NYC's Public Space Recycling Program

Frequently Asked Questions
Highlights: 2007 Public Space Recycling Pilot
2007 Public Space Recycling Pilot Final Report

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

NYC's public space recycling locations?
What goes in the public space recycling bins?
What happens to the material in the bins?
What were the locations for the 2007 Public Space Recycling Pilot?
How were the locations chosen for the 2007 Public Space Recycling Pilot?
How was public space recycling promoted for the 2007 Pilot?

Where are NYC's public space recycling containers currently placed?

The following locations currently have public space recycling containers:

Brooklyn:
Brooklyn Heights area, 5 sets
Columbus Park, 8 sets
Spring Creek Towers, 3 sets

Manhattan:
Battery Park City, 4 sets
Union Square Park, 15 sets
Staten Island Ferry (Whitehall Terminal), 9 sets

Queens:
Downtown Flushing commercial area, 2 sets
Hoffman Park, 8 sets

Staten Island:
Clove Lakes Park, 8 sets
New Dorp Plaza & New Dorp Lane, 1 set
Staten Island Borough Hall, 4 sets
Staten Island Ferry (St. George Terminal), 5 sets

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What were the locations for the Spring 2007 Public Space Recycling Pilot?

Test sites for the Spring 2007 Public Space Recycling Pilot included:

• Bronx: Poe Park
• Brooklyn: Columbus Park
• Manhattan: Union Square Park & Whitehall Ferry Terminal
• Queens: Hoffman Park
• Staten Island: Tappen Park, Clove Lakes Park, St. George Ferry Terminal

At each location, there were pairs of recycling containers, both within the sites as well as the perimeters, to capture recyclables from passersby.

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How were the locations chosen for the Spring 2007 Public Space Recycling Pilot?

The locations for the public space recycling containers were chosen in coordination with several city agencies (Sanitation, Transportation, and Parks & Recreation), as well as City Hall and the NYC Council. The participation of Transportation and Parks & Recreation on-site maintenance staff was key to making the effort work.

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What goes in NYC's public space recycling bins?

NYC's public space recycling program collects the same materials as NYC's residential recycling program.

During the Spring 2007 Public Space Recycling Pilot, over 31,400 pounds of material was collected from the paper recycling bins over the 12 week pilot, 4.8% of which was improper materials and 95.2% was recyclable paper.

Almost 18,700 pounds of material from was collected from the bottle and can recycling bins over the 12 week pilot, 37.5% of which consisted of improper materials and 62.5% was recyclable.

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What happens to the material in the public space recycling bins?

Similar to NYC's residential recycling program, material in the public space recycling bins is collected by the NYC Department of Sanitation and brought to the City's recycling vendors to be recycled.

During the Spring 2007 Public Space Recycling Pilot, the contents of the public space recycling containers were analyzed by a waste characterization consultant to determine the degree of contamination (amount of non-recyclables placed in the public space recycling bins). DSNY then took the recyclables to the City's recycling vendors to be recycled, and discarded the remaining contaminants as refuse.

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How was public space recycling promoted for the Spring 2007 Pilot?

From April through June 2007, bus stops and phone kiosks in the immediate area of nearly all the pilot locations promoted public space recycling through area-specific advertising.

To help publicize public space recycling in the Staten Island Ferry Terminals, the DSNY Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse and Recycling (BWPRR) worked with the NYC Department of Transportation and FerryAds.com to place promotional posters in the Ferry Terminals and on the Staten Island Ferry.

Other ways to promote public space recycling at the Ferry Terminals included the deployment of BWPRR's blue and green recycling bin characters, the distribution of Metro newspapers that had a recycling message on the cover, and the handing out free bottled water with a "public space recycling" label. 

BWPRR Outreach Coordinators played a key role in publicizing the Pilot. They accompanied the blue and green recycling bin characters at events, distributed promotional materials, and encouraged passersby to use the new bins.

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RESULTS: 2007 PUBLIC SPACE RECYCLING PILOT HIGHLIGHTS

Public space recycling works well for newspaper and other recyclable paper.
Participation was, on average, good for paper recycling, and the material placed in the paper bins was relatively free of non-recyclable trash (contamination). Overall, the contamination rate was less than 5%.

Bottle and can recycling in public spaces is problematic.
In contrast to paper, contamination rates for bottle and can (MGP) recycling were very high (almost 37%), and tonnages were lower than Paper recycling tonnages at all sites.

Public space recycling is best in downtown areas dense with commuters and lunching office crowds.
The sites with the lowest contamination rates and the largest amounts collected were the ferry terminals, Union Square, and Columbus Park. These sites are characterized by heavy commuter use and are located in dense, downtown neighborhoods with large numbers of office workers who use the public space for lunch. In contrast, public space recycling was highly contaminated and yielded little material in residential parks frequented primarily by families and children. Such users are less likely to generate newspapers, bottles, and cans than are commuters and lunching office workers.

There's much more to successful public space recycling than just setting out a bin.
Successful public space recycling required ongoing monitoring of bins by maintenance staff. They continually replaced bag liners so the bins were not overflowing, stored the separated paper and MGP over the course of the week, and properly placed the bags of recyclables in a designated spot for weekly collection. Future efforts should only be mounted in areas with permanent maintenance staff who are committed to working with DSNY collections on a longterm basis.

Other cities encounter similar challenges as NYC.
For this pilot, the DNSY Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse and Recycling researched public space recycling in London, England; Toronto, Canada; Seattle, and Portland. All cities face challenges keeping their public space recycling free from contamination, and all place bins in high traffic areas where efforts are most likely to succeed. 

Carefully located public space recycling can be an important symbolic and educational feature of NYC's recycling program.
Contrary to popular opinion, waste generated in public spaces is only a tiny fraction of residential, public maintenance, and commercial wastes overall. While public space recycling won't raise the city's diversion rate by more than fraction of a percentage point, it is an important way to reinforce the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle message

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FINAL REPORT OF NYC'S 2007 PUBLIC SPACE RECYCLING PILOT PROGRAM

The files below are PDF (Portable Document Format) documents; you’ll need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to display and print them.

Report on Results

Appendix I: Public Space Recycling in Other Cities

Appendix II: Site Profiles

• Part 1: Union Square Park, Manhattan; Columbus Park, Brooklyn; Whitehall Ferry Terminal, Manhattan; St. George Ferry Terminal, Staten Island
• Part 2: Poe Park, the Bronx; Hoffman Park, Queens
• Part 3: Tappen Park and Clove Lakes Park, Staten Island

Appendix III: NYC Public Space Recycling Pilot: Consultant's Report

• Report
• Appendices A to C
• Appendix D Part 1
• Appendix D Part 2
• Appendices E to I
• Supplementary Trend Analysis

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