One of the first things I noticed after reading the article was the similarity in community reaction to this proposed waste facility and the waste water management facility that we are doing a poster on. That facility is near Williamsburg and several studies of shown direct negative effects on the air in the area and in the East river next to the facility. This proposed facility is garnering negative reaction from the community and that reaction is quite understandable. As the article points out, why is the city spending so much time and money in trying to find new locations to put the city’s trash instead of trying to reduce our trash.
The article noted that amongst large urban cities in the United States, New York City is one that is on the lower end with regards to recycling and composting. While you could argue that this is due to the public’s lack of interest in environmental issues, it is pointed that the businesses that are exempt from recycling regulations are responsible for 70% of the city’s trash. This is very problematic because it is unrealistic to think that the city government is going to try and put environmental regulations on business, large or not, given the amount of influence they have in the city.
The other problem with recycling in the city is that while recycling is enforced in homes, street trash is not properly regulated by the city or thrown out properly by New Yorkers. Ideally you would like to see street trash be recycled as well but because street trash is not properly divided, both due to lack of different recycling trash cans and enforcement by city officials, street trash is not recycled. It is noted that small public initiatives such as increasing the exchange amount for recycling bottles can help convince more to recycle. However, I cannot see any large public initiatives that would improve the increasingly problematic trash overflow issue in New York City.
