Westchester County is home to some of the nation’s most robust municipal waste reduction and recycling programs. Through the Department of Environmental Facilities (DEF), the County is dedicated to removing all types of waste from the waste stream – ranging from traditional glass, plastic and paper to more innovative programs like electronics, textiles, paint, food scraps and boat wrapping. Over the course of the last decades, Westchester’s production of waste has dropped dramatically – and continues to decline.
In addition to these great programs, DEF is also an educational resource for residents and municipal leaders who want to learn more about how to incorporate a recycling lifestyle into their community.
The environmental programs in place in Westchester County and managed by DEF, include:
- Recycling education,
- Recycling enforcement,
- Electronic waste recycling,
- Educational tours of the County’s Material Recovery Facility (MRF),
- Recycling of municipally-collected yard waste under the organic yard waste program,
- Boat wrap recycling,
- Operation of the Household-Material Recovery Facility (H-MRF) for hazardous and hard-to-dispose wastes,
- Mobile shredder services,
- Textile recycling,
- The Residential Food Scrap Transportation and Disposal Program (RFSTAD) and
- The County’s first small-scale Composting Facility and Education center, CompostED, which offers tours.
These and other programs administered by DEF, all contribute to increasing recycling and reducing waste – and while the environmental benefits of waste reduction and recycling are well known, these programs also make good sense economically. In 2022, 74,456 tons of curbside recyclables collected by municipalities within the RDD were delivered to the Daniel P. Thomas Material Recovery Facility (MRF). Revenue from the sale of these recyclables totaled $7,006,704.59, an increase of over 95% from 2020.