New York City plans to double its residential recycling by 2017.

The city will double the amount of residential waste it diverts from landfills by 2017, said Mayor Michael Bloomberg as part of his state of the city address.

“By taking steps like increasing recycling in schools and streets and expanding our plastics recycling program, we’ll reduce our waste disposal costs by $50 million annually and help protect the environment,” Bloomberg said.

Recycling was one of three environmental areas the mayor cited for future attention. The others were clean energy and clean air. “If we’re going to be the most innovative city in the world, we also have to be the greenest,” he said.