Westchester, Putnam & Dutchess Waste and Recycling Statistics (2026)

September 24, 2026

Westchester County recycled 54% of its total waste stream in 2024, well above the New York State rate of 43% and the U.S. rate of 32%. But none of the three lower Hudson Valley counties has an operating landfill. Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess send their trash to waste-to-energy plants or ship it out of the region. The nearest landfill that takes household trash from Dutchess County is about 240 miles away.

This page collects the key waste and recycling numbers for Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties, with New York State and U.S. figures for comparison. Every figure comes from a government report, and each source is linked at the bottom. We are MCI Waste, a dumpster rental company serving all three counties, and we see where local debris goes every day.

Key statistics at a glance

• Westchester County recycled 54% of its total waste stream in 2024 and handled 2,063,922 tons of waste and recyclables. (Westchester County DEF, 2024)
• Westchester’s residential trash disposal fell 27% from 2005 to 2024, from 525,950 tons to 383,437 tons. (Westchester County DEF)
• There is no operating landfill in Dutchess County or any surrounding county. The closest landfill for household trash is about 240 miles away. (Dutchess County, 2023)
• Putnam County has no active landfill. In 2024 it reported 78,822 tons of household and business trash. (Putnam County, 2025)
• Dutchess County recycled 42% of its household and business trash in 2022, up from 36% in 2012. (Dutchess County, 2023)
• New York State recycles only 19% of its household and business trash. (NYS DEC, 2018 data)
• Construction and demolition debris is the largest part of New York’s waste stream: 18.4 million tons, or 46%. (NYS DEC, 2018 data)
• Americans threw away 12.1 million tons of furniture and furnishings, and 80.1% of it went to landfill. (U.S. EPA, 2018 data)

Westchester County

Westchester’s Department of Environmental Facilities (DEF) publishes one of the most detailed annual waste reports in the region.

• In 2024 the county recycled 1,118,286 tons and disposed of 945,636 tons, a total of 2,063,922 tons and a recycling rate of 54%.
• Private haulers moved 552,078 tons of construction and demolition (C&D) debris to recycling and 296,621 tons to disposal.
• The Charles Point waste-to-energy plant in Peekskill burned 705,896 tons of solid waste to make electricity in 2024. 8,952 tons of ferrous metal were recovered from the ash.
• The county’s recycling plant (the MRF) processed 63,937 tons of curbside recyclables.
• 15,625 households brought 1,004,457 lbs of hard-to-dispose items to the Household Material Recovery Facility (H-MRF) in Valhalla. This included 245,716 lbs of paint, 190,820 lbs of electronics, 130,800 lbs of bulk metals and 54,153 lbs of tires.
• The county diverted about 659 tons of electronic waste from the trash.
• In 2021, Westchester residents disposed of 3.98 lbs of trash per person per day, below the state average of 4.5 and the national average of 4.9. (DEF 2021 report)

Recycling rates vary a lot by town

Municipality	2024 recycling rate
Mount Kisco	87%
Ossining (Town)	87%
Peekskill	17%

Source: Westchester County DEF 2024 Annual Report, Attachment 2.

Putnam County

• Putnam County has no active landfill. All of its waste goes through transfer stations to landfills or incinerators.
• In 2024, about 54,138 tons of Putnam’s household and business trash went to the Charles Point waste-to-energy plant in Peekskill.
• Putnam reported 78,822 tons of household and business trash in 2024.
• The county recovered 4,795 tons of bulk metal in 2024.

Source: Putnam County Local Solid Waste Management Plan 2025-2034, Table 2.1. The plan notes that hauler reporting has data gaps. Its construction and demolition debris figures conflict within the plan, so we do not report them here.

Dutchess County

• Dutchess recycled 42% of its household and business trash in 2022, up from 36% in 2012. Counting C&D debris, its overall recycling rate is 50.5%.
• Dutchess generated 331,203 tons of household and business trash in 2020 and diverted 114,951 tons (34.7%) from disposal.
• Trash generation grew from 275,208 tons in 2010 to 381,431 tons in 2019.
• There are no operating landfills in Dutchess or any surrounding county. The closest is about 240 miles away, and New York has not opened a new landfill since 2006.
• The county’s waste-to-energy plant in Poughkeepsie burns 140,000 to 150,000 tons of waste each year and recovers 4,000 to 6,000 tons of ferrous metal.

New York State

New York reports two recycling rates, and they measure different things. The 19% rate covers household and business trash (municipal solid waste, or MSW) only. The 43% rate covers the total waste stream, including C&D debris, which New York recycles at a much higher rate.

• New York generated 17.9 million tons of household and business trash in 2018. Residential waste was 54% of it.
• In 2018, 39% of that trash went to New York landfills, 27% was exported for disposal, 15% was burned in New York, and 19% was recycled.
• The MSW recycling rate was about 20% in 2008, nearly 23% in 2011, and 18.5% in 2018.
• Disposal per person barely changed in ten years: 4.10 lbs per person per day in 2008 and 4.09 lbs in 2018.
• C&D debris is the largest part of the state’s waste: 18.4 million tons in 2018, or 46% of the total. New York recycled 64% of it, up from 55% in 2008.
• New York’s 25 landfills for household trash have an estimated 16 to 25 years of capacity left.

United States

• Americans generated 292.4 million tons of household and business trash in 2018, or 4.9 lbs per person per day. In 1960 the figure was 2.68 lbs.
• The U.S. recycling and composting rate was 32.1%. 50% of trash was landfilled and 11.8% was burned for energy.
• Durable goods (appliances, furniture, carpets, electronics and similar items) made up 57.1 million tons, or 19.5% of all trash. Only 18.5% of them were recycled.
• Americans discarded 12.1 million tons of furniture and furnishings, including sofas, tables, chairs and mattresses. About 40,000 tons were recycled, and 80.1% went to landfill.
• Carpets and rugs: 3.4 million tons, 73% landfilled.
• Major appliances: 5.3 million tons. 3.1 million tons of steel were recovered, and 2.1 million tons went to landfill.
• Consumer electronics: 2.7 million tons, with a 38.5% recycling rate.

EPA national figures are current through 2018, the latest year EPA has published.

What this means for your cleanout or project

Because the region has no landfills of its own, bulky items and construction debris cost money to move and dispose of. Sorting metal, keeping electronics and paint out of the dumpster, and choosing the right container size all help. See what can go in a roll-off dumpster, which dumpster size you need, or all of our services.

Methodology

Figures come from the most recent report each agency has published, so data years differ between counties and are stated next to each figure. “Household and business trash” means municipal solid waste (MSW). Where a source reports a rate without tonnage, we show the rate only. Figures were retrieved in September 2026.

Sources

1. Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities, 2024 Annual Report.
2. Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities, 2021 Annual Report.
3. Putnam County, Local Solid Waste Management Plan 2025-2034.
4. Dutchess County, 2023 Local Solid Waste Management Plan.
5. Dutchess County Executive, press release, September 7, 2023.
6. NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, New York State Solid Waste Management Plan (2023).
7. U.S. EPA, National Overview: Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes and Recycling.
8. U.S. EPA, Durable Goods: Product-Specific Data.

Cite this page

You are welcome to use these statistics in articles, reports or presentations. Please credit MCI Waste and link to this page:

Source: MCI Waste, "Westchester, Putnam & Dutchess Waste and Recycling Statistics (2026)", https://mciwaste.com/hudson-valley-waste-recycling-statistics/