NEW YORK CITY’S NEW PUBLIC SPACE RECYCLING PILOT PROGRAM 

Mayor Bloomberg Hails New Solid Waste Management Plan Initiative Now Underway at Selected Parks, and Transportation Facilities in Each Borough

New York (April 18, 2007) Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has hailed the new 3-month public space recycling pilot program targeting busy parks, and transportation facilities where significant amounts of recyclable materials, such as paper, plastic, and glass, are being deposited in trash receptacles and entering the waste stream.

From now through the end of June, the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) will partner with the Department of Parks & Recreation and the Department of Transportation to provide recycling receptacles for bottles and cans, as well as for paper, at parks in all five boroughs and in both Staten Island Ferry Terminals. DSNY may expand the pilot, one of the many new initiatives created by the historic Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) adopted last year, to additional locations this summer. 

“Last summer, after years of discussion and debate, we overwhelmingly adopted a comprehensive, long term plan to deal with our City’s solid waste, and one of the plan’s biggest and most important goals was an ambitious expansion of our recycling programs,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “I am pleased to announce that the city is now acting on our commitment to pursue new, innovative initiatives and enhance our recycling efforts. If this pilot program is successful, we hope to expand it to other parts of our City and raise our public space recycling to unprecedented levels. If all of us do our small part, we can make a big difference for our City.”

At a news conference today in Union Square Park in Manhattan, Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty and Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe agreed. 

“The Public Space Recycling Pilot will determine how much recyclable material we can capture from our litter basket waste stream,” said Sanitation Commissioner Doherty. “The Department's recently-released comprehensive Waste Characterization Study found that as much as 50% of the contents of the city's 25,000 litter baskets could be recycled, especially plastic and glass bottles, aluminum cans and newspapers. This pilot will move us closer to our ‘three R’s’ goal of reducing, reusing and recycling much of our solid waste stream.”

“New Yorkers can act locally to make a ‘greener’ city by recycling in their local parks, starting with this pilot project,” said Parks Commissioner Benepe. “The six parks chosen for this program are important public spaces and offer an excellent opportunity for New Yorkers to continue the practice of recycling outside of their homes and offices. We look forward to working with the Department of Sanitation on this exciting initiative.”

During the pilot, blue and green recycling bins will be placed in and around Poe Park in the Bronx, Columbus Park in Brooklyn, Union Square Park in Manhattan, Hoffman Park in Queens, and Tappen Park and Clove Lakes Park on Staten Island as well as the Whitehall and Saint George Staten Island Ferry terminals. The blue receptacles will collect bottles and cans and the green receptacles will collect paper. Upon collection, the materials, in addition to being recycled, will be used in a waste characterization study that will determine the effectiveness of the program. 

The pilot program is one part of last year’s comprehensive and ambitious Solid Waste Management Plan. It established the structure of the City’s solid waste management through 2025, addressing both residential and commercial waste, as well as waste prevention and recycling. In addition to public space recycling, the Solid Waste Management Plan - whose three main goals are environmental responsibility, economic soundness, and equity across all five boroughs - created a variety of new initiatives and programs related to waste prevention and recycling, including the new Office for Recycling Outreach and Education (OROE) within the Council on the Environment. Beginning this month, OROE will start a community district-specific outreach campaign to promote reuse, waste prevention, composting, and recycling. The outreach campaign will educate and train building service personnel and occupants on the methods, requirements, and importance of recycling, including conducting building-specific waste audits. The Office also will develop programs and identify additional opportunities for the public to recycle materials not currently designated in the City’s recycling program. OROE will serve as a liaison to City agencies, civic organizations, cultural institutions, not-for-profits, businesses, real estate associations, and other organizations and will conduct pilot-related outreach through June.

Contact:
Lee Silberstein or Shane Kavanagh
The Marino Organization
(212) 889-0808 
  

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