NYCHA Observes ‘America Recycles Day’ Every Day of the Year

November 15 is America Recycles Day, but NYCHA recognizes the importance of recycling every day – the Authority has renewed its focus on recycling and created new programs to improve the collection of recyclables. 

NYCHA’s Waste Management Department launched its Recycle First initiative in Staten Island in September 2021, working closely with development staff and the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) to refine waste operations so that it includes recycling at every step. Following successful implementation in Staten Island, the initiative continued its phased approach with expansion into Queens, beginning with Western Queens this past May. 

A key component of the Recycle First Initiative is training development caretakers “to prioritize recycling as a mindset,” said Waste Management Project Manager David Liao. The other is to use data and photos to coordinate and quality-check pickups with DSNY. “Over the past 13 months,” said Mr. Liao, “we have tracked over 41,000 bags and bales, which is equivalent to over 230 tons of recyclable material.”  

Data collection from the initiative shows that with the right support, residents and staff at NYCHA can recycle even more than other NYC residents: Despite its relatively small population, Mariner’s Harbor comprises 40 percent of Recycle First-tracked recycling volume across all of Staten Island and Queens. 

Recycling paper and plastic is one way of keeping material out of landfills, but composting food scraps is another. Green City Force, a non-profit that recruits and trains young NYCHA residents to help drive environmental and health initiatives in public housing, already operates five farm sites at NYCHA developments – Bay View Houses, Forest Houses, Howard Houses, Mariner’s Harbor, and Wagner Houses – where residents can drop off their food scraps.  

By the end of this year, residents at Polo Grounds Towers and Patterson Houses will be able to drop off their food scraps at compost bins located on-site, built and maintained by Green City Force and Compost Power.   

The finished compost is distributed within the farms and to community gardens and any community member who wants to use it for their own garden. Soon, a compost system will be added as part of Green City Force’s newest farm and eco-hub at Astoria Houses in Queens.  

In the coming months, residents will also be able to drop off food scraps at organics bins in Western Queens developments as part of the DSNY Queens organics rollout. NYCHA staff in Queens locations are bagging leaves for weekly pick up by DSNY, which are composted along with food scraps at DSNY compost sites.  

“We are working diligently to bring NYCHA one step closer to our goal of providing all NYCHA residents access to organics collection by 2026,” said Louisa Denison, Program Associate in NYCHA’s Sustainability Department.  

While a lot of these programs are new and quickly expanding, recycling programs at NYCHA didn’t just materialize. These programs are the result of years of advocacy, capital improvements, and staff as well as resident education. 

Two such advocates have made it their mission to get NYCHA recycle-ready. The non-profit Inner City Green Team (ICGT) has spent the last 10 years helping NYCHA create a recycling infrastructure. When ICGT realized that recycling bins first placed on NYCHA campuses in 2015 were outdoors instead of indoors, ICGT founder Brigitte Charlton-Vicenty and co-founder John Johnson went door-to-door to pick up residents’ recycling themselves. “Only 1.5 percent of what is recyclable in NYCHA’s waste gets recycled,” Mr. Johnson noted, referring to a 2017 DSNY study. “ICGT has plans to increase that capture rate and create jobs for NYCHA residents in the process.” ICGT now runs an 18-month demonstration contract at Wagner Houses collecting recyclables every Friday. 

NYCHA residents can learn more about how to recycle and recycling program opportunities at https://www.nyc.gov/site/nycha/residents/recycling.page.