May 14, 2009

Municipal recycling is up to an impressive 51 percent and most residents are sorting, separating and recycling. Now it’s time for local businesses to do the same.

“Our residents have gotten the message that recycling is good for the environment and that recycling reduces the costs of garbage disposal,” said County Executive Andy Spano. “They continue to recycle at record amounts. Now we want to get all our businesses – especially multi-tenant buildings, gas stations and restaurants – to do the same. Part of this is education and part of it is enforcement.”

When its mandatory Source Separation Law was first adopted in 1992, Westchester County was recycling only about 23 percent of its trash. Recycling by businesses – large and small – has been part of that original 1992 law. This law has always required all businesses to separate out paper and cardboard and businesses with food establishments to recycle glass, metal, plastic and beverage containers. Since December, however, the latter requirement to recycle commingled items applies to all businesses, even those without a restaurant.

“The same rules that apply to residents also apply to businesses,” said Spano. “This includes schools, hospitals, pizza parlors and restaurants, organizations – everyone. If you recycle at home, recycle at work.”

Over the last two years, the county adopted an aggressive campaign using education and enforcement to increase recycling by both residents and businesses. In 2008, the overall county recycling rate climbed to 46 percent. While recycling by residents has shown marked improvement, performance by multi-tenant commercial and residential buildings, restaurants and gas stations did not.

In its ongoing effort to maximize business recycling:

• The county offered free workshops last year for private haulers and municipalities to update their recycling knowledge and improve recycling practices. In March, seminars at the Material Recovery Facility (the county recycling center) in Yonkers were offered to property management companies to review proper recycling practices for multi-tenant residential and commercial buildings. About 50 representatives of multi-tenant buildings attended the seminars. While these types of buildings face unique challenges when it comes to recycling, experience has shown that impressive recycling rates are possible when tenants and maintenance staff are educated.
  
• Enforcement efforts by the county have also yielded results. For the first four months of this year, 150 violations were issued to businesses for throwing out recyclables mixed in with their trash. In comparison, 200 violations were issued all of last year. Many of the violators are repeat offenders. Inspectors perform follow-up inspections of violators to check if they have come into compliance. First time violators face a penalty of a warning to $100 fine; second time violators face a fine of up to $500; third time violators of up to $750; and fourth time violators of up to $1,000.
  
• Besides recycling inspectors, the county has also recruited its health inspectors to survey recycling practices during their restaurant rounds and consumer protection inspectors when they check on gas stations, many of which have convenience stores. These additional inspections have led to the issuance of several violations.
  
• A special task force – made up by staff from the departments of Environmental Facilities and Public Safety and the Solid Waste Commission – made recycling assessments of all county departments to make sure that they were in full compliance with all recycling laws and rules.

Watch our instructional video by going to our home page and selecting the “Business Recycling” video from the drop down menu of the Westchester on Demand TV. Learn more about business recycling.