In turn, New Yorkers have been slow to separate bottles and cans the way they flip a light switch or swipe a MetroCard: Recycling remains less an everyday fact of life than a do-good option, like tipping the mail carrier at the holidays.īut a Sims Municipal Recycling Facility will open shortly at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park. Billions have gone toward building water tunnels, power plants, subways and sewage treatment facilities, but little toward an infrastructure of recycling. Recycling in New York is a scrappy business.