How Can We Make Recycling Easier?

Susan Attridge, Director of Refuse and Recycling for the City of Buffalo, NY

How did recycling get so complicated? With so many categories of materials, special dropoff events and wide variation from one community to another, consumers are often unsure of how to correctly recycle the items they dispose of every day. Today, despite decades of effort, we are only diverting about a third of our waste stream from disposal. But maybe the bigger problem is the quality of the materials going into our bins.

Susan Attridge, Director of Refuse and Recycling for the City of Buffalo, NY, shares the successful strategies she’s used to increase recycling rates, as well as her controversial ideas on how “zero waste” goals may be doing as much harm as good.

Susan C. Attridge has been working in the waste management for thirty years. Since her first position with the NYS Legislative Commission of Solid Waste, where her primary task was to examine the excessive reliance on land-filling, she has been committed to establishing programs to divert waste and educate people on how to create less waste. She currently holds the position of Direction of Refuse and Recycling for the City of Buffalo. The City has been able to increase their diversion from 15% to 30% in five years. Susan has sat on many boards including the New York State Association of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (NYSAR3) as well as the National Recycling Coalition.

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