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Dear Ms. Kaplan: In New York City, businesses are served by private carters operating in a free market, not by the City's Department of Sanitation, which services residents and institutions, collecting three separate streams: commingled paper of all kinds (board and paper); commingled metal, and glass/plastic/beverage carton containers; and refuse. Businesses are required to source separate recycling under Local Law 87 of 1992. Recycling requirements vary by type of business. See http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/recycling/recycling_businesses.sht ml for details. Under the current legal/institutional structure, City has no control over the actions of privately contracted carters once the businesses place source separated materials at the curb. It is certainly possible that carters collect refuse and bundled corrugated or bagged paper in the same truck, without compaction, for post-collection sorting. In such cases it is perfectly feasible to separate paper and board from black bagged refuse; the former going to recycling as paper and board are valuable commodities on the secondary materials market. Post-collection separation of commingled containers would be more difficult. In addition, if your friends are working in anything other than a food service venue, then, as you will note, their commercial building is not required to recycle commingled containers at all, due to the relatively small amount of non-food service commercial waste streams that consist of containers. If they work hard to separate out such containers, the carter has no responsibility to recycle them and most probably will not, due to the small volumes involved. If you are interested in learning more about NYC recycling in general, there are a host of resources at www.nyc.gov/nycwasteless. If you are interested in the commercial waste stream in particular, you may want to consult the Department's "Commercial Waste Management Study," at http://www.nyc.gov/html/dsny/html/reports/cwms-ces.shtml In any event, it is always important to bear in mind that when you discuss New York City, or most cities/jurisdictions for that matter, you are not speaking about one monolithic policy and service provider for all residents, institutions, and businesses; but about an array of institutions, some of them public and others private; and a variety of laws and programs. San Francisco may be one exception in this regard, served as it is by one private corporation for all collections, residential, institutional and commercial. On the other hand, in contradistinction to New York, many cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles, exclude multi-unit buildings from "residential" collection; where as NYC collects the three streams mentioned above from all 8 million residents, regardless of dwelling type. What I can assure you, in regard to NYC, is that under the NYC Department of Sanitation's recycling program that serves residents and institutions, there are always two source separated streams of recycling collected separately from refuse; and the notion that some recycling goes into a refuse truck ultimately to be discarded as refuse is an urban myth. For more reading on comparative municipal waste policy, you may want to consult the following reports: Processing and Marketing Recyclables in New York City New York City Recycling In Context Also available at www.nyc.gov/nycwasteless. Good luck with your research, Samantha MacBride Deputy Director, Recycling Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse and Recycling New York City Department of Sanitation 44 Beaver Street, 6th floor New York, NY 10010 917-237-5674 -----Original Message----- From: GreenYes@no.address [mailto:GreenYes@no.address] On Behalf Of Karyn Kaplan Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2006 10:35 AM To: GreenYes Subject: [GreenYes] NYC Recycling? I was in NYC recently and a few business people told me that they work hard to prepare recyclables and then watch the packer truck come and throw all the recycling in with the trash bags. Can anyone shed any light on how NYC does it's recycling collection and indeed is stuff getting recycled or does it all end up in the packer truck, garbage and all? Thanks- Karyn Kaplan University of Oregon --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GreenYes" group. To post to this group, send email to GreenYes@no.address To unsubscribe from this group, send email to GreenYes-unsubscribe@no.address For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/GreenYes -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- |
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