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December 30, 2003
NYC's new recycling campaign: "NYC Wasteless"
The city has launched a new website to communicate the benefits of reducing, reusing, and recycling. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to mark the Phase 2 of the redesigned recycling program Bloomberg has been promising us since he eviscerated the old program. In other words, despite the touting of the animated dumpsters on nycwasteless.org, you still can't recycle glass bottles in the city. And don't forget that your juice cartons don't go in with your other paper products: they go in with the metal and plastic. It took me about 6 months to figure that one out. But the biggest obstacle to effective recycling in the city is the arcane scheduling of recycling days. It's every other week, on a particular day, and that day varies from one block to the next. The pamphlet (a monograph, really) that the city publishes explaining the schedule is one of the most confusing pieces of literature I've read. At least the Dept. of Sanitation provides this site to tell you when to put out your blue and green (or clear!) bags.
But this may be beside the point: the new campaign seems to de-emphasize recycling, and focuses more on reducing the waste you consume initially. The site offers tips on reducing junk mail, donating your old furniture, and using "less toxic products." It's nice to see a city taking a holistic approach to waste reduction, but I don't know how we can really say we're taking the problem seriously unless we start recycling glass again.
