"Feet on the Street" Program Results

This past Summer, Rockland Green, which runs the County’s recycling center, conducted their “Feet on the Street” campaign in which they sent out inspectors on our recycling day (Wednesday) to visually inspect recycling bins for proper and improper items placed in them to encourage proper recycling.  

Rockland Green has shared the program results with our Village, and overall, we did reasonably well.  On average about 40% of our homes were putting out their recycling bins each week and the percent of bins containing improper items fell almost each week over the course of the 8-week program. 

The majority of errors made by our residents who placed out recycling include:

• Placing plastic bags in bins (locally plastic bags can be recycled at drop off boxes commonly found in supermarkets, home improvement centers and some other retailers).  Plastic bags get caught in and damage the recycling center’s equipment.
• Placing milk, juice, and food cartons in the paper bin.  These items go in the green bin with plastic, metal, and glass recyclables.

Recycling is not just important for the environment; it also affects your own pocketbook.  Wesley Hills receives around $16,000 each year from Rockland Green for our recyclables.  This amount is calculated based on the tonnage collected.  With only 40% of our households participating in the recycling program, we are leaving money on the table.  A simple calculation shows that the Village might receive an additional $24,000 each year if we had 100% participation (that’s $24,000 we do not have to raise in taxes!).  In addition, every ton of recyclables that end up going to the landfill as trash will affect the cost of our garbage service the next time the contract goes out to bid.

Please do your part to help the environment and keep taxes and garbage fees down.

Best regards,

Marshall Katz, Mayor