NYPIRG is working to ensure that New York moves forward with policies that prevent the production of waste and improve successful recycling initiatives.

• The number one place that residential trash goes to is a landfill.
• Number two is export for disposal.
• Number three is garbage-burning incinerators.
• Last is getting recycled.

There is no evidence that the problem is getting better. In fact, the state’s residential recycling rate has been dropping over the past decade. By the way, these disposal methods can contribute to the climate crisis: Solid waste accounts for 12% of statewide greenhouse gas emissions, most of which comes from decomposing waste in landfills.

The state’s capacity to take this problem on is dwindling. According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), “New York’s 25 municipal solid waste landfills have a combined landfill capacity of between 16 and 25 years.”

If the state’s landfills are filled to capacity in a decade or so, what will happen? Trucking the waste somewhere else is likely to be the option, but that is expensive and uncertain: Who knows for how long someone else will be willing to take New York’s trash? Already, New York City exports nearly all of its trash. Unless something changes, the rest of the state will have to follow that expensive route. Actions taken now could extend the lifespan of the state’s existing landfills, but waiting will make the options even more difficult.

Creating a new landfill is not cheap, and certainly landfill siting can be controversial — ditto for attempts to expand existing ones. Obviously, the state will want to extend the life of existing landfills as long as they can (although local communities understandably may oppose those efforts). In order to do that, programs must be put in place to encourage New Yorkers to reduce the amount of trash that they create.

The DEC is considering a trash surcharge that would both generate revenues for dealing with the solid waste disposal problems and encourage New Yorkers to reduce their wastes. Not surprisingly, adding a “tax” to encourage people not to produce trash can be unpopular, and these proposals raise questions about the impacts on lower-income New Yorkers.

So why not tackle the trash at the source? According to the DEC, paper and plastics make up nearly half of municipal solid wastes. There are two bills ready to take those two waste materials on, both of which would reduce packaging waste and promote the concept of a “circular economy” — one in which wastes are reduced to a minimum. These two solutions to New York's solid waste crisis are:

1. Expanding and modernizing the Bottle Bill
2. Passing the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act