown on curbside scrap metal thieves

From the NY Post:

The city Department of Sanitation’s police force has beefed up neighborhood patrols to combat the theft of valuable recyclable scrap metal carted to the curb.

“It’s a continuing problem, one that the department is very aggressively trying to combat,” said Vito Turso, a spokesman for the Sanitation Department, noting that old ovens, refrigerators and air-conditioning units command high prices at scrap yards these days.

Last year, a whopping 46 percent of the appliances put out for recycling were not at the location at the time of pickup — apparently taken by roving scrap-metal thieves.

That’s a jump from 36 percent the previous year. So far, for 2012, the rate is at 43 percent, or roughly 11,000 missed pickups.

The city has a contract with Sims Metal Management to recycle the scrap — and the city gets a cut of Sims’ action in return.

Sims has estimated it loses up to $4 million a year from the thievery, meaning city coffers are getting hit hard, too.