NY Subway System Takes Different Approach to Recycling
Instead of placing recycling bins throughout New York subway platforms, garbage from regular trash cans is hauled away to a sorting facility in Jersey City where it is sorted by hand, reports NY1.
Plastic bottles, glass, aluminum cans, paper and cardboard are separated by both workers and machinery before they are crushed into bales. The bales are taken to various facilities to be reused.
The program began in 1996 and has been very successful, according to transit officials.
“We’re recovering a rate of between 40 and 55 percent, which is an excellent rate for a municipal organization,” Michael Zacchea of NYC Transit told NY1.
In the future, optical scanning technology that can identify and sort material automatically could make sorting and recycling even more efficient.
