December 19, 2016

Dec. 19, 2016

Waste Dive

by Cole Rosengren

Dive Brief:

  • A new report from labor and environmental coalition Transform Don’t Trash says that an estimated 3,300 new jobs could be created in New York if the city’s combined residential and commercial recycling rate was increased to 70%. The baseline is a 21% average diversion rate (not including construction and demolition waste.)
  • Citing research from the Northeast Recycling Council and the Illinois Recycling Council, the report says that cities with higher diversion rates have 60% more recycling and processing jobs per ton of waste than New York. A 2011 study by the Tellus Institute that showed more jobs are created by recycling and composting operations than landfills or waste-to-energy facilities was used to calculate possible job creation.
  • The potential siting of new material recovery facilities, anaerobic digesters or other organics processing facilities is seen as one of the largest areas for job creation. Electronics repair, textile collection, food recovery for donation and furniture refurbishment were also highlighted.