Recycling has come full cycle under Mayor Michael Bloomberg - a programme whose multiple changes have confused many citizens in recent years.

Newsday reports that in the end, the mayoral term will close as it opened -- with residents required to keep paper, metal, plastic and glass separate for kerbside pickup. What proved to be temporary changes in the law resulted from the city‘‘s fiscal crisis. Bent on slashing spending in his first budget in 2002, Bloomberg proposed saving millions by suspending recycling of all the materials but paper. In a compromise measure enacted by the City Council that year, the city also kept collecting metal. So the city temporarily canned only the recycling of plastic and glass containers.

By 2004, however, the system was changed back - to require that residents once again separate their glass and plastic along with their metal and paper. That‘‘s how it‘‘s been since. Earnest questions arose in the interim from the city comptroller‘‘s office and from environmentalists as to how much the Sanitation Department was really saving with the recycling cuts. In the meantime, the Bloomberg administration took steps to move recycling forward in what it called a more economic way.

Last September, the administration announced a deal marking a 20-year commitment to recycling plastic, metal and glass. It involves the development of a private high-tech sorting facility for recyclables on the Brooklyn waterfront off Sunset Park. Recycling, said the mayor and Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty, is here to stay