Waste management in New York City encompasses the collection, processing, and disposal of residential and commercial refuse, recyclables, and organic materials. This page covers CBC’s work on sanitation labor productivity, commercial waste zones, volume-based waste fees, organic waste diversion, and resident satisfaction with city cleanliness services.
This page was created with AICBC Insights uses AI to group, analyze and present data and recommendations from CBC's publications. Always reference the cited sources to verify important details..
The City should institute a volume-based fee for waste and tailor it to incentivize recycling, organic composting, and waste reduction.
The City should negotiate operational and work-rule changes with labor that would improve productivity of recycling and refuse collection.
The City should expand organic composting by increasing drop-off sites, encouraging use of in-sink disposers, and piloting on-site anaerobic micro digesters in buildings, instead of a citywide curbside collection program.
The City should reconsider conducting the study on how to implement a volume-based fee in New York City.
The City should use GIS technology to optimize collection routes.
The City should increase the use of one-worker automated collection vehicles, where appropriate.
Key Data
A March 2024 report on a citywide resident survey revealed that while over 50% of New Yorkers rated household garbage pickup as excellent or good, only 24% rated the overall quality of government services positively.
In September 2022, the CBC reported that New York City's curbside diversion rate increased by just 1.6 percentage points over 11 years, rising from 15.4% in fiscal year 2011 to 17% in fiscal year 2022, lagging behind its 23% goal.
As of September 2022, organic waste made up 34% of the city's waste stream, but low participation in fiscal year 2020 led to residents separating only 4% of suitable organic waste, driving collection costs possibly up to $1,700 per ton.
In testimony from April 2021, the CBC noted that DSNY refuse productivity hit an all-time low of 9.3 tons per truck shift in fiscal year 2020, falling below the collectively bargained target of 10.7 tons per truck shift.
According to an April 2019 post, single-use plastic bags made up 2% of the city's residential waste stream, totaling 71,000 tons annually and costing the city $12.1 million each year to landfill.
Jessica S. Tisch was appointed the 48th police commissioner of the City of New York by Mayor Eric Adams in November 2024. Immediately prior, she had served as the commissioner of the New York City Department of Sanitation, a post she held since April 2022. Commissioner Tisch began her career…
Mayoral candidates identified the Department of Sanitation as a key agency for quality improvement, emphasizing the need to address the visible issue of garbage in city streets to better serve New Yorkers. The material focuses on broader city finances and management, with limited specific discussion regarding waste management policy or data.
New Yorkers' satisfaction with city services has declined significantly, with only 57 percent rating garbage collection and 55 percent rating recycling collection as excellent or good. Furthermore, only 27 percent of residents view the city's rat control efforts favorably, highlighting a need for improved service delivery in these areas.
Key Data
57%
— Percentage of New Yorkers who rate **garbage collection** as excellent or good.
55%
— Percentage of New Yorkers who rate **recycling collection** as excellent or good.
27%
— Percentage of New Yorkers who rate **rat control** as excellent or good.
44 million pounds of trash are generated by New Yorkers every day. The NYC Department of Sanitation not only collects residential waste, recyclables, and compostables, but it also removes snow, cleans streets and lots, removes graffiti, and fights rats. CBC Chair Marissa Shorenstein is joined by Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch,…
Commissioner Jessica Tisch is a lifelong New Yorker, appointed in April 2022 to lead the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY). In this role, Commissioner Tisch is leading a trash revolution, changing the way New Yorkers interact with waste for the first time in generations by making meaningful progress…
Kathryn Garcia serves as Director of State Operations and Infrastructure, where she oversees over 70 state agencies and authorities, including the MTA and Port Authority. Kathryn has over 14 years of government experience delivering services that New Yorkers rely on every day. Previously, she served as the Commissioner of the…
New York aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030 and 85 percent by 2050, requiring strategic policy choices to manage costs and impacts. To support these climate goals, the state should implement waste management strategies including extended producer responsibility programs, volume-based waste fees, and organic waste reduction.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The state should implement an extended producer responsibility program to reduce waste generation and improve waste collection.
The state should adopt a volume-based waste fee to reduce waste generation and improve waste collection.
The state should prioritize organic waste reduction to reduce waste generation and improve waste collection.
New York City's recycling rates remain low, with only 17% of curbside waste diverted in fiscal year 2022, while collection costs are high due to inefficient truck usage and low participation in organic waste programs. To improve these outcomes, the city should implement volume-based waste fees, negotiate more efficient labor work rules, and expand alternatives to curbside organic collection like drop-off sites and in-sink disposers.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City should institute a volume-based fee for waste and tailor it to incentivize recycling, organic composting, and waste reduction.
The City should negotiate operational and work-rule changes with labor that would improve productivity of recycling and refuse collection.
The City should expand organic composting by increasing drop-off sites, encouraging use of in-sink disposers, and piloting on-site anaerobic micro digesters in buildings, instead of a citywide curbside collection program.
The City should reconsider conducting the study on how to implement a volume-based fee in New York City.
The City should use GIS technology to optimize collection routes.
The City should increase the use of one-worker automated collection vehicles, where appropriate.
Key Data
17.0 percent
— The City's overall curbside diversion rate in fiscal year 2022.
81,000 metric tons
— Carbon dioxide generated by landfills in 2020.
$203 per ton
— Refuse disposal cost to the City in fiscal year 2021.
$53 per ton
— Recycling processing cost in fiscal year 2021.
$615 per ton
— Recycling collection cost in fiscal year 2021.
$342 per ton
— Cost of collecting refuse in fiscal year 2021.
The proposed Extended Producer Responsibility legislation aims to shift the financial burden of recycling from municipalities to producers, potentially lowering costs for local sanitation departments. Legislators must carefully evaluate how these provisions interact with existing local sanitation programs to ensure environmental benefits are maximized without imposing undue costs on businesses or consumers.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The Legislature should weigh how the provisions of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) bill interact with local government sanitation programs, especially New York City’s.
The Legislature should be careful to maximize the benefits of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for municipalities and the environment while avoiding complicated programs for producers or individuals, or costly requirements for businesses and consumers.
New York City could achieve significant annual savings by optimizing sanitation operations, specifically by lengthening collection routes to ensure trucks are fully loaded before tipping. Additionally, transitioning to one-person automated collection vehicles would allow the city to modernize productivity standards and reduce costs associated with current two-person staffing models.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The city should lengthen sanitation routes so that trucks are full when they tip, which could save more than $120 million annually.
The city should tie the sanitation worker efficiency differential to new productivity increases, such as one-person automated collection, rather than continuing it for two-person collection vehicles.
Key Data
$120 million
— Annual savings potential from lengthening sanitation routes so that trucks are full when they tip.
New York City's sanitation department should optimize collection routes and modernize labor payments to improve productivity and reduce costs. Additionally, the city should explore implementing volume-based fees for refuse disposal and increasing containerized collection to reduce waste generation and improve cleanliness.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
DSNY should work with labor to change work rules to optimize collection routes, increase flexibility in collection frequency to align with the amount of waste to be collected, and modernize labor differential payments to incentivize higher productivity under current collection procedures.
The City should explore volume-based fees, which have been successful in reducing waste generation and increasing recycling in other cities by making the cost of refuse disposal clearly visible to residents.
The City could increase containerized collection, for example by utilizing street furniture as a centralized collection point.
City managers and labor should identify and work to change work rules that constrain operations, such as set shift-lengths and inflexible sanitation routes that hamper DSNY’s ability to optimize curbside refuse and recycling collection.
New York City's goal to achieve zero waste by 2030 has seen slow progress, with refuse reduction falling far short of the necessary targets. To improve efficiency and incentivize waste reduction, the city should implement a volume-based fee system for refuse collection and optimize sanitation operations through route revisions and modernized collection practices.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City should implement a volume-based fee to increase service cost visibility and reduce waste generation.
The City should expand the use of organics drop-off sites in locations central to communities such as subway stops.
The City should incentivize, if feasible and cost-effective, on-site anaerobic digesters in large residential buildings.
The City should encourage the use of in-sink food disposal where feasible for DEP wastewater treatment plants to lessen the need for costly curbside collection.
The City should build on its textile recycling program through expanded drop-off locations or by partnering with private haulers.
The City should regularly revise collection routes with the help of GPS technology and routing software to optimize route capacities.
The City should greatly expand containerization, including centralized drop-off sites for waste on the street in districts as appropriate.
Key Data
$110 million
— Annual savings the City could realize from lower waste volumes by implementing a volume-based fee.
$250 million
— Annual savings the City could achieve by coupling a volume-based fee with effective operational management.
$41 million
— Annual cost to the City to cover higher DEP operating costs and the price of purchase and installation of in-sink units.
9.3 tons
— Refuse collected per truck shift in fiscal year 2020, an all-time low.
14 percent
— Reduction in the total volume of organics in the refuse stream if in-sink food disposal units are expanded.
600,000
— Number of fewer tons of waste landfilled each year if a volume-based fee is implemented.
The Department of Sanitation struggled to adapt to pandemic-related shifts in waste production, with productivity falling to a low of 9.3 tons per truck shift in fiscal year 2020. Consequently, the city experienced a 44 percent increase in complaints regarding missed garbage collection in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021 compared to the same period the previous year.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City should improve the flexibility of DSNY’s routing and work rules to allow for the quick redeployment of resources to address rapid changes in waste generation patterns.
The City should implement robust performance metrics to foster a better understanding of the effectiveness and efficiency of services like waste collection.
The City should collect high-quality data on key quality of life indicators to better understand resident complaints regarding cleanliness and missed garbage collection.
Key Data
9.3 tons
— The low level of refuse collected per truck shift reached by DSNY in fiscal year 2020.
10.7 tons
— The contractual target for tons of refuse collected per truck shift at DSNY.
0.1 percent
— The increase in total curbside and containerized refuse collected during fiscal year 2020 over fiscal year 2019.
15,124
— The number of complaints about missed garbage collection received by the City in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021.
44 percent
— The increase in complaints about missed garbage collection in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021 compared to the first quarter of fiscal year 2020.
9.5 percent
— The sick leave rate among uniformed DSNY employees in fiscal year 2020.
Implementing non-exclusive commercial waste zones in New York City would significantly reduce vehicle miles traveled and emissions while maintaining necessary competition and service standards. This approach avoids the risks associated with exclusive zones, such as reduced incentives for efficiency and the high costs of relying on the Department of Sanitation as a backup provider.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City Council should enact non-exclusive waste zones to achieve the benefits of a zone system while maintaining competition and customer service.
The City Council should amend Intro 1574 to permit the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) to award contracts to three to five carters per zone.
The City should utilize contract requirements to set standards for vehicle emissions, safety, training, labor, and recycling.
Key Data
50 percent
— Projected reduction in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) under a non-exclusive zone model.
58 percent
— Projected reduction in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) under an exclusive zone model.
three to five
— Number of carters per zone recommended for the non-exclusive model.
twice
— The cost of DSNY collection compared to the private sector.
New York City should implement a non-exclusive commercial waste zone program to reduce vehicle miles traveled and improve industry standards while maintaining competitive pricing and service quality. By avoiding exclusive zones, the city can mitigate the risk of service failures and ensure that private carters remain incentivized to keep costs low and performance high.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City should establish a non-exclusive commercial waste zone program to improve efficiency and maintain competition.
The City's request for proposals should include detailed performance metrics to be tracked and made publicly available for robust program evaluation.
Key Data
50%
— The reduction in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) that would be produced by moving from the current system to a zone model.
58%
— The overall VMT reduction provided by exclusive zones.
8 percentage points
— The difference in VMT reduction between exclusive zones and a non-exclusive model.
86%
— The portion of potential VMT reduction that could be achieved through non-exclusive zones.
Implementing a 5-cent fee on paper carryout bags is a necessary step to reduce single-use bag waste, as evidence suggests fees are more effective than simple bans at encouraging the use of reusable alternatives. This policy would generate revenue to be split between local reusable bag distribution programs and the State Environmental Protection Fund.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City should support legislation to impose a 5-cent fee on most paper carryout bags.
The City should adopt the paper carryout bag fee to realize the fiscal and environmental benefits of sharply reducing the number of single-use bags from the waste stream.
Key Data
2%
— of the City’s residential waste stream is comprised of plastic bags.
71,000 tons
— of the City’s residential waste stream is comprised of plastic bags.
$12.1 million
— is the annual cost to landfill plastic bags.
500 years
— is the time it takes for plastic bags to decompose.
7-cent
— tax in Chicago was credited with a reduction in the use of single-use bags.
94%
— reduction in single-use bags was achieved in Los Angeles following a similar effort.
New York City's proposed Commercial Waste Zone program aims to improve collection efficiency and reduce environmental impacts by dividing the city into 20 zones where a limited number of private carters compete for contracts. This shift is expected to decrease truck traffic by 18 million miles annually while allowing businesses to maintain competitive pricing and service options.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City should implement the Commercial Waste Zone program to increase collection efficiency and yield environmental benefits.
The City should cap the number of zones in which any one carter can operate to prevent a monopoly in commercial carting.
The City should require carters to offer recycling and organic collection at a lower rate than refuse collection.
The City should specify vehicle standards, environmental standards, and require that carters provide all of the mandated collection services through competitive procurement.
The City should maintain competition in pricing and customer service by allowing businesses to negotiate with the carters that operate in their zones.
Key Data
90
— Number of licensed commercial carters currently operating in New York City.
108,000
— Number of customers currently served by licensed commercial carters.
3.5 million
— Tons of waste generated per year by commercial customers.
18 million
— Miles of truck traffic reduction expected from the new Commercial Waste Zone program.
38 percent
— Amount more that the average small business pays for waste collection compared to the average large business.
New York City's curbside organic waste collection program currently suffers from low participation rates and high costs, with collection expenses reaching $1,700 per ton compared to $291 for standard refuse. Because the program lacks sufficient processing capacity and resident buy-in, the decision to halt its expansion allows for necessary assessments of collection methods and strategies to improve efficiency.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The Department of Sanitation should assess participation in existing neighborhoods to better understand why buy-in has been slow.
The Department of Sanitation should pilot new strategies to increase tonnage collected through the organics program.
The Department of Sanitation should experiment with alternative collection schedules or modes to improve the cost-effectiveness of the program.
The Department of Sanitation should provide more detailed data on tonnage, participation, collection modes, costs, and collection efficiency to allow for better program evaluation.
The Department of Sanitation should negotiate operational changes with the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association to potentially lower high per-ton collection costs.
Key Data
$1,700 per ton
— Estimated cost of organics collection, compared to $291 per ton of refuse and $686 per ton of recycling.
123 tons per day
— Current amount of organic waste collected via curbside, up from 19 tons per day in 2014.
3.4 percent
— Portion of total citywide organic tonnage represented by current curbside collection.
10.6 percent
— Amount of organic waste separated in neighborhoods with the curbside program in 2017.
89.4 percent
— Amount of organic waste in program districts that was still put in regular waste for landfilling in 2017.
1 to 2 tons
— Average amount of organics collected per truck-shift, compared to 9.3 tons of refuse and 5.5 tons of recycling.
1,988 lbs is the average amount of garbage a NYC household throws out each year. City Council Member Antonio Reynoso, Chair of the Council’s Sanitation Committee, joined to discuss the cost of disposing trash, the capture rate of recyclable materials, commercial waste management, and other important issues related to sanitation…
New York City's waste management system faces significant fiscal challenges, with recycling collection costing more than double that of refuse collection and organics programs currently operating inefficiently. To improve sustainability and fiscal health, the city should prioritize labor productivity, halt the expansion of underutilized organics programs, and implement policies like plastic bag fees and volume-based garbage charges.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City should seek productivity gains in waste collection in order to realize savings, including meeting collection targets, increasing the volume of recyclables, and optimizing the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association (USA) labor contract.
The City should focus on increasing participation in the curbside organics program before extending it to other areas and pursuing the use of in-sink disposers.
The City should continue policy initiatives to improve solid waste collection, including save-as-you-throw and single-stream recycling.
The City should revisit a plastic bag ban with a fee on alternatives.
The City should halt expansion of the organics program until participation can be increased in existing districts.
Key Data
$120 million
— Potential annual savings from meeting waste collection productivity targets.
$12.1 million
— Annual cost to landfill plastic bags.
$40 million
— Estimated annual cost of collecting 13,000 tons of organics.
$105 million
— Potential net reduction in costs from increasing recycling capture rates to 55 percent.
$20 million
— Estimated cost increase for collection and disposal if households sorted 55 percent of recyclables.
Plastic bags constitute approximately 2 percent of New York City's residential waste stream, costing $12.1 million annually to landfill and taking over 500 years to decompose. To address this, the city should implement a ban on single-use plastic bags paired with a fee on alternative bags to effectively incentivize the use of reusable options.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City should act again on this issue and a local ban on plastic bags, coupled with a fee on alternatives, should be adopted.
Key Data
2 percent
— Plastic bags make up about 2 percent of the City’s residential waste stream.
71,000 tons
— Based on the 2017 Waste Characterization Study, there were about 71,000 tons of plastic bags in the waste stream.
$12.1 million
— Plastic bags are landfilled with the rest of the City’s waste at a cost of $12.1 million each year.
500 years
— Once landfilled, plastic bags take well over 500 years to decompose.
94 percent
— A similar effort in Los Angeles led to a 94 percent reduction in single-use bags.
$4
— The Los Angeles initiative cost less than $4 per resident per year.
New York City's efforts to achieve zero waste by 2030 face significant challenges due to inefficient collection systems and low participation rates in programs like curbside organics. To improve cost-effectiveness and waste reduction, the city should implement structural changes to collection frequency, adopt automated technology, and reform labor agreements regarding productivity bonuses.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City should implement a slower rollout of the organics program, limiting it to districts that can generate sufficient tonnage without requiring additional collection days.
The City should utilize in-sink disposers in select districts to divert organic waste from landfills without requiring curbside collection.
The City should allow greater flexibility in the frequency of collection, scheduling, and recycling practices, including redesigned routes.
The City should expand the use of large containers and automated trucks to improve collection efficiency.
The City should eliminate “unproductive” productivity bonuses for tons collected per truck shift and for dumping on shift, which are based on route assignments rather than actual worker productivity.
Key Data
81.4 tons
— Average amount of organics collected per day by the New York City Department of Sanitation in fiscal year 2017.
0.8 percent
— Share of all refuse collected at the curb that consisted of organics in fiscal year 2017.
17 percent
— Current recycling diversion rate, representing the share of curbside waste that is recycled.
$640 per ton
— Current cost for the Department of Sanitation to collect recyclable material per truck shift.
$282 per ton
— Current cost for the Department of Sanitation to collect refuse per truck shift.
$3,000
— Estimated cost of a single truck run based on data for refuse and recycling runs.
Residents in Bronx community districts report varying levels of satisfaction with essential services, with household garbage pick-up ratings ranging from 45.0% to 82.1% and recycling services satisfaction spanning 39.3% to 81.1%. These survey results highlight significant disparities in the perceived quality of sanitation and waste-related services across different neighborhoods in the borough.
In a 2017 survey of New York City residents, 66.4% of respondents rated household garbage pick-up as excellent or good, while 63.6% gave a positive rating to recycling services. Despite these ratings, 16.1% of participants identified neighborhood cleanliness and appearance as one of the most important issues requiring attention from the city government.
Key Data
66.4%
— Proportion of residents who rated household garbage pick-up as excellent or good.
63.6%
— Proportion of residents who rated recycling services as excellent or good.
47.4%
— Proportion of residents who rated the cleanliness of their neighborhood as excellent or good.
16.1%
— Proportion of survey respondents who identified cleanliness and appearance as one of the most important issues requiring attention from city government.
New York City disposes of approximately 10 billion plastic bags annually at a cost of $12.5 million, prompting support for a 5-cent fee to reduce waste and environmental damage. Implementing such fees has proven effective in other jurisdictions, such as Washington, D.C., where plastic bag usage declined by more than 50 percent.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The Governor should veto A.04883/S.04158, which would place a moratorium on a 5 cent fee on certain plastic bags in New York City.
New York City should use financial incentives to reduce waste generation, such as the 5 cent fee on plastic bags.
Key Data
10 billion
— Number of plastic bags New York City disposes of each year.
$12.5 million
— Annual cost to New York City for disposing of plastic bags.
50%
— Decline in plastic bag usage seen in Washington, D.C. after implementing a fee.
In fiscal year 2016, the Department of Sanitation improved the city's recycling diversion rate by 6%, reaching a total rate of 16.9%. Despite this progress in recycling, the overall volume of refuse disposed in New York City increased slightly during the same period.
Key Data
6%
— The improvement in the recycling diversion rate achieved by the Department of Sanitation in fiscal year 2016.
16.9%
— The total recycling diversion rate reached by the Department of Sanitation in fiscal year 2016.
The city's waste management efforts, focused on reducing landfill disposal and increasing recycling under the 'Zero Waste' initiative, show positive trends with a 1.2% decrease in refuse disposal and a diversion rate reaching 16.1% in the first four months of fiscal year 2016. These improvements are supported by the rollout of an organics composting program and pilot recycling initiatives in public housing.
Key Data
1.2%
— The amount of refuse disposed of by the Department of Sanitation decreased by 1.2% in the first four months of fiscal year 2016 compared to the same period in fiscal year 2015.
16.1%
— The diversion rate of recycled materials increased by 0.8 percentage points, reaching 16.1% in the first four months of fiscal year 2016.
New York City's food waste reduction programs face significant financial and logistical hurdles, with citywide expansion of curbside collection estimated to cost between $177 million and $250 million annually. To address these challenges, the city should consider utilizing in-sink disposers in suitable neighborhoods and optimizing collection routes to avoid the need for additional truck shifts.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The Department of Environmental Protection and DSNY should collaborate to carefully study and identify neighborhoods where in-sink disposers could be used without burdening wastewater treatment infrastructure.
The City should expand curbside collections only where and when additional collection routes are not required.
The City could achieve collection efficiencies by replacing a weekly refuse pickup with an organics pickup or collecting refuse and organics simultaneously with special trucks.
The City should devise a more limited strategy until it can address the high cost of residential garbage collection and secure adequate organics processing capacity.
Achieving such efficiencies would require City Council approval and a significant boost to participation rates.
Key Data
$19 million
— Cost of the residential pilot program over two years.
$177 million and $250 million
— Estimated annual cost if the curbside program were expanded citywide.
88,000
— Minimum number of new truck shifts needed each year under current collection practices if expanded citywide.
10 percent
— Available processing capacity for total NYC residential and commercial organic waste within 150 miles of Manhattan.
4.6 percent
— Capacity of facilities to process NYC’s total food waste.
55 percent
— NYC households currently served by treatment plants with sufficient capacity to deal with food sludge.
The NYC Department of Sanitation manages the city's waste collection and disposal, with operations encompassing recycling and organic waste capture. This overview examines the associated costs and performance metrics of these sanitation services.
New York City's efforts to divert organic waste from landfills face significant financial hurdles, with citywide curbside collection estimated to cost between $177 million and $251 million annually. A more cost-effective strategy involves limiting curbside programs to neighborhoods where collection routes do not need to be expanded and encouraging the use of in-sink food waste disposers in areas with sufficient wastewater treatment capacity.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City should expand curbside collections only where and when additional collection routes are not required to avoid significant new costs.
The City should consider encouraging use of in-sink disposers in select neighborhoods with adequate wastewater treatment plant infrastructure and capacity to reduce garbage collection.
Key Data
$1.7 billion
— Annual cost to taxpayers for managing residential trash in New York City.
$177 million to $251 million
— Estimated new annual costs for citywide curbside organics collection.
88,000
— New truck-shifts needed each year for citywide curbside organics collection.
1.8 million tons
— Amount of organic waste generated and carted away every year in New York City.
$4 million
— Potential annual savings from implementing in-sink disposers in four specific sanitation districts.
148,667 tons
— Amount of food waste that could be diverted through the water system if 50 percent of food waste went through disposers in eligible households.
New York City's organic waste program faces significant financial challenges, with citywide expansion estimated to cost between $177 million and $250 million annually. To manage these expenses, the city should limit curbside collection expansion, utilize in-sink disposers, and reduce overall collection costs through contract negotiations or private competition.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The Department of Sanitation should expand curbside collections only where and when additional collection routes are not required.
The Department of Sanitation should collaborate with the Department of Environmental Protection to expand the use of in-sink disposers to eliminate the need for curbside collections.
Municipal leaders should bring down the cost of all collections in the long-term by negotiating changes to sanitation worker contracts or opening residential waste collection to private competition.
Key Data
$177 million to $250 million
— Estimated annual citywide cost of expanding the organic waste curbside program.
10 to 15 percent
— Projected increase on the $1.7 billion cost of residential waste collection and disposal if the program is expanded citywide.
88,000
— Number of new truck-shifts estimated to be needed for collections each year if the program is expanded.
$19 million
— Cost of the organic waste program over two years for the current service area.
12 to 26 percent
— Range of organic waste diversion in current service areas.
43 percent
— Citywide recycling rate, which is higher than the current organic waste diversion rate.
New York City and the surrounding region have a total potential new organic waste processing capacity of 1,049,385 tons per year to manage food and yard waste. Current infrastructure within 150 miles of the city shows a total available capacity of 176,341 tons per year for combined food and yard waste processing.
Key Data
260,751 tons per year
— Total potential organic waste processing capacity within New York City.
176,341 tons per year
— Total available capacity for food and yard waste within 150 miles of New York City.
1,049,385 tons per year
— Total potential new organic waste processing capacity in and around New York City.
14,970 tons per year
— Total food waste processed in 2014 within 150 miles of New York City.
New York City's current waste management system costs taxpayers $1.5 billion annually while producing over 1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Implementing a variable fee structure for residential trash removal could incentivize waste reduction, improve diversion rates, and create a new revenue stream to support disposal infrastructure.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City should implement a variable fee for residential trash removal to provide an economic incentive to reduce non-recyclable and non-compostable waste.
City officials should craft a plan for phased implementation of garbage fees before moving to wider expansion.
A good way to start is with a voluntary pilot program for garbage fees.
Bag or sticker programs could be used for large apartment buildings.
Rebates could offset the new fees.
The City could allocate a certain number of garbage bags or tags, where residents who need less could sell the bags while residents who need more would pay extra.
Key Data
$300 million
— Annual cost of landfilled trash managed by New York City's Department of Sanitation.
1 million tons
— Amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by landfilled trash annually.
13,500
— Number of tanker trucks of gasoline equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions produced by landfilled trash.
$7
— Monthly cost of disposal for the average New York City household.
$1.5 billion
— Annual amount New York City taxpayers spend to pick up residential and public trash.
$500
— Annual cost per household to pick up residential and public trash.
Major U.S. cities utilize diverse funding models for municipal garbage collection, ranging from general fund allocations to variable monthly fees based on bin size and usage. These financial structures correlate with varying levels of success in waste reduction, as evidenced by residential diversion rates that span from 6% in Chicago to 60% in San Jose.
Key Data
55%
— San Francisco's 2012 residential diversion rate.
137.9%
— Dallas's 2012 solid waste revenues as a share of expenses.
11.4%
— Baltimore's 2012 solid waste revenues as a share of expenses.
60%
— San Jose's 2013 residential diversion rate.
6%
— Chicago's 2013 residential diversion rate.
4.0%
— Houston's 2012 solid waste revenues as a share of expenses.
New York City spends $2.3 billion annually on public and private trash collection, a system that could be significantly more efficient through reforms like route optimization, automated truck expansion, and competitive bidding. Implementing these proposed short-term and long-term changes could save taxpayers up to $300 million annually, funds that could be redirected toward critical public services like education and infrastructure.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City should promote flexibility in refuse collection frequency, shift scheduling, and recycling practices to better meet neighborhood needs.
DSNY should expand the use of one-worker, automated trucks from 8 percent to 18 percent of its fleet.
The City should eliminate "unproductive" productivity bonuses for sanitation workers that are based on route assignments rather than actual productivity.
New York City should implement financial incentives like pay-as-you-throw fees to discourage garbage creation and encourage recycling.
The City should introduce competition for public waste collection by soliciting bids for smaller waste streams and permitting private carters to compete for residential contracts.
New York City should create franchises for commercial waste collection to limit the number of carters in a given area and improve operational efficiency.
The City should diversify its snow removal workforce to include other public employees, private contractors, and retirees to avoid impacting year-round staffing decisions.
Key Data
$2.3 billion
— Annual spending on both public and private systems of handling trash in New York City.
$300 million
— Potential annual savings from implementing the four long-term reforms proposed for the waste collection system.
$96 million
— Annual savings expected from the three short-term reforms to the municipal Department of Sanitation.
$72 million
— Annual savings if routes were redesigned to increase the average amount of refuse collected per truck-shift from 10 to 12 tons.
$220 million
— Potential annual savings if all Department of Sanitation collections were subject to competition.
$57 million
— Estimated annual savings from implementing pay-as-you-throw fees for garbage producers.
New York City could save over $300 million annually by modernizing its waste collection system through measures like implementing pay-as-you-throw fees, expanding automated truck usage, and introducing managed competition for residential and commercial collection. These reforms would improve efficiency, reduce the city's reliance on labor-intensive practices, and incentivize waste reduction among residents and businesses.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City should promote flexibility in service arrangements to meet neighborhood needs, including adjusting collection frequency and scheduling.
DSNY should expand the use of large containers and automated trucks to reduce physical labor and improve productivity.
The City should eliminate “unproductive” productivity bonuses that are based on route characteristics rather than actual worker performance.
Municipal policy should implement financial incentives to reduce refuse generation, such as pay-as-you-throw fees, to encourage recycling and waste reduction.
The City should introduce managed competition to promote more efficient public waste collection by soliciting bids for smaller waste streams and residential collection.
The City should create franchises for more efficient commercial waste collection to reduce truck congestion and improve operational efficiency.
The City should diversify capacity for snow removal by including other public employees, private contractors, and retired DSNY employees to reduce reliance on sanitation workers.
Key Data
$275 million
— Annual savings from redesigning municipal waste collection policies.
$72 million
— Annual savings from redesigning routes to increase average refuse collected per truck-shift from 10 to 12 tons.
$20 million
— Annual savings from expanding the use of one-worker, automated trucks from 8 percent to 18 percent.
$57 million
— Annual savings from implementing pay-as-you-throw fees to reduce garbage and increase recycling.
$220 million
— Annual savings from implementing managed competition for all residential garbage collection.
$303 million
— Total long-term annual savings from all proposed waste collection reforms.
New York City's waste management system is exceptionally expensive, with public sanitation costs per ton significantly higher than those of private carters and other major cities due to inefficient labor contracts and outdated collection practices. Implementing "pay-to-throw" pricing and transitioning to single-stream recycling could help reduce these costs and incentivize waste reduction.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City should address the inefficiencies in labor contracts, specifically regarding productivity bonuses, route scheduling, and snow removal overtime, to reduce the high costs of waste management.
New York City should implement "pay-to-throw" arrangements, which charge customers based on the amount of trash generated, to provide an incentive to reduce waste.
The City should reform its mandated inefficient recycling practices by adopting "single stream" recycling to reduce the number of trucks required for collection.
Key Data
$2.3 billion
— Total annual spending on handling trash between the public and private systems.
$431
— DSNY's average combined collection and disposal cost per ton.
$185
— Private carters' average combined collection and disposal cost per ton.
$251
— Public sector cost of collecting a ton of refuse in New York City.
$150,000
— Average annual compensation for a City sanitation worker, including direct wages and fringe benefits.
$629
— Cost per ton to collect recyclable material in fiscal year 2012.
NY1 According to a survey by the Citizens Budget Commission, the city is at the top of the heap in collection costs—coming in at $251 a ton. When you factor in disposal, that number shoots up to $431. The watchdog group says that's more than double what it costs private…
New York City's waste management system is significantly more expensive than private alternatives and peer cities due to inefficient collection practices, rigid labor contracts, and a lack of modern technology. By transitioning to pay-as-you-throw models, adopting automated collection vehicles, and consolidating private waste routes, the city could achieve substantial cost savings and operational improvements.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
New York City should implement a pay-as-you-throw system for residential waste to create financial incentives for reducing refuse.
The city should adopt automated collection trucks to reduce labor costs and improve worker safety.
New York City should move toward exclusive or non-exclusive franchise agreements for private waste carters to reduce truck traffic and emissions.
The city should consider commingled recycling collection to improve economic efficiency in areas with low diversion rates.
The city should utilize a more diverse group of workers and private contractors for snow removal to reduce reliance on DSNY overtime.
Key Data
$2.3 Billion
— Total annual local spending on residential and commercial garbage in New York City.
$433
— Average combined collection and disposal cost per ton for DSNY.
$185
— Average combined collection and disposal cost per ton for private carters.
$100,000
— Annual compensation cost for a sanitation worker at the start of their career.
17 percent
— Average reduction in refuse levels in U.S. municipalities after implementing pay-as-you-throw charges.
$119.5 Million
— Overtime accrued by DSNY during the fiscal year 2011 snow season.
This presentation was given during CBC's Conference on The Most Important Economic and Fiscal Decisions Facing the Next Mayor , which took place on December 6, 2013.. CBC provides a framework for curbing expenditures effectively and provides 8 options for savings: Implementing health insurance premium-sharing; Consolidating union welfare funds;…
New York City generates 14 million tons of garbage annually, spending $300 million just to transport and dispose of a portion of it in distant landfills. By shifting to local waste-to-energy facilities, the city could save $119 million annually and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 35%.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
New York City should follow the example of many European countries that convert nonrecyclable garbage into energy.
The city should allow larger new waste-to-energy plants to achieve greater savings.
New York City should partner with existing local waste-to-energy facilities to process more city waste.
The city should explore the ability of existing facilities to receive additional garbage, either as currently configured or through expansion.
New York City should locate waste-to-energy plants within city borders, similar to designs used in cities like Paris and Copenhagen.
Key Data
$119 million
— Annual savings for New Yorkers if local waste-to-energy facilities processed 2 million more tons of city waste.
$2 billion
— Total savings over 30 years if local waste-to-energy facilities processed 2 million more tons of city waste.
35%
— Reduction in annual greenhouse-gas emissions if local waste-to-energy facilities processed 2 million more tons of city waste.
$66 and $77
— The current cost per ton of local waste-to-energy, compared with $95 for long-distance landfilling.
14 million tons
— The amount of garbage New York City generates per year.
$300 million
— The amount spent annually to transport and dispose of 3 million tons of nonrecycled garbage.
New York City spends over $2 billion annually on waste disposal, relying heavily on expensive and environmentally damaging long-distance landfilling. The city should shift toward local waste-to-energy facilities and implement financial incentives like "pay-as-you-throw" to reduce waste generation and improve fiscal and environmental outcomes.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
The City should foster the construction of waste-to-energy plants sited and designed for city needs.
The City should partner with owners of existing facilities within the region to expand their capacity and willingness to process New York City’s waste.
The City should implement a trial pay-as-you-throw system in the short-term, taking lessons learned to a citywide program in the long-term.
The City should stick to its plan and reinvigorate the recycling program by touting the expansion and the simplification of recycling rules.
Municipal leaders should give high priority to managing solid waste in a way that is fiscally and environmentally sound.
Key Data
$2 Billion
— Annual amount New York City spends in tax dollars to throw out its garbage.
$95 per ton
— Cost for the three million tons the City exports to landfills.
679,000 metric tons
— Annual greenhouse gas emissions generated by the waste that New York City sends to landfills.
9 percent
— Portion of municipally-managed waste the City currently sends to waste-to-energy facilities.
35 percent
— Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from solid waste transport achieved by the City from fiscal year 2005 to 2010.
133,000 cars
— Equivalent number of vehicles that would need to be removed from the road to match the annual greenhouse gas emissions from New York City's landfilled waste.
New York City's waste management system costs approximately $4 billion annually, with collection costs for refuse rising 56 percent since 2005. Transitioning to more efficient practices, such as increasing recycling rates to 35 percent and utilizing waste-to-energy facilities, could significantly reduce these expenses and environmental impacts.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
New York City should test "pay to throw" fees for collection and the tax on plastic bags to signal the fiscal and environmental cost of waste collection and disposal.
The Department of Sanitation should aggressively pursue new options to send garbage to expanded or newly constructed waste-to-energy facilities within the city or region.
The Department of Sanitation management should work cooperatively with the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association to reverse the trend of rising collection costs.
New York City should increase the recycling rate to a feasible target of 35 percent to cut the collection cost per ton and make recycling more cost-effective.
New York should generate less garbage, recycle more of it, collect it more efficiently, and dispose of it in cheaper and more environmentally friendly ways to end wasteful waste management practices.
Key Data
$4 billion
— Annual cost of solid waste management for New Yorkers.
$208 per ton
— Current cap on fees charged by private haulers for waste collection.
$440 per ton
— Average cost of collecting and disposing of waste by the Department of Sanitation.
35 percent
— Feasible target recycling rate estimated by the Department of Sanitation.
56 percent
— Increase in collection costs per ton of refuse since 2005.
$50 million
— Potential annual savings from lowering the average disposal cost of 2 million tons of garbage from $90 to $65 per ton.
New York City generates nearly as much waste as London, yet it lags behind other major cities in recycling rates and the use of waste-to-energy facilities. To improve its competitive standing, the city should consider implementing a "pay-as-you-throw" pilot program and reevaluating regulatory barriers to waste-to-energy technology.
Recommendations related to Waste Management
New York’s leaders should give waste-to-energy technology increased attention.
A 'pay-as-you-throw' scheme merits experimentation with a pilot program targeting one or more communities in the city with one- and two-family homes.
The regulatory impediments to waste-to-energy plants should be reconsidered.
Careful review of the cost-effectiveness of new textile recycling measures is appropriate.
Key Data
20.6 million
— Tons of waste generated annually by London.
17.3 million
— Tons of waste generated annually by New York.
56%
— New York's total waste recycling rate.
16%
— New York's residential recycling rate.
32%
— Average diversion rate in cities with pay-as-you-throw plans.
26%
— Average diversion rate in cities without pay-as-you-throw plans.
The New York City Sanitation Department faced nearly $121 million in expenditure cuts as part of broader municipal budget balancing actions following the 2008 recession. These reductions included over $25 million in cuts to waste prevention and recycling outreach programs, alongside the elimination of 240 positions, primarily street cleaners.
Key Data
$121 million
— Total expenditure cuts applied to the Sanitation Department.
$25 million
— Cuts made to programs aimed at waste prevention and recycling outreach.
240
— Sanitation Department positions, mostly street cleaners, eliminated through attrition.
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