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EPA Waste Wise CommunitiesEPA Waste Wise CommunitiesEffective Partnerships to Increase RecyclingEffective Partnerships to Increase Recycling

November 14, 2007November 14, 2007

David Hurd, Director

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• Created in July 2006, when the NYC Council passed the Mayor’s landmark Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) which provides initiatives to reduce the environmental impacts associated with shipping solid waste by truck, and a renewed emphasis on recycling and waste reduction.

• The SWMP includes ambitious but realistic goals to increase the amount of recyclable materials diverted from the waste stream:

By 2007, the goal is to meet a 25% diversion rate for curbside and containerized waste generated by residents and institutions, and a 35% diversion goal for the total DSNY-managed waste stream. For the long term, the SWMP sets a 70% (combined Commercial and DSNY-managed waste) diversion goal to be reached by 2015.

Office of Recycling Outreach and Education (OROE) 2

To meet the ambitious diversion targets in the SWMP, the City’s recycling efforts must be reinvigorated and substantially increased

To do this, the SWMP created the new Office of Recycling Outreach and Education within the Council on the Environment of NYC to conduct hands-on outreach that will help to promote reuse, waste prevention, composting and recycling


• Increase recycling, reduce waste generation and expand composting in all five boroughs

• Increase public awareness of and participation in the residential curbside recycling program

• Assist DSNY and other Mayoral Agencies in achieving the recycling goals established in the SWMP

4Office of Recycling Outreach and

Education (OROE)

• Provide outreach, education, and training in waste prevention, recycling and composting

• Conduct residential building waste audits to assist compliance with regulations and correct recycling practices

• Promote electronics recycling programs

• Develop and promote additional waste prevention programs for composting, building material reuse, household hazardous waste reduction and safe disposal

• Promote and improve recycling in NYC public schools, NYC Housing Authority projects, public institutions, City agencies

• Generally work to increase the amount and types of materials diverted through waste reduction, waste prevention and recycling


Education (OROE)

• The Director was hired and officially began operations of the office on December 11, 2006.

• The 5 borough-specific Recycling Outreach Coordinators (ROCs) were hired and began work on February 26, 2007 and will commence their community district outreach initiatives in April.

• In order to lead by example, the OROE offices were furnished exclusively with reused office furniture obtained through NY Wa$teMatch ( a DSNY funded materials exchange program) and recycled content office products including area rugs made from 100% recycled polypropylene bottles.


Education (OROE)

• OROE will organize outreach and training on a Community District (CD) basis

• OROE will focus initially on low diversion CDs

• OROE will focus educational materials on low capture rate materials with the greatest potential for increased diversion

• OROE Recycling Outreach Coordinators (ROCs) will develop Outreach Plans for each CD

• OROE will develop CD-specific recycling tool kits to work with targeted residential buildings, community groups and volunteers


Education (OROE)

How can OROE establish private partnerships to help increase recycling diversion in New York City?

• Textiles represent 5.7% of New York City’s residential waste stream, accounting for over 190,000 tons per year of materials that are not currently being recovered for recycling and are destined for disposal.

• OROE has established a partnership with Goodwill Industries of Greater NY and Northern NJ to conduct collect used textiles (used clothing, shoes, bedding and linens) on a weekly basis at the Union Square Greenmarket each Monday. As a result, the program has been dubbed “Material Mondays.”



• Since the program began as a pilot on June 04, 2007, OROE and Goodwill have collected over 22,000 pounds of used textiles (through October 2007) from over 700 donors, with very little advertising.

• The success of the pilot has led Goodwill to extend the Union Square collections on a permanent basis.

• OROE and Goodwill are planning to establish another collection location at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket in Brooklyn, sometime in December.

• Ultimately, the goal is to have at least one textile collection location in each borough.


On June 11, 2007, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Willie Nelson, John

Mellencamp and NYC Parks Dept. Commissioner Adrian Benepe

announce at Union Square that Farm Aid is coming to NYC

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On September 09, 2007, the 23rd Annual Farm Aid Concert was held on Randall’s Island in NYC.


• As part of CENYC’s overall efforts in bringing Farm Aid to NYC, OROE is asked to organize the recycling at the event

• Working with Farm Aid staff, OROE identifies the Clear Stream system as the preferred recycling receptacles for the event. Sprint Recycling and Silk Soymilk sponsor the recycling systems.

• Farm Aid requires all food vendors to use compostable cups, plates, utensils and napkins, all purchased from a single vendor for consistency and to facilitate on-site collection of compostables.

• OROE arranges recycling collection services to be provided by Sprint Recycling in exchange for listing as a Farm Aid sponsor.

• The day before the event, 50 recycling and composting stations are set up around the Randall’s Island event site.



OROE staff member (left) shows volunteers how to Identify compostable cups


OROE staff member setting up recycling station


• OROE staff signed up almost 400 volunteers in less than two weeks. Volunteers were offered free admission, a T-Shirt, and box lunch and dinner.

• 267 Volunteers showed up the day of the event, were registered and provided on-site training by OROE staff and then assigned three-hour shifts at a recycling station, in teams of two.

• All recycling stations were staffed through the entire 12-hour, day-log event.





• Each recycling station was staffed over the course of the day, which decreased contamination levels significantly.

• Volunteers policed the area around their stations for items discarded in the field, virtually eliminating litter.

• Music critics and other journalists commented on the fact that recycling bins and composting bins (which almost none had ever seen before) were full, garbage cans were almost empty, and there was no litter on the field.


• In total, 3.7 tons of paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, beverage cartons, cans, and a small amount of glass bottles (which were prohibited on-site) were recovered for recycling.

• An additional 700 pounds of clean food waste and compostable cups, plates, utensils, and napkins were transported for composting to an organic farm in Upstate NY.

• The event provided an invaluable opportunity to educate the public.



David Hurd, DirectorOffice of Recycling Outreach and Education

Council on the Environment of New York City51 Chambers Street, Room 228

New York, New York 10007(212) 341-9894 (212) 788-7913 FAX

[email protected] www.cenyc.org


Education (OROE)

• Preliminary discussions are underway with a leading publishing company to conduct a media campaign aimed at recovering higher levels of “other mixed paper” in the residential recycling program.

• The results of the WCS indicate that while the capture rate for newspaper and corrugated cardboard is relatively good at 60%, the capture rate for “other mixed paper” is only 34%.

• In a recent letter from DSNY Commissioner Doherty to NYC building operators, managers and landlords, he indicated that over 200,000 tons of recyclable fiber is disposed of each year, rather than being recovered for recycling -- this represents significant revenue loss to the City that theseefforts hope to address.


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