With his 12 years in office coming to a conclusion, Mayor Bloomberg can look back on his record with a great deal of pride: Crime is down, schools are getting better and the economy remains reasonably strong, all hallmarks of a job well done.
But the mayor also deserves great credit in an area that is often overlooked: the environment. From reducing the city’s carbon footprint to his more recent investment in recycling, he has been a leader among big city mayors on this important issue.
In recent months, Bloomberg has launched an aggressive plan to virtually double the amount of material the city will recycle in its residential program — to 30% by 2017, with a public campaign called “Recycle Everything” that includes bus and subway ads to raise awareness among New Yorkers.
His efforts to increase food-waste composting also send a powerful message that the city intends to do all it can to get more materials out of the waste stream. This push, even at this point in his mayoralty, is the right move for the city, and the next mayor must embrace it.
But simply announcing a goal will not get it done; the next mayor must understand that the best way to hit an ambitious target is to allow the marketplace to work.
Right now, the city finds itself sending items to landfills that the public believes are getting recycled, like those hard plastic tops that we use on our takeout coffee cups or those red plastic party cups, made from what is known as Plastic #6.
Why? Simple: There is no market right now for this type of material. So, even though residents separate it out of their trash and the city collects it for recycling, it ends up in a trash heap.
As governor for 12 years, I worked hard to improve our environment, and believe we achieved great things in large part because we took a market-based approach. I believe the next mayor can learn much from that approach and can help achieve the lofty goals Bloomberg has established for recycling.
For example, rather than banning a limited amount of Styrofoam, as the mayor has proposed, a broad recycling program will better serve the city and enable market forces to work to the fullest. Banning only the Styrofoam used in food service, as Bloomberg proposes, achieves little, and runs counter to the approach of cities in California that have embraced recycling this product.
By widening the recycling program to include all Styrofoam, including those big chunks that protect electronics during shipping, the city can truly reduce its waste stream and collect more revenue in the process. And it could actually recycle those red cups by tying the programs together.
This cannot happen overnight, but it’s worth the effort. The city’s recycling partner has an offer from a credible partner to buy all Plastic #6 and all Styrofoam — not just the food containers.
That would mean recycling foam meat trays, egg cartons and ice chests to go along with food-service containers and packaging foam, as well as CD jewel cases and nursery pots to go along with the coffee cup lids and red party cups. The offer also includes funding for infrastructure to help cover the costs for setting up the program and a guaranteed contract from the buyer that the city currently doesn’t get from anyone buying recycled paper, cardboard or glass.
This is a sensible proposal the city should pursue vigorously — giving market forces a chance to work. In the end, that is how you make sure that “recycle everything” is more than just a good slogan. The next mayor would get off to a good, green start by embracing this approach to build on Bloomberg’s stellar record.
Pataki is former governor of New York.
