Do we, at the SF offices, recycle?

Good Morning!

I don't know about you, but here at the SuperForest offices, we are obsessed with trash.

Now, this may shock some of you out there, but we have one large garbage can and we throw all of our lovely paper, metal, glass and plastic into it! Can you believe it? We can't.

We have constantly been questioning this because it goes against everything we've been taught, and are trying to convey, with separating our trash. We have asked the building management several times about this and they haven't been clear about why we do not separate our trash, in this large commercial building in the middle of Manhattan. Some maintenance people said that the building just doesn't recycle (What??). An elevator operator said that we pay extra to have the garbage company sort our trash for us. Well, which is it? Are we actually breaking the law and not recycling any of our trash?

From NYC.GOV:
"All New York City businesses are required to recycle.

Businesses and buildings that contract directly with a private carter or recycler are mandated to recycle under NYC’s Local Law 87 and Commercial Recycling Regulations, enacted in 1992."

I decided to do some digging...

Commercial buildings in NYC hire private companies to pick up their trash. Unlike the the sidewalk trashcans, residential buildings, government agencies and public schools which get their trash picked up by the Department of Sanitation. In our building, they use the company, Waste Management.

They are the largest waste collecting company in North America. They own 22,000 collection trucks. They own the largest network of landfills in the industry. They have tons of transfer stations to efficiently manage our waste. They operate several renewable energy plants and yes, they own a bunch of recycling centers. Our good friend, Mario, the elevator operator was right. We use a service called Single-Stream Recycling:

"WM Recycle America is focused on making it easier for people to recycle - whether home or at work. In 2001, Waste Management became the first major solid waste company to focus on residential single-stream recycling, which allows customers to mix recyclable paper, plastic and glass in ONE BIN. Residential single-stream programs have greatly increased the recycling rates, recovering as much as three times the amount of recyclable materials. In fact, we opened our first single-stream plant in the late 1990’s.

Single-stream recycling is made possible through the use of various mechanized screens and optical sorting technologies. With single-stream recycling well under way in residential applications, Waste Management is advancing the same easy recycling programs for other commercial applications"

So we pay a little extra, but it is 3x more effective than separating our recyclables? Is this the future? No more bins?

Waste Managements seems to be an all around, great company. Check out their awesome site, Think Green. They have a great video here, showing their recycling facilities.

I also love this video showing a pear rotting and the gasses being converted to energy.

Great Site. Neat Videos. Very cool.

This has led me to question how the city is managing all it's waste. Why don't we have recycling bins on every corner? Do they also sort our trash? If you've read my previous post on the Subway trash, you know that is also managed privately through the MTA. So, what is with Department of Sanitation? What are they doing with all our trash?
I'm still digging....details to come shortly.

Until then, keep sorting!
(Unless someone else is doing it for you!)
n