Sustainable Resource Management

Beginning in April 2019, the City of Kingston shifted our recycling collection to Dual Stream Recycling, in which:
Paper and Cardboard ONLY should be placed curbside every other week in a new blue tote with a yellow lid. 
Glass, Plastic and Metal ONLY are placed curbside every alternating week in the existing blue tote. Trash pickup continues as normal. 

In order to foster this transition, CASCADE, the City's Tote Vendor, delivered a new additional blue recycling tote, with a yellow lid, for recycling of PAPER and CARDBOARD ONLY in the end of March 2019.

Additionally, the City Public Works Department switched the existing black lid that is affixed onto the current blue recycling totes, with new blue lids, and these totes are now used for recycling Glass, Plastic, and Metal ONLY. 

Each residence received, via the US Postal Service mail, a mailer Recycling Flyer, which we encourage folks to put up on the fridge for easy access. This shows all materials to be recycled, and in which locations. Additionally, to assist in the transition, the new lids all have labels affixed to the lids which show exactly which items to recycle in which bins. 

Please also find the same mailer information here. Also, please find the current recycling calendar.

GENERAL INFO about Dual Stream Transition
What: City of Kingston transitioned from Single Stream (all in one bin) recycling to Dual Stream (separate paper from bottles, cans, jars) recycling.

When: March/April 2019

Who: All current City of Kingston customers who receive City curbside waste collection. See Collection Day map below to determine which day of the week your collection is. 

Why: Due to a mandate from the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency, our disposal site, based on tighter restrictions and changing demands of recycled materials.

More Info or Questions: Please feel free to contact [email protected] or DPW Dispatch at 845-338-2114. 

City environmental education staff offers a series of recycling programs throughout the year to educate both the general public as well as school children to the benefits of recycling. Each school year, staff works in each elementary school that serves City of Kingston students to provide informative and age appropriate recycling programs. Additionally, a series of public composting education workshops are held each year. These workshops educate Kingston residents on how to reduce their trash output through food and yard waste diversion. Additionally, the process of composting generates free natural fertilizer for in- and at-home use, reducing the need for synthetic chemical landscape applications. Furthermore, increased waste diversion saves taxpayer dollars in tipping fees averted.

 To further reduce our emissions and tipping fees, the City of Kingston will be exploring the feasibility of instituting a citywide food waste collection system. In 2017, the City received funding to create an Organic Waste Diversion Plan to better understand and design a system, if feasible, for organics collection citywide. The City is partnering with the Hudson Valley Regional Council to conduct this study. 

Organics Diversion - The City of Kingston, in partnership with the Kingston Conservation Advisory Council, the Climate Smart Kingston Commission, and the Hudson Valley Regional Council, is undertaking a feasibility study for diverting food waste produced at municipal buildings as well as by residents and small businesses.  This project, called the Kingston Organics Diversion Plan, will take the results from the study and propose a methodology for rolling out food waste diversion. 

Undertaking this work, which is funded by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, puts Kingston at the forefront of innovative efforts that save municipalities money while helping our environment.  Reducing the amount of food waste that goes to the landfills can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in avoided tipping fees.  Reducing the number of trips dump trucks take to the landfill also reduces the emissions of greenhouse gases.  When the financial benefits from implementing such a program exceed the implementation and operating costs, it is a win all around.  Kingston’s goal is to discover if the City can get this win like other like-minded communities have nation- and state-wide.