[GreenYes] Re: Our pal Bloomberg slashes recycling

[Pat Franklin <pfranklin@container-recycling.org>]

Marjorie,

         I listened to the mayor's speech over the internet and am still
confused as to what he is proposing.  Is he proposing that the
city eliminate curbside recycling and/or is he proposing that
the state repeal the bottle bill?  Can anyone enlighten me on
this?
         I wonder if you are aware of a report prepared by Science
Applications International Corporation (SAIC) for the New York City
Department of Sanitation says the city would realize considerable
benefits by expanding the state's bottle bill requiring a 5-cent
refundable deposit on beer and soft drink cans and bottles.  The
purpose of the study  was to determine the costs and savings to
the city if the state's 17 year-old deposit law were expanded.
         The report, released in September 2000,  recommended that
New York City support an expanded bottle bill that would include
wine and liquor bottles and non-carbonated beverage containers
such as juice drinks, sports drinks and bottled water and raise
the deposit from 5 to 10 cents.
         The Packaging Restrictions Report, which was written
in 1997, projected that if the bottle bill were expanded, New
York City would remove an additional 190,000 tons of waste per
year (primarily glass and plastic) from the waste stream and
reduce waste management costs by more than $8.6 million a year
by 2000.  Reduction of litter on New York City streets would be an
added benefit.
         The SAIC report said the efficiency of the city's commercial
recycling program "is limited by the value of the materials collected;
since PET and glass are low value high volume commodities, the
economic incentive is minimal. Expanding deposit legislation to
include PET and glass would provide a strong incentive to remove
these materials from the waste stream."

Regards,

Pat Franklin
   =================================================================
At 10:31 AM 2/13/02 -0500, Marjorie J. Clarke wrote:
>Yup, it's true.  As a cost-cutting feature, Bloomberg proposes to relieve 
>New York City Dept Of Sanitation of collecting all glass, metal and 
>plastic.  Nifty, eh?  Just think.  If our pal Giuliani had just instituted 
>the cost-saving waste prevention measures we'd asked for years ago, they 
>would have been rolling in millions of dollars in savings now, they 
>wouldn't have had to make any cuts in DOS expenditures.  (These cuts are 
>being made because NYC has lost $4-5 BILLION in tax revenues thanks to 
>9/11 -- all who think that NYC even got the $20 billion we were promised 
>by Bush should think again -- and that figure doesn't include money for 
>cleaning apartments of asbestos much less replacing these huge losses to 
>the economy.)
>
>So now the City compounds its problems by adding to export (now, not just 
>more than half of these recyclables will be exported and burned or 
>landfilled, but now All of them will be.  Our export rate will go upwards 
>towards 90%.  I'll bet the incinerators will choke on all the extra metal 
>and glass) -- won't Newark be pleased.  The incinerators were not designed 
>for the combination of "garbage" they are in for.  I'll bet they haven't 
>even thought about implications (other than economic) of this plan -- so 
>what else is new?
>
>If we can get New York City's Independent Budget Office to expedite a 
>study on costs of recycling vs costs of export, that's our best 
>weapon.  At last week's hearing, the solid waste person at IBO repeated 
>what  we had been told before... that the cost of recycling is getting to 
>be or already the same as export (since export costs are rising and 
>recycling costs are lowering).
>
>If the City Council really wants to support recycling, not to mention 
>prevention, this will turn into one of the first big battles of the new 
>Administration.
>
>I hope we can find the audiotapes for the radio campaign to save the 
>recycling program made of Stiller and Meara in 1991 when Dinkins was 
>planning to KILL the recycling program outright.  We can sure use them now.
>
>Maggie Clarke, Ph.D.
>Environmental Scientist and Educator
>http://everest.hunter.cuny.edu/~mclarke/index.htm
>New York City ******************************************
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