New York aims to cut waste output by 90 per cent by 2030
NEW YORK — The U.S.’s biggest city, in a far-reaching effort to limit its impact on the environment, marked Earth Day on Wednesday by announcing a plan to reduce its waste output by 90 per cent by 2030.
Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled his sweeping One NYC plan, which includes an overhaul of the city’s recycling program, incentives to reduce waste and tacit support for the city council’s plan to dramatically reduce the use of plastic shopping bags.
New York, with about 8.5 million residents, would be the largest city in the Western Hemisphere to adopt such a plan, which aims to reduce the amount of its waste by more than three million tons from its 2005 level of about 3.6 million tons.
“The average New Yorker throws out nearly 15 pounds of waste a week, adding up to millions upon millions of tons a year,” de Blasio said.
The waste reduction plan is part of an update to the sustainability project created by de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg. De Blasio is rebranding it One NYC and widening its scope, linking it to the signature cause of his administration: combating income inequality.
The mayor pledges to lift 800,000 New Yorkers out of poverty or near poverty in the next decade, one of the largest anti-poverty efforts in the nation’s history, and wants to end racial and ethnic disparities in premature mortality.
De Blasio also reiterated his lofty housing goals — he aims to create 500,000 units of affordable housing by 2040 — as well as new capital expenditure pledges to cut down on commuter times and improve the city’s aging infrastructure.
For decades, the city’s garbage has been exported by rail or barge to South Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania or upstate New York. The new plan would eliminate almost all the garbage exports, which cost more than $350 million US annually.
The amount of waste produced by the city has fallen 14 per cent since 2005 because of an increase in recycling, and a key component of the plan is to bolster that output by simplifying the process.
Currently, residential buildings have two types of recycling bins. The city’s new single-stream plan, already used by other cities, would consolidate all recycling into one bin by 2020.
Organics — such as food scraps and yard waste — make up 31 per cent of the city’s residential waste stream. A program to collect that material directly from residents’ homes is expanding to nearly 200,000 residents by year’s end, and city officials want to serve every home by the end of 2018. The city also will offer economic incentives to participate, including potentially a property tax rebate for homeowners.
The city also aims to reduce commercial waste by 90 per cent by 2030.