In 2001, the Town of Brookhaven made a major modification to its residential collection program. The Town instituted a separate collection for yard wastes and banned collection of grass clippings. This should have segregated the major source of seasonality and variation in waste collection. The Town’s source separation percentage (calculated as the sum of paper and container recyclables divided by the sum of disposed wastes and recyclables) has remained essentially flat since that time, ranging between 11% and 12%, despite continued education and outreach programs, including annual mailings, some mass media and targeted advertising, and use of the RecycleBank program (merchant redemptions and other rewards associated with higher recycling performance).
Individual waste districts vary from the generalized 11-12% Town-wide percentage, with some districts separating 20% or slightly more of their wastes, and a number of districts separating on the order of 8% of wastes. Informal inspections of wastes delivered to the transfer station suggest many recyclables are not being separated for recycling.
