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With much fanfare, the city announced a new public space recycling pilot program last month at the Staten Island Ferry Terminals. Six locations across the city are getting blue and green recycling bins to encourage people to separate their glass bottles and newspapers from regular trash. Not a groundbreaking idea, an important step for the city to expand its recycling efforts.
We hope the pilot program works, but there's some doubt about New Yorkers' abilities to recycle. For instance, the Staten Island Advance's Lisa Schneider spotted evidence the new initiative isn't quite taking off. And everydaytrash looked at the audience this program is targeted at:
Things I have seen in or around the Staten Island ferry terminals:Today, Union Square
- A man sitting on a newspaper vending machine, swinging his legs and waving a hand gun.
- Pigeons riding escalators.
- Tired MTA workers on their way home.
- The sons and daughters of transit workers, firemen, immigrants and mafiosi pouring off of boats and stepping onto Manhattan Island.
- The sons and daughters of transit workers, firemen, immigrants and mafiosi crowding around the doors as the next boat pulls in, wishing for the day and commute to be over.
- Drunks bickering over polished wooden bench seats.
- Pacing hookers.
- Bright-eyed young tourist couples excited for a free boat ride and a view of the Statue of Liberty.Things I have never seen in or around Whitehall and St. George terminals:
- Someone who looks like he’s about to recycle the bottle in that brown paper sack.
Photograph by Malcolm Pickney for NYC Parks & Recreation
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DO IT!
Those are the most outdated looking mascots ever.
It'll never happen, NYers don't give a hoot, they pollute!
New Yorkers don't give a damn about anything other than their own lives. They think intelligent political conversation is "George Bush sucks!", "Oil companies suck!" and "Tobacco companies suck!" Oh I forgot "Wal-mart is destroying the country!" Then these same people take a private car home from their investment banker or private equity job where, if they live in my building, will dump their take out food into the recycle bin and drop a computer monitor on the floor of the trash room.
But George Bush does suck.
People in this city can recycle, it's just the multitude of homeless or idiots who screw everything up. It's worth the effort but it will take a while to catch on.
Never underestimate the power of suggestion, especially when it can be used for good.
The Department of Sanitation needs to promote recycling the way Motorola promotes its phones. Recycling must be the iPhone of waste management, if it's ever going to be apart of NYC's daily habits.
can an ostrich fly?
Hey anonymous banker,
I guess the homeless are sneaking past my doorman and riding the elevator up fifteen floors to leave uneaten food in the paper recycle bin while ignoring the cans that, rather than being returned for the deposit or placed in the metal recycle bin, are in open trash bags on the floor of the trash room. Too lazy to tie up the bag and throw it down the trash chute.
People in this city can and (often) DO recycle. In my building the vast majority (like around 80%) of those under the age of 60 regularly bring their separated stuff down to the recycling area. It's the REALLY elderly (or infirm OR their home health care workers) who don't do it, for whatever reason. My (still active & totally ornery) 95 year old next-door neighbor, after plopping the umpteenth (mostly) empty Dunkin' Donuts cardboard box smack in the hallway (in front of the elevators, so that all of our guests can enjoy his sticky trash) told me that he doesn't "believe in recycling."
Curiously, while the younger people DO recycle in our building, they're also the biggest litterbugs once they walk out the front door. High schoolers, in particular, seem to be the biggest offenders at tossing & walking. After piping up more times than I care to recall, I finally stopped trying to teach these kids any manners ("Hey!! Pick that up & throw it away in the trash can right next to you" or "Would you do that in your mom's house?") I finally gave up. My husband mentioned that I could totally get stabbed or pounded for my efforts. Much though it pained me to "give up" I had to admit that he might have had a point. Serial Litterers still seem to be far more prevalent than serial non-recyclers these days.
Oh come on!! Those are absolutely the cutest mascots!
I seem to have a fuzzy memory of the recycling mascots being on a DSNY subway PSA ad in the late 1990s.
Now what ever happened to Julio and Marisol?
"Think twice" is right... These programs need marketing that is as sophisticated as any other corporate advertising on the subway (or wherever). Why does it always have to be so clumsy and cheap-looking? Those mascots are LAME.
Sorry, but the Child Health Plus ads, all the public programs & informational stuff, it always looks weak. Health Care, recycling -- these are things that are helpful for folks, compared to junk food or TV shows. But their message is ignored because they don't look interesting or appealing, or even serious.
Of course it's not the designer's fault, it's all about the $$$... When will they prioritize these programs enough to spend $ on design?
What can be done?
p.s. I remember Julio and Marisol fondly.
"We're not candy; Don't eat us..."
No ! It will only happen if the city sends out inspectors to enforce the recycling program with summonses . Even then I have my doubts !