Sims Municipal Recycling

As a state-of-the-art recycling plant rises in Brooklyn, a mobile educational space known as the Recyclarium will be making the rounds this fall to give young New Yorkers a taste of what’s coming.

The trailer, revealed on Tuesday at P.S. 63 in the East Village, offers exhibits and interactive games that explain the ins and outs of recycling, from disposing of the materials properly to processing what eventually emerges as the recycled product. The city’s schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott, was on hand for the affair, which also featured a composting event.

The trailer accommodates 10 to 15 children at a time and takes about 30 minutes to explore.

As for the new recycling plant, officials with Sims Metal Management Municipal Recycling, the company that recycles the city’s metal, glass and plastic, say it will open on the waterfront in Sunset Park and include an education center with classroom space to promote recycling.



The city’s Department of Sanitation is paying the costs of the Recyclarium in the hope of spreading the idea of minimizing trash to children and young adults. Recycling is far less ingrained in New York City than it is in cities like San Francisco or Seattle.

The department also recently created the position of deputy commissioner to help the Bloomberg administration meet its goal of doubling the city’s recycling rate of 15 percent by 2017.

In addition to interactive games, the trailer presents dozens of recycling facts. Among the factoids: New Yorkers throw away 146,200 tons of glass per year. If all of it were recycled into sand, it would be enough to fill 718 sand volleyball courts, one for each elementary school in the city.