It turns out that recycling a mayor doesn't lead to an increase of recycled waste. According to DNAinfo, the percentage of the city's waste that has been recycled has fallen from 19% in 2002 to 15% in 2011. Naturally, those Chaco-wearing patchouli-huffers out west are eating our lunches (then recycling the waste). Seattle and Portland have rates over 50%, while San Francisco's rate soared to 77% in 2009, no doubt on the success of converting plastic bottles and highlighters into bongs.
“Recycling has been one of the missing priorities of the Bloomberg administration's otherwise impressive track record on sustainability,” Eric Goldstein, a lawyer for the NRDC said. After a 2002 decision to halt the recycling of many products due to a tight budget, the recycling rate never returned to its previous high.
“New Yorkers haven’t received a clear and convincing message about exactly how to recycle, exactly what to recycle, and why it’s important, both economically and environmentally," Goldstein adds. It's true: we're bombarded with ads on smoking and sugar but where's the gentle scolding on paper and plastic?
The administration seems to recognize this, which is why in his state of the city in January, Bloomberg vowed to double the amount of waste sent from landfills by 2017.
