Tag: recycling

May 25

2016

Recycling on the rise in Niagara Falls

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A year after getting serious about recycling, Niagara Falls has increased its recycling rate by 50 percent and cut the amount of trash it dumps in landfills by almost 20 percent. The city’s recycling coordinator credits the success and the 17 percent curbside recycling rate over the past year to an effective marketing campaign led by a quirky mascot named Totes McGoats, whose outfit cost $100. “The whole purpose wasn’t to be a man in a mask,” Brook D’Angelo, the recycling coordinator for Niagara Falls, said about the mascot. “The whole purpose was to have another way to educate the[...]

Posted 7 years ago

May 25

2016

iPost recycling report on WBFO

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Dan Telvock of Investigative Post reports on the progress of curbside recycling programs in Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Produced by Jonny Moran.

Posted 7 years ago

Aug 17

2015

Buffalo steps up recycling efforts

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Buffalo officials have finally launched what they are calling an “extensive public awareness campaign” in an effort to boost its anemic recycling rate. This campaign, announced Monday, comes almost three years after Investigative Post reported how the city had failed to spend more than $400,000 earmarked for recycling education and promotion. City officials said the goal is to exceed the national recycling rate of 34 percent by 2018. They have a long way to go. Buffalo will need to more than double its rate in three years to reach that goal. In 2012, the city introduced the green tote program, which allows residents to[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jun 25

2015

Recycling coming to Buffalo’s waterfront

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In San Francisco, residents can recycle food waste. In fact, it’s mandated. In Seattle, residents can recycle cigarette butts. But in Buffalo, we can’t even get recycling bins downtown. Despite this, there is something good to report. Baby steps, folks. Canalside visitors will soon notice bins for recycling cans and bottles at the popular waterfront destination. Wednesday morning, the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in the Town of Tonawanda provided the city with 50 recycling containers. This is a step in the right direction in the city’s effort to boost its dismal recycling rate, which is less than half the national average. But what[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Mar 23

2015

City Hall inflating Buffalo’s recycling rate

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Mayor Byron Brown’s administration has found a new way to inflate the city’s recycling rate by counting clothing donations given to nonprofits such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army. By taking credit for clothing donations – some 4,800 tons last year – the Brown administration is expanding on a practice started in 2013 of counting materials the city does not collect and which state and federal authorities discourage localities from including when calculating recycling rates. Brown, by including these materials, has claimed an ever increasing recycling rate. But data obtained by Investigative Post shows the city’s curbside recycling rate has[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Mar 3

2015

Pridgen prompts City Hall on recycling

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Buffalo Common Council President Darius Pridgen knows the city’s recycling rate is well below the national average of 34 percent. In an effort to boost the recycling program, he has gained approval from his colleagues for a resolution that proscribes steps he wants the city to take to promote recycling. They include: The Corporation Counsel should review recycling provisions in the City Charter and recommend changes to bring them in line with state’s recycling mandate. The Public Works Department must remind businesses that recycling is mandated. Many don’t recycle. Summer seasonal hires should visit households that are not recycling and[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Feb 26

2015

Buffalo refuses to release recycling stats

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Byron Brown’s administration is refusing to release the city’s recycling stats, even though the mayor recently touted the program’s supposed success during his State of the City speech last week. Susan Attridge, the city’s recycling coordinator, originally told me she’d supply the statistics in early February when she finished adding in details from commercial recycling. When that timeframe passed, I asked again. Attridge said she was still working on the data and would send it to me as soon as she finished. That same week, Brown cited the city’s recycling stats during his Feb. 20 State of the City speech.[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Jun 5

2014

Recycling data ‘a mess’

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Comparing recycling rates community to community isn’t an easy task. In fact, data and reporting inconsistencies make it nearly impossible to make accurate comparisons. While localities can be faulted for the inconsistent way they track their recycling programs, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has been willing to accept it. As a result, it’s hard to measure progress and hold cities and towns accountable. “It’s a mess,” said Maggie Clarke, a zero waste consultant and researcher who has done work for the New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse and Recycling, “especially if you are trying to compare one city or[...]

Posted 9 years ago