Less Than A Quarter Of NYC's Garbage Is Actual Trash, Study Finds

NEW YORK, NY — New Yorkers are throwing away less stuff than a decade ago, but less than a quarter of what they put on the curb actually belongs in a landfill, according to a new Department of Sanitation study. Recyclable paper, plastic, metal and glass, along with organic materials such as food scraps, made up 68 percent of the 3.1 million tons of waste the city's residents pitched in 2017, according to the city's latest Waste Characterization Survey published Tuesday.

Other recyclable materials that aren't collected at the curb — such as textiles, plastic bags and electronics — made up another 9 percent, the survey found. That means just 23 percent of the city's waste was actual trash that should go to a landfill.

New Yorkers are throwing away less stuff than they were 12 years ago even though the city's population has grown, the study found. The average household pitched fewer than 1,990 pounds of waste last year, down from nearly 2,280 pounds in 2005.

The amount of refuse — stuff that's not recycled — that city workers collect from the average residence has dropped more than 13 percent in that time, according to figures in the survey.

"(T)his study tells us that our efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle our waste are working," Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia said in a statement. "The average New York City household throws away less and recycles more today than five years ago. The study also shows us that we have incredible opportunities to develop and grow programs to achieve even more."

New Yorkers still have some learning to do when it comes to recycling.

The average household threw away 158.1 pounds of paper and 179 pounds of glass, metal and plastic that could have been recycled last year, the study shows.

Roughly half of all paper, plastic bottles and other recyclable metal and glass items were properly recycled last year, the survey says. And some 27.5 percent of all plastics that aren't bottles, which the city started recycling in late 2013, went into recycling bins last year, the figures show.

New Yorkers are good at recycling cardboard — 79 percent of it was correctly recycled — but struggle with keeping aluminum out of landfills. Just 15 percent of the city's aluminum foil and containers was properly recycled last year, the survey found.

(Lead image: Garbage sits on the street in Lower Manhattan in February 2018. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)