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 What's in NYC's Waste? | ||||||
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UPDATE: NYC is currently undertaking a new residential waste characterization study. The results and analysis below reflect the waste landscape in 2004-05. The New York City 2004-05 Residential and Street Basket Waste Characterization Study is a comprehensive look at the composition and generation rates of New York City residential and street basket waste.
Results of the Study ALSO SEE: The New York City 2004-05 Residential and Street Basket Waste Characterization Study (WCS) is a "census of NYC waste" — a comprehensive look at the amount and composition of what New Yorkers discard at home, and in street baskets. Its goal was to provide detailed, accurate, and reliable statistics on the different materials that New Yorkers discard at home and in street baskets, including trash and recycling. The NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY), For the WCS, NYC's refuse, paper recycling, and metal/glass/plastic/beverage carton recycling were physically sorted into 91 different material categories. Both the trash (refuse) and recycling portions of the waste stream were studied, at equivalent levels of detail. Statistics were also calculated on "waste", combining refuse and recycling together as a whole, to understand everything that New Yorkers are consuming and getting rid of, whether through recycling or disposing as trash. The WCS was designed to be as flexible and inclusive as possible because there are countless ways to identify, classify, and sort materials found in what New Yorkers throw away. The 91 material categories studied can be grouped in various ways to provide summary statistics. The results can be understood as percentages of the total; as total tons per month or year, and even as pounds per capita or per household. The Final Report covers the Preliminary WCS, all four seasons of the WCS, and the Annualized WCS Results. The Results Highlights, written by DSNY, is an overview of major findings of the study, including a guide to using the voluminous pages of data presented Final Report. Why Did DSNY Conduct the Waste Characterization Study (WCS)? In order to plan wisely and effectively, we have to know what we are dealing with. By understanding what is in the trash, we can plan for new and better approaches to waste prevention, reuse, recycling, and composting. Studying what NYC residents put out for recycling helps us to assess how well residents are complying with recycling regulations, and where they need more education. In each season, professional sorters separated 850 representative samples of NYC trash and recycling into 91 different categories. The sample size and number of samples used in the study met rigorous requirements to achieve statistical significance. There are many ways to group these 91 categories, but we have found that the following headings provide a useful overview: CURRENTLY DESIGNATED FOR RECYCLING
NOT CURRENTLY DESIGNATED FOR RECYCLING
Readers can also make their own groupings of the 91 categories if they want to answer a particular question; see the Guide to the Tables (pdf) in the WCS Results Highlights to learn how to do this.
The results of the WCS are provide information on the four types of residential waste-streams that the Department of Sanitation is responsible for collecting:
In addition, we provide information on Waste — the combination of refuse, paper recycling, and metals/glass/plastic/beverage cartons recycling — to understand the composition of the totality of what NYC residents discard. In New York City, residential waste comprises refuse and recycling that New York residents generate at home and set out for DSNY collection. The WCS covers dwellings of all sizes and types, as long as they are residential, including the smallest houses to the largest high-rises. The WCS studied residential waste, as well as street-basket waste. It also included a supplementary look at apartment building waste at the building level. What Was Not Covered The WCS did not study wastes arising from commercial or nonprofit enterprises of any kind – including retail outlets, restaurants, offices, hospitals, schools, factories, commercial construction and demolition outfits, or other work-related sources. Some older data on the composition of NYC commercial and institutional wastes, from DSNY’s 1989/90 Study, is available upon request. A more recent Commercial Waste Management Study by the Department, dated 2004, is posted on the Sanitation website. |  | ||||
along with its research consultants, conducted the WCS between 2004 and 2005. Preliminary data was gathered in early 2004, followed by four full seasons of extensive sampling.
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