Paul Hunter Zaid #8

Where Does NYC Trash End Up???

     After trash was brought up during our last class discussion I was left wondering where does New York City trash go? The city's last landfill, the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island was closed on March 22, 2001 by pressure from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). At its peak twenty barges – each carrying 650 tons of garbage – were added to the site every day! In 2001 it was estimated that, if kept open, the landfill would have eventually become the highest point on the East Coast.

     

     To this day NYC has no landfills or incinerators, but on average it's citizens produce 12,000 tons of trash every day. Most of Manhattan's waste is incinerated in New Jersey and non-recyclable waste is sent to landfill in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia. Paper waste that is properly separated from regular garbage is recycled locally or is processed for further recycling overseas. Glass, metal and plastics collected at the curbside are sent to New Jersey, where they are processed and sent to various recycling markets. 

     I gathered this information from GrowNYC, a non-profit agency created in 1970 by the Council on the Environment of New York City. GrowNYC's goal it to improve New York City's quality of life through environmental programs that transform communities and empower all New Yorkers to secure a clean and healthy environment for future generations. I found these other interesting facts listed on their website:

• New York City residents currently recycle only about 17% of their total waste--half of what they could be recycling under the current program.

• 7.5% of our waste stream consists of plastic film such as supermarket bags.

• The United States produces 70% of the world's solid waste.

• 80% of US products are used once and then thrown away. 43% of dumped or burned municipal discards, by weight, consists of packaging and containers, or disposable products such as paper or plastic plates, cups, diapers, junk mail, trash bags, tissue paper and towels.

     Personally I know that I have areas for room of opportunity to reduce the waste that I produce and I'm confident that others can say the same for themselves. The reality is that there is no "away" when we use the term "throw-away," and hopefully my blog entry can all make us conscious of that.

www.grownyc.org
www.grownyc.org/recycling/facts