Could PAYT Offer Hope for New York Citys Recycling Program?
In the city that never sleeps, waste production never ends. More than 7.5 million people live in New York City, and residents produce an average of 14,000 tons of trash each day. According to action group NYC WasteLe$$, city residents dispose of enough paper bags each year to line the Brooklyn Bridge 170,000 times and enough plastic grocery bags to line the Lincoln Tunnel 80,000 times. With budget-related cutbacks putting New York City’s recycling program in jeopardy, some observers have pointed out that PAYT could be a viable alternative or supplement to tax-funded trash collection, reducing the amount of waste that needs to be managed while potentially generating revenue. While waste management officials face implementation challenges associated with PAYT in a big city like New York, PAYT could be an important part of a longer-term solution. And New York City’s recycling programs is facing its biggest challenge to date. In 1993, New York initiated the largest citywide curbside recycl
