As of right now you are able to recycle those hard plastic clamshells that have inundated your apartment since your roommate became addicted to delivery crab rangoon. Today's announcement by Mayor Bloomberg that the Sanitation Department now accepts all hard plastics for recycling—including coathangers, coffee cups, toys, shampoo bottles, and all brittle plastic food containers—makes good on his promise in the State of the City address to widen the city's recycling program that has lagged under his leadership.
The move is expected to save taxpayers $600,000 each year in costs associated with shipping the 50,000 tons of plastic waste out of town (we export our woe to the lowest bidder, remember?) and will make banning styrofoam food containers a whole lot easier. In addition to the new plastics program, DSNY announced an expansion of its composting pilot program in public schools to neighborhoods in Staten Island that will begin next month. Schools in the program cut the amount of waste sent to landfills by 38%.
Note: plastic bags are still not recyclable, and please do rinse the food out of your clamshells before tossing them in the recycling bin. In the coming weeks DSNY will send out mailers informing the changes to New Yorkers—enforcement won't begin until July.
"This long awaited step will remove a major source of confusion among New Yorkers regarding which plastics are supposed to be recycling and which are not," Eric Goldstein, the director of the New York City's environmental director for the NRDC said in a statement. "The new policy should boost participation and enhance the cost-effectiveness of the city’s recycling collections.”
In related recycling news, Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh has proposed legislation that would severely restrict styrofoam's use (it's actually called polystyrene) in state-run agencies and school systems. "This is a material that is toxic and should be phased out. It's a product that is essentially impossible to recycle," Kavanagh tells us.
The legislation is not an outright ban, but prohibits the use of polystyrene in food containers, egg cartons, bowls, trays, and other items, unless the alternative is more than 15% expensive than using styrofoam. "This is not a new thing. We've already banned polystyrene in the capital itself. Suffolk county has restrictions—a lot of entities are realizing that figuring out how to make your procurement greener gives you wider options for everything else," Kavanagh said, noting that there has been some opposition to his legislation.
"Yes, there are some companies that won't be able to sell this stuff, but you don't continue to buy a product that's inefficient because you have sympathy for the person who makes it. This is an improvement, it's an evolution."
