Read: Letter and Comments to the Mayoral and City Council Task Force on Recycling (pdf)

New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today stressed the need to take a hard look at the City's recycling program so that the Department of Sanitation can save money and increase revenue. The Comptroller submitted his comments to the Mayoral and City Council Task Force on Recycling.

"I am pleased that the City Council and the Mayor's Office are evaluating how the City can modify its recycling program to address its short and long-term financial needs," Comptroller Thompson said.

Among the steps that the Comptroller recommended to the Task Force were:

• Examine how the Department of Sanitation determines the relative costs of the refuse and recycling programs. The Comptroller's evaluation of the DOS's allocation of refuse and recycling costs for FY 2001, the most recent year available, raised questions as to whether DOS had significantly overstated the costs of recycling by applying costs associated with managing non-recycled refuse to the recycling program.
  
  
• Analyze the method DOS used to estimate the savings from elimination of glass and recycling processing contracts and compare those savings with increased waste export costs. The Comptroller's review found that the average cost of the recycling contracts was $82 per ton, not the $126 per ton cited by DOS.
  
  
• Evaluate whether DOS has achieved the personnel savings it anticipated from suspending the recycling of glass and plastic. The Comptroller's review found that since the elimination of glass and plastic recycling, DOS has reduced the number of collection truckshifts by less than two percent.
  
  
• Press for an amendment to New York State's Container Act. This amendment would impose a deposit on non-carbonated beverage containers not covered by the current law and would allow the City to obtain its pro rata share of unclaimed bottle deposits, which currently are retained by bottlers and distributors. This amendment could generate an estimated $34.1 to $71.1 million annually in revenue for the City.

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