New York citizens take waste sorting very seriously. After all, residents understand that the ecological situation in their country and city depends on it. Americans who are used to being leaders in everything began to think about sorting and recycling waste back in the 19th century. Later, people in the USA started celebrating National Recycling Day. At the New York solid waste disposal plant, twenty tons of garbage are recycled every month. This once again emphasizes that the sorting problem for megacities will remain relevant for many years. New York has a lot of rules when it comes to waste sorting, but it so happens that citizens know very little about it. Read more at new-york.name.
Briefly about the main thing. How should New Yorkers sort garbage?
New Yorkers must separate their recyclables into mixed paper and cardboard, iron, glass and plastic. It is necessary to know what types of waste fall into each of these categories.
Mixed paper and cardboard can include:
- newspapers and magazines
- cardboard boxes (for pizza, eggs, etc.)
- paper bags and coffee cups
- books but only soft covers.
Bubble wrap, candy wrappers, photos and paper contaminated with edible wastes cannot be added to this category.
You can put the following things in containers with glass, plastics, iron and boxes:
- cans
- plastic containers, toys and bottles
- small household appliances (hairdryer, toaster, etc.)
- cartons after milk and juice
- pots and frying pans
- metal furniture and keys.
It is important, before recycling the waste, it must be emptied and rinsed with water. This is to ensure that the smell of garbage in containers on the street does not attract rodents.
Items such as electronics, large home appliances, light bulbs and batteries must be returned to sellers who are required to accept them for disposal. However, household chemicals and other toxic substances that people use in everyday life should be delivered to special household waste collection points. In New York, it is SAFE Disposal Events.
Where does the garbage go after sorting?
There are about 8.5 million people in New York City and, of course, they leave behind a significant amount of trash every day. The main solid waste processing plant, which is called Sims Municipal Recycling, is located in Brooklyn and equipped with the latest technology. More than 20 tons of rubbish from New Yorkers’ houses get there every month. If you take a closer look at these materials, you can learn a lot about the citizens’ daily life. This plant has collected almost all solid waste from residential buildings of the metropolis and about 40% of paper waste.
Tom Outerbridge, general director of the Sims Municipal Recycling plant, believes that New York works quite well in terms of disposal. The city does not take first place in the USA, but it is not in the last either. Tom states that it is also worth considering that New York has a high population concentration, a large influx of tourists and immigrants of various ethnic groups and a huge number of skyscrapers. 20% of citizens voluntarily separate waste, which is why Tom Outerbridge compared New York to big cities in Japan. Indeed, there is almost a hundred-percent participation in recycling programs.
Sims Municipal Recycling uses exclusively innovative waste sorting technologies. The large Liberator machine opens the garbage bags and automatically sorts it. A special magnet attracts all the iron and sends it to a separate conveyor for further processing. The glass is ground on another conveyor, paper and cardboard fall into the third one.
Interestingly, the very first center in the world for garbage recycling was opened in New York in 1895. Unfortunately, after many decades, the metropolis has not become an example of the clearest environment. However, at the end of the 19th century, it set the trend for an important eco-habit.