Q&A
Effectiveness of plastic recycling and use of waste-to-energy in New York City
1:21:01
·
106 sec
Council Member Abreu inquires about the effectiveness of plastic recycling and the use of waste-to-energy facilities. Deputy Commissioner Goodman acknowledges limitations in available data and explains DSNY's approach to waste-to-energy.
- DSNY does not have specific data on the percentage of collected plastic materials that end up in landfills or waste-to-energy facilities
- The department's recycling vendors do not report detailed end-use data for collected materials
- DSNY uses waste-to-energy as an alternative to landfilling, not as an alternative to recycling
- The department emphasizes that recycling vendors have a financial incentive to sell and recycle as much material as possible
Shaun Abreu
1:21:01
Recently, governments have been involved in litigation against private companies over claims that the companies falsely promoted their plastic packaging as recyclable when in reality much of the material could not be repurposed.
1:21:14
What percentage of plastic materials that make it into the residential and institutional recycling streams are landfill?
Joshua Goodman
1:21:21
You know, I just read about this litigation, this California case.
1:21:25
I wouldn't have comment on that specifically because I know it's sort of breaking news.
1:21:29
But on your question about how much is ultimately put to beneficial use, that's something we have to check on.
1:21:35
Yeah.
1:21:35
Right.
1:21:36
I mean, we know it's a 50 per it's about a 50% capture rate out of the waste stream.
1:21:41
If your question is about ultimate
Shaun Abreu
1:21:43
yeah.
1:21:43
My quest sorry.
1:21:44
My question is what percentage of plastic materials that make it into residential and institutional recycling streams are landfill?
Jennifer McDonnell
1:21:54
Yeah.
1:21:55
They don't have to look at that.
Joshua Goodman
1:21:56
Right.
1:21:56
Okay.
1:21:57
That's not something that's currently reported to us by our vendors.
Shaun Abreu
1:22:00
Okay.
1:22:02
What percentage of plastic materials that make it into residential and institutional recycling streams are sent for incineration at waste to energy plants?
1:22:10
Same.
1:22:11
Right?
Joshua Goodman
1:22:11
Yeah.
1:22:11
Also not reported to a spare vendors.
Shaun Abreu
1:22:13
And what are the percentages for metals or inglas?
1:22:16
Same.
Joshua Goodman
1:22:17
Yeah.
1:22:17
Just I would say, remember that they have a financial incentive.
1:22:20
Their goal is to sell the material.
1:22:22
So they try to keep those numbers as low as possible.
1:22:24
They don't report it to us, but their whole business model is dependent on getting that number as low as they possibly can.
Shaun Abreu
1:22:33
Does DSNY have any plans to reduce its use of waste to energy as a form of recycling?
Joshua Goodman
1:22:39
We use waste to energy as an alternative to landfilling.
1:22:44
It's not some something we currently use as an alternative to recycling.
