Recycling Needs Fixing

BROOKLYN —

Only 18% of household trash in New York City homes gets recycled.

Some bits are just too small to be separated and some types of plastics are not recyclable at all. A lot of the plastic we throw in the blue bin ends up getting diverted to landfills, where it takes hundreds of years to break down.

The Department of Sanitation estimates the cost of collection of recyclables at $686 per ton. A State Senate bill would shift the cost of waste and recycling recovery from taxpayers to the producers.

Clark Adomaitis goes to a Sunset Park recycling facility to explore the issue for this AudioFiles feature.

Music Clark Adomaitis

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