How Much Does New York Actually Recycle? - NYC Revealed 

This video gives a great overview of NYC's gigantic sorting facilities, but what happens to the materials after they're sorted? How much of each material is actually recycled, vs. shipped abroad, downcycled, or simply dumped in the landfill? Is that part handled by public or private services, and who pays for it?

They need to raise the bottle/can deposit a lot higher than 5 cents to incentivize more people to recycle. A nickel is basically the new penny... almost worthless, so most people say why bother.

There was an Australian report a few years ago saying out of all material that is thrown away as recyclable only 30% of that is actually recycled, the rest is just added to the normal garbage or incinerated. It went on to say that was probably an overestimation, and could be as low as 5%. I think this is probably the same all over the world.

Orlando recycling is streamlined to two bins. Though you can ask for two more if needed. We separate everything out with plastic, metal, paper/ cardboard, and other. You do your job and it’s taken away once a week no headaches no fuss. Usually recyclables become polyester, more bottles, cardboard, and toys and so much more. Ewaste is broken down into parts and often resold to dealers that salvage what they can and melt the rest for metal also separating out mercury and everything else. Legos can’t be recycled for some reason so you’re stuck with it.

I literally love recycling. Like its 2nd nature

Sadly many NYC restaurants do not offer recycling bins for customers who bus their own trash. It kills me to toss a soda can from lunch; I'll take it home to recycle there! (I carry a big shlep bag.)

I came to NYC as an international student, and I was mortified by the amount of trash and the size of roaches in the city. After spending awhile in nyc, I realized there is little to no will from the city residents to recycle and sort out their trash. To make it worse, DSNY recycling mechanism is complex and inefficient that even as a conscious citizen if you spent time to recycle, your hard work end up in landfills or incinerators. So the best solution is CONSUME LESS berceuse recycling or circular economy can't keep up with the amount of trash we collectively produce.

The federal government needs to subsidize recycling operations. It would create many jobs while improving the environment.

The US needs to recycle more!

Ok This series is incredible, and I hope you guys continue to make it for a long time. Also, that music at the end is absolutely bussin! Plz tell me who made it!

The problem is were still lazy. We want to put EVERYTHING into 1 pile and let someone else deal with it out of sight and out of mind. But imagine if we took sorting at home to another level, and had to sort it into some 30 different piles? Then all this stuff is already ready to go to where it needs to go without much sorting. It keeps things cleaner. But that would mean everyday people would need to be even more conscience of their waste. And that will be asking too much.

the problem with recycling plastic is that it's not just a single material. you can't reuse recycled plastic if it's a mix of different types of plastic. you have to make something out of it that doesn't require a specific type of plastic.. like the recycling bags the amount of manual labor in collecting that garbage is astounding in a city that big. where I live we have containers underground that you can throw your bag into. then the truck comes around and lifts the entire container out and empties it, puts it back, and drives to the next one

I sure wish NYC had a separate collection stream for plastic bags and plastic films (you can bring it to some stores, but the city only collects rigid plastic). So much plastic waste is from plastic bags/films from things like packaging, shipping, and freshness seals. I’m sure a lot of New Yorkers would separate out the non rigid plastic if there was a separate stream for it. Plastic bags that make it into the stream actually hurt the MRFs and gum up the sorting of rigid plastic recovery.

I don't use plastic bags for my glass, metal or paper. They go directly into marked bins. Same with the yard waste---they go in cans just for that purpose. During the pandemic, the DSNY workers told me, "You do a good job with separating it, but due to budget constraints, we're just taking it as trash". Yet, it took a month to get the leaves picked up this last time in 2023 when I had them out on the right day. Also, I don't put the leaves in bags. Again, they go in marked yard waste containers. This uses less resources (as bags are not recycled) and the bins/cans can be used over and over again, saving both money and resources. I use yard tools that were at the curb that I fixed up, the lawn mower I use at my properties came from the curb and I fixed them to work like new, and even the shovel to pick up the leaves came from the curb, and I fixed that. Rounding out the set, the rake was tossed in the trash, and I used a spare broom handle on it and it now is a long-handled rake. I maintain one property alone with all curbside tools and equipment. That's my "Re-Use" philosophy.

Waste food is used o produce natural gas (not gasoline) for all buses in Stockholm. Oh, they are hybrid electric also

How much of it is just sent over seas and called recycling? The water bottle industry sprang up over 30 years ago because at the time the public was encouraging people to not drink soft drinks and have water instead. The various soft drink companies created bottled water in response as the revanue streams were at risk. They then launched a marketing campaign to say that their bottled water is of higher quality. In fine print is says it is from the same sources we use to drink tap water. This also made the plastic waste problem so much worse. The best benefit that may have come from this off the top if my head is disaster relief. If change is what we want. France has a vastly superior water system when it comes to cutting on waste. Water stations throughout the region with reusable bottles for sale. This is what we need to do. The problem wont go away unless we go for the sources.

Wait, it just occurred to me, often when I see video of New York, the trash pickup is in the street. I’m from Chicago, we have alleys for basically every street, and that’s where the trash cans stay, every day, and where the trash pickup is. I figured that was the basic layout in all the major cities. Does New York not have alleys?

Recyling can't lead to zero waste. You can only recycle plastic a few times before it becomes too weak.

Great Video

Awesome!! 😀

Good jobs 👍

Recycling also is at stores like supermarkets, whole sales, even Target & Walmart with the bottle & can machines worth a nickel for each which are called Reverse Vending Machines which I enjoy using

Why not add a waste separation line in the facility that receives the remaining mixed waste. Do as good sorting as you automatically can then send the rest to waste-to-power-plant instead of landfill?

in south korea... they have the sane concept. but u buy the bags. im not gonna spell it out here but look it up. it works wonders.

looks good but never works lol

The problem with composting in NYC is the infrequent pickup and actual urban wildlife. If Sanitation picked up compost daily, then more NYers would participate.

They need some sorting robots on there.

It should be raised to .10 or even higher at this point. Letting the consumer choose to get it back or not is the way to go! It would also be great to move toward a standardization for separation again, since shipping everything in one container to China didn't work out. Pass laws to make companies use a small set of recyclable materials in packaging and then educate consumers on separating materials again.

i am all for recycling what can be, there are places that may not recycle as much but they incinerate it to make electricity which is also ok with me, better than a landfill. some plastics can even be made into diesel.

No mention of the market for the recycled material? If there is no market for the plastics, what happens to them?

Trash collectors shouldn't be touching garbage or bags of garbage that could have sharps in them. Amsterdam came up with the solution of putting bins below the sidewalk and having the trucks pull them out, much like trucks in the suburbs lift people's bins.

Not me trying to spot my garbage!

Michigan has a 10 cent bottle bill and soooo many people redeem them

The solution is to make recycling as easy and low effort for people as possible. Definitely single stream recycling -- NOT having people sort by paper, plastic, metal, glass, etc. Everything should just be either "trash" or "recycling" in a given person's head, and don't give them anything else to think about or do but toss the "recycling" in one convenient bin that's collected often and regularly. The ultimate goal for recycling programs should be to remove themselves from public consciousness completely. Ultimately once the technology and budget exist, we should have truly single stream trash/recycling, just one bin for everything recyclable or not, and then the infrastructure should develop on the back end to sort and recycle everything possible and send the rest to a landfill or incinerator as appropriate. Take recycling out of the hands of the people altogether.

Using less stuff is really not going to happen. You'd be going up against a trillion dollar industry designed to get people to use more stuff, not less. Making the 'more stuff' out of more easily recyclable materials might be the best, cheapest plan.

lol, why renaming the video from "inside the largest recycling system in america" to "how much does new york actually recycle?" isnt it the largest ?

The video doesn't cover the fact that not everything collected is recycled. People confuse collection and sorting with recycling. Plastic is getting sorted and chopped up at these plants, not recycled. There are very few companies that want to recycle it because it's not profitable. Recycling should be done by the government, as in Europe, not by private companies.

Good.

It should be at least 10 cent per can and bottle

Damn recyclers are lookers!

I thought that this video was about Delaware 😏

It’s so sad such a good recycling system is wasted by so many New Yorkers for the sake of convenience

Maybe the Bartender can leave DC and come back to NY and do some work with this recycling. so we capture more of it, instead of wasting taxpayers money in Congress.

i heard that NYC doesn't even recycle anymore because of "covid"

Reuse is not for Apple product, recycle come first in their list..

Make those deposits 25 cents, then people will recycle.

“NY is a city that prides itself on sustainability” …recycles 50 percent 🤨

PROBLEM... China stopped taking our recyclables. How is THAT working out?

Does "informal worker" mean homeless or illegal immigrants that you don't want to use the correct term for?

It's the companies' responsibility to make recycling easy

Recycling in The country isn't working because those on the right keep throwing a wrench in the works! Recycling could/could work perfectly If only everyone was on board! Some people are just resistant for no other reason then because! Pathetic!

Recycling is a circle jerk, feel good, do nothing program. If there was value to be captured by repurposing our recyclables, there would be a private organization willing to pay for your recycling. The truth is that the resources necessary to make use of our recycling is greater than the value of repurposing them.

Someone actually raising their voice because of a loud background? That's a rarity 🤧

3 R is just useless and meaningless to ordinary consumers, it is just a scheme, blaming the consumers for wasting too much. All these reductions and reuses must in the planning and production phases, and consumers in general truly only care at the most probably just 10% of reductions and reuse, 90% just recycle, or straight to landfill bins. I will argue, it’s very irresponsible to assume consumers to reduce and reuse while all they can buy are one time use stuffs or specialized things for special purposes. The 3 R are for the producers, not consumers. This is just upside down like the whole system.

Rmp,😊

Hi all, just chiming in to help with some of the below questions! The Brooklyn facility featured in this video is able to recover about 95% of the recyclables it receives. Those recyclables are then sold to metal smelters, plastic reclaimers and glass furnaces that are up and down the eastern US/Canada. Most of NYC's recycled paper goes to a paper mill right on Staten Island where it is processed into new rolls of paper. Unfortunately, about 30% of what the Brooklyn facility receives is trash, items NOT accepted in NYC's recycling program. It wouldn't really be possible for recycling facilities to survive if they were not recovering the majority of the recyclables they received. That is how they recover funds to cover their operations. If recycling facilities were constantly throwing valuable materials away, they wouldn't not be able to financially support themselves. The economics just wouldn't work out. Have more questions? You can visit the Brooklyn facility to see the process in action and ask all of them! Visit simsmunicipal.com for more info and to book a tour. Remember to ALWAYS Reduce and Reuse first, and as a last resort, recycle right.

How much does NYC recycle exactly now that we can't export our shit to China to deal with? Which country or countries do we export our shit to now outside our capacity to recycle?

youtube algorithm

If you want ppl to get onboard with recycling and sustainable practices. Do not tell ppl to consume less, they will unfollow real quick. If you tell them material recover makes our consumerist lifestyles more sustainable and economical. They may play along.

2nd!

Lots of rubbish!

first

First

We need to learn frm Japanese......

Yay! Another reason for me to hate New York verses the quieter, cleaner life that I live now.

I don't understand any of these "recycling" videos, as you never have a solution to all the plastic garbage. It's like sorting buttons for the emperor's new clothes. The background noise was irritating, too, and our environment is becoming more toxic every day. 👎 Fixing our environment is more complicated than "sorting".