NYC’s organic recycling program not meeting goals: report

New York City’s organic recycling program will not expand as expected because it is so far not meeting its goals, The Associated Press reported Sunday.

The AP reported that the program, introduced five years ago by Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), is not meeting participation goals. The program depends on residents to voluntarily separate organic waste such as food scraps, food-soiled paper and yard waste from other trash and recycling, according to the program’s website.

{mosads}The city collected just 13,000 tons last year from residents and found that the people participating in the voluntary program are only separating 10.6 percent of their potential items, according to the AP. About 3.5 million residents are currently participating in the program.

The program is meant to help meet de Blasio’s goal of sending zero waste to landfills by 2030 because organic waste currently makes up a third of the trash that goes to landfills, per the AP.

Ana Champeny, the director of city studies at the Citizen’s Budget Commission, told the AP that the program has been costly. She said that collecting organic waste is more than five times more expensive than collecting normal garbage. 

Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia said last week that the city is focused on making the program more efficient, but added that the city is still hoping to ultimately expand the program to all of the city’s 8.5 million residents, the AP reported.

Garcia also told the AP that the city has “to overcome the ‘ick’ factor” that comes with separating organic waste.