New York Expands Organics Recycling, Launches Ad Campaign

New York City has expanded its food waste recycling program and launched a public information campaign about its recycling efforts.

New York has expanded its food waste recycling pilot program in select high-rises in Manhattan, with neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the Bronx to follow this fall, the city said in a news release. Additional communities in those boroughs, as well as others in Queens and Staten Island, will begin organics recycling next spring. The program will reach more than 100,000 residences by 2014.

The “Recycle Everything” ad campaign will run throughout the city and highlight the city’s policies and investments aimed at doubling its recycling rate to 30 percent by 2017.

The food waste recycling program was expanded in late May to some residents on Staten Island after the pilot began in more than 90 Manhattan and Brooklyn public schools. In the Staten Island trial the city has measured a more than 50-percent voluntary participation rate.

In addition to the food waste recycling pilot, the city has partnered with GrowNYC to begin food scrap collection at green markers throughout the five boroughs. Households that want to compost but are not in the pilot areas for collection can bring food waste to sites across the city, where it is used for composting at community gardens and other environmental programs.

The ad program aims to show that most materials can be recycled and will be remade into other products.

“The ‘Recycle Everything’ ad campaign and the expansion of our organic food waste recycling program shows how far New York has come in managing the 11,000 tons of waste generated every day,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.