Recycling in Westchester

Last year was a record-breaker – Westchester achieved a highest ever recycling rate of 61 percent.

The majority of the increase was due to major local construction jobs, specifically the Ridge Hill project in Yonkers, which recycled a vast amount of recyclable construction debris.

But the even better news is that Westchester residents continued to recycle.

Residential recycling hit a peak back in 2008. The amount of recyclables brought in to the county’s recycling center that year jumped by a 19 percent increase, helping to bring the overall residential recycling rate to 51 percent. In 2009, residents maintained this increase while the overall recycling rate of 50 percent remained above the national goal of 35 percent as set by the EPA and the state goal of 40 percent. 

To put it in the right context, maintaining these high rates during a recession year when residential recycling rates typically decrease -- due to reduced purchases of consumer goods and less packaging material that gets thrown in the trash -- makes it even more laudatory.   

County recycling officials, however, expect the overall recycling rate to decrease next year if the construction and demolition debris gets taken out of the recycling rate formula, as the state is proposing.

During last year’s slowed economy, Westchester residents also reduced the amount of garbage by almost 100,000 tons -- from 941,000 tons in 2008 to 843,000 tons in 2009. Reducing garbage is not only good for the environment but also saves money for county taxpayers -- $85 for every ton of garbage that the county does not have to dispose.

The communities with the highest rate of recycling are Bedford with 74 percent and Bronxville and Scarsdale both at 66 percent.  Read the detailed breakdown of recycling rates by municipalities.