For New Yorkers, shopping online means less travel time and, on
occasion, lower costs. It also means more trash to put out at
the curbside. Because most online retailers rely on major
private carriers such as UPS and FedEx to deliver their goods,
this holiday season saw not only a sharp rise in local
deliveries but a similar rise in the amount of paper, cardboard
and plastic pushed into the city waste stream. According to the
Department of Sanitation, New Yorkers left more than 8,300 tons
of cardboard and mixed paper at the curbside in the first full
collection week after the Christmas holiday, a 21 percent jump
over the same period last year. This year’s post-holiday numbers
were inflated somewhat. Sanitation spokesman Matthew Lipani
notes that an awkward alignment of Monday holidays that forced
many residents to hold onto their recyclables an extra week.
Still, immediate pre-Christmas tonnage -- 7,258 tons this year
vs. 6,033 tons last year -- showed a 20 percent increase in
paper recyclables and paralleled