After a Year of Residential Recycling Sorting, Maplewood, NY Sees Big Savings

After changing to a dual recycling stream, Maplewood, New York residents are seeing benefits to its waste stream.

Maplewood implemented a change to have residents separate paper and cardboard from other recycling and it is paying off in the thousands. The new recycling method has saved over $100,000 for Maplewood after the first year of changes.

“Our Recycling program changed dramatically in 2023 from single-stream to dual-stream. This change required residents to remember to separate the cardboard and paper from the rest of the recycling and to put each out at the curb on separate weeks; it also required the township to clearly communicate the changes and the schedule, which we did by launching an SMS text messaging system for non-emergency notices to the public,” said Mayor Nacy Adams.

“I’m pleased to report that the new system created a cleaner stream of recycling being collected and brought to a new vendor resulting in fewer penalties for contaminated recycling and more profitable sales of the recycling materials resulting in a savings of over $100,000 for Maplewood in this first year alone. We hope the savings will be even more next year.”

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