FYI: The city would ultimately save money if it resumed full scale recycling, according to Comptroller William Thompson’s analysis of the latest contract bids for shipping trash from Brooklyn. In a letter sent to the Department of Sanitation last week, Thompson noted that if the lowest Brooklyn bid wins, the city’s average waste export cost would be $69 per ton–one dollar less than the $70 per ton it would cost to recycle glass, metal, and plastics. What’s more, since suspending the full recycling program, DOS has seen a 12 percent drop in the amount of paper being recycled–causing the city to spend more on shipping waste and lose $800,000 in revenue. Visit the City Limits archive to read Keith Kloor’s journey with New York City’s trash from local processing plants to its final resting place in cash-strapped Pennsylvania towns. [2/12/03]