The Office of Recycling Outreach and Education
Have a New York recycling question? Help is available!
Whether it’s about recycling a certain item, setting up an effective program in your apartment building or finding resources to help you recycle more and waste less in New York City, the Office of Recycling Outreach and Education (OROE) can assist.
OROE is a new program at Council on the Environment of New York City, a non-profit organization working to improve NYC’s environment since 1970. OROE’s mission is to increase participation in the residential recycling program and promote waste reduction, materials reuse and composting.
OROE’s five borough-wide coordinators are conducting intensive outreach efforts on a Community Board by Community Board basis. Our current areas of focus include East and Central Harlem in Manhattan; the South Bronx; Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn; Astoria, LIC, Sunnyside, East Corona, East Elmhurst and Jackson Heights in Queens; and Community Boards 1 and 2 in Staten Island.
Our free services include:
- Building waste audits to assess current recycling programs and identify areas for improvement
- Tenant and super training sessions
- Special waste collections for materials such as textile and electronics
- Special events like community swap days
- Information on waste reduction, reuse and composting programs offered by the City and other local groups
For more information or to request assistance, contact OROE’s Recycling Outreach Coordinators at
212-788-7964 or visit online at www.cenyc.org (click on ‘RECYCLING’). This program is funded by the Mayor and City Council as part of the 2006 Solid Waste Management Plan.
As of June 17th 2011 we have upgraded our comment system to use Facebook comments. The below comments are closed and are listed for historical purposes.
Jim Baker
posted on February 14th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
I run an all-volunteer recycling center for the Town of Kent NY! Our County Health Dept. has advised us that they will no longer accept our household batteries on their hh hazardous waste day. They advised us that it was now legal to throw the batteries into the garbage truck! We are very reluctant to do this. We note that there are a number of companies that will send us containers and they claim they will recycle them! But we can find only one factory in the US … INMETCO .. that actually re-processes batteries and they deal only with rechargeables! So, it is perfectly possible for some big green or blue box company to charge us big bucks to take our hhb’s and then, legally, toss them into a landfill or burn plant! I can find only one factory that processes batteries in the US: … INMETCO. But they deal only with rechargeables! Is there is a factory in the US that can recprocess the usual, single life, carbon-zinc battery? Jim, sitting on a pile of dead batteries, Baker. 845-225-7901
Fred J Dufek
posted on March 29th, 2010 at 10:53 am
Jim we have used a company called Battery Solutions a justin@batteryrecycling.com. They burn batteries with no OEM emmissions and use the ash to enrich metals. There always on time and pleasant to deal with and full documantation.
Good Luck
Fred J Dufek
President/CEO Managing Director
John Brandi
posted on October 7th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Was wondering if i could just place my juice and milk cartons in the recycling bin in the town of New Paltz, NY? I’m hesitant to just throw them in the trash.