New York aims for 30% recycling rate by 2017

United States – With the introduction of a new recycling campaign, New York City has set a target of doubling its recycling rate to 30% by 2017.

The ‘Recycle Everything’ campaign will promote fresh initiatives such as residential food composting and the recycling of electronics and rigid plastics across the city. ‘The bottom line is we can do an awful lot better,’ New York City’s mayor Michael Bloomberg said at the launch of the campaign. The renewed recycling push ‘saves us money and it dramatically makes the environment that our kids are going to inherit from us better’, he added.

The city’s organic food waste pilot recycling programme, which began in Staten Island and in some Manhattan high-rises and city public schools, is heading for the Bronx and Brooklyn this autumn. It is voluntary at present but is expected to become mandatory by 2016.

This year has also seen the launch of the Re-Fashion campaign, a scheme designed to recycle clothing and other textiles. A new e-cycle programme scheduled to begin in September will be the largest electronics recycling service in the USA, it is claimed.

Source: WNYC News