View Recycling Letter (pdf)
[February 07, 2003]
View Letter and Comments to the Mayoral and City Council Task Force on Recycling (pdf)
[December 04, 2002 ]

New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today called on the Department of Sanitation (DOS) to reinstate a full-scale recycling program for New York City. The Comptroller states in his letter to John Doherty, Commissioner of DOS, that with the new waste export bid for Brooklyn, the Department’s rationale for suspending the City’s glass and plastics recycling program no longer exists.

“DOS justified its decision to suspend glass and plastic recycling on the expectation that the City would save tens of millions of dollars each year,” Comptroller Thompson said in the letter to DOS. “It is now abundantly clear that merely recycling metal and exporting glass and plastic as waste is more expensive than recycling all of these materials.”

Comptroller Thompson’s request for a full-scale recycling program comes shortly after DOS received new bids for exporting waste from Brooklyn ranging from $75 to $82 per ton. Assuming DOS chooses the lowest bidder, New York City’s average waste export costs will rise from $66 to $69 dollars per ton. This saves the City an average of only $1 per ton compared to the lowest bid of $70 per ton to recycle metal, glass and plastic. Additionally, the Comptroller found that the average waste export cost in Queens is now $71 per ton and requires collection trucks to travel to New Jersey to dispose of their refuse. The reinstatement of full-scale recycling would allow Queens to recycle metal, glass and plastic in the borough at a facility in Long Island City.

The Comptroller also points out that, since the suspension of glass and plastic recycling, the City has seen a 12 percent decline in paper recycling, resulting in a loss of revenue and increased waste export costs to the City.

“The public’s confusion over the status of the recycling program is one of the primary reasons paper recycling rates have declined,” Comptroller Thompson said. “In these challenging fiscal times, we can not afford to cut programs that bring revenue to New York City, particularly one that will help preserve and protect the City’s environment.”

Using DOS’s recycling diversion reports covering the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2003, the Comptroller calculated that lower paper recycling rates have cost the city more than $800,000 in lost revenue and increased waste export expenses. If the City continues to recycle 12 percent fewer tons of paper for the rest of the current fiscal year, the cost will total approximately $3.4 million.

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