Berlin is a city that takes trash separation seriously and has put in place a system that is necessary for all houses. Berliner residents are required to categorize their garbage according to the city’s waste separation system. In addition to plastic, metal, glass, and biological trash, this also contains paper and cardboard. Residents are encouraged to correctly sort their rubbish before discarding it, with separate containers being given for each type. Facilities for composting and recycling are spread out around the city, which has a well-developed waste management system. For each type of garbage, the city offers regular waste collection services, and residents have access to recycling containers and composting locations. But there are still some cases where people did not sort their waste properly, but they will end up getting economic fine from the government.
New York City has made steps to adopt trash separation, enhance recycling, and promote composting. The city has established objectives to decrease garbage delivered to landfills and enhance waste disposal procedures.The city’s trash separation program mandates residential waste separation for specific waste kinds, including hazardous and electronic waste, and offers regular garbage collection services for these items. Other waste kinds, such paper, plastic, and glass, must be separated on a voluntary basis, and not all people have access to recycling or composting facilities. In order to enhance recycling and composting, New York City has launched a number of efforts, including extending curbside recycling programs, giving homes composting containers, and establishing public education campaigns to encourage trash reduction and safe garbage disposal. Despite these initiatives, the city’s waste management system still has issues, including unlawful dumping, overflowing trash cans, and a lack of infrastructure for recycling and composting. Furthermore, the city’s reliance on landfills for waste disposal has a detrimental effect on the environment and the health of neighboring populations. There were not any national laws for cases where people did not do their waste separation, so it ended up that New York City had a lower percentage in recycling rate than Berlin.
In Berlin, there are different types of bins that are located throughout the city. In Berlin, they have the gray household waste bin, the food bin, the orange or yellow recycling bin, the blue waste paper bin, bottle banks and bins, and bulky waste bin. In New York, there are five types of bins in New York City, which are waste, metal, glass, plastic, and cartons. But compared with Berlin, New York City didn’t have many options and New York City encouraged everyone to start recycling but there was no national law that was able to apply to New York City residents in order for them to get into the work of waste separation. About the recycling rate between Berlin and New York City, Berlin had 54% of recycling rate and New York City had 17% of recycling rate. Even New York City has a recycling rule for all residents to sort their waste, but there are still many people who did not obey and they did it illegally. To fix the problem, New York City should learned from Berlin that if people didn’t sort the waste properly, there will be economic fine that the resident have to pay for it, New York City should be increase the access to recycling and composting facilities, even they have metal, glass, plastic, and cartons bin, they should have more option like food bin, bulky bin in order to protect the environment. Because according to the New York Times, a bulky bin is not required. And there is a lack of options for food bins. So New York City should learn from Berlin and if the problem is improved, the percentage of recycling rate will be increasing.
Sources:
Barnard, Anne. “7 Reasons Recycling Isn’t Working in New York City.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 29 Jan. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/29/nyregion/nyc-recycling.html.
“Recycling Laws for Residents.” DSNY – the City of New York Department of Sanitation, www.nyc.gov/assets/dsny/site/resources/recycling-and-garbage-laws/recycling-laws-for-residents#:~:text=All%20residents%2C%20agencies%2C%20and%20institutions,certain%20areas%20throughout%20the%20City. Accessed 1 May 2023.
Case Integration Summary Berlin, www.collectors2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Case_Integration_Summary_Berlin.pdf. Accessed 1 May 2023.
“Recycling Facts.” GrowNYC, 10 Dec. 2019, www.grownyc.org/recycling/facts#:~:text=New%20York%20City%20residents%20currently,up%205.7%25%20of%20our%20waste.
Bravo, Eduardo. “The German Recycling System: The World’s Best Recycling Country.” Tomorrow.City – The Biggest Platform about Urban Innovation, 2 Sept. 2021, tomorrow.city/a/german-recycling-system#:~:text=Is%20recycling%20mandatory%20in%20Germany,waste%20into%20the%20wrong%20bin.
“Recycling in the United States.” Wikipedia, 1 Feb. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling_in_the_United_States#:~:text=There%20is%20no%20national%20law,introduce%20their%20own%20recycling%20requirements.