Natural Resources Defense Council
New York City, NY

New York City Recycling Cost Analysis

In December 2004, DSM was contracted by NRDC to conduct an independent evaluation of the cost of recycling in New York City. This includes working closely with the Department of Sanitation to evaluate their $1.3 billion recycling and solid waste collection budget. The purpose of the evaluation is to have an independent firm specializing in economic analysis of solid waste management systems review the current method of allocating collection and transfer costs to recycling and refuse as the City faces important and costly decisions about solid waste disposal and recycling in the future.

As part of comparing the cost of waste disposal to the cost of recycling for New York City's 8 million residents, DSM applied the EPA Warm Model to quantify the GHG emission reductions resulting from NYC's materials recycling as opposed to disposal of these materials.

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