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NYC needs new type of garbage truck to containerize sidewalk trash, report says
By
Sophia Chang
Published May 3, 2023
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By
Sophia Chang
Published May 3, 2023
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New York City’s mountains of trash bags could be stored in European-style shared containers instead of languishing on sidewalks — but officials said in a report released Wednesday that a new type of garbage truck must be created for the idea to work.
The report, titled “Future of Trash,” released by the sanitation department lays out the possibility — and challenges — in reforming how the city’s 44 million pounds of trash are collected each day.
Sanitation officials laid out a vision where large shared garbage bins take up street parking spaces in many of the city's densely populated neighborhoods. Those bins could be picked up by garbage trucks with mechanical arms on their sides, a shift from the city’s current trucks where Sanitation workers toss bags into rear.
The report states there is no model of truck in the U.S. with “side loaders” that could lift bins so heavy in a city as dense as New York. There are trucks in European cities that could do the job, but sanitation officials wrote “they do not meet federal, state, and local emissions and safety standards so they cannot be imported for domestic use.”
The report estimates that roughly 10% of the city’s 1.5 million residential street parking spaces would need to be replaced with containers in order to roll out the plan. Some areas could lose up to 18% of street parking spaces, according to the report.
For neighborhoods with lower population densities, like those in eastern Queens and Staten Island, the city aims to to rely on individual household bins for garbage collection that do not take up street space.
The report also said that high-density neighborhoods like the Financial District and Downtown Brooklyn will not be able to have street container bins.
“New Yorkers deserve clean, safe and vibrant neighborhood streets,” Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch wrote in the report. “We deserve the best waste management system in the world, but it has to be done right. This report is the first serious step toward that goal.”
Sanitation officials did not specify a timeline or cost for their trash dream.
But the city will begin testing a version of the report in an area of West Harlem this fall, which will place 606-gallon, wheeled trash bins in parking spaces to be shared by neighbors. They’ll be rolled up to trucks to be dumped. During the pilot program, the city will double trash collection in the area to six times a week.
The report states more frequent collection is key to reducing street trash — and the rats the refuse attracts.
Advocates say New Yorkers deserve a better quality of life than navigating sidewalks filled with trash bags and rats.
“The report raises some challenging operational issues and trade-offs, but the potential benefits are numerous and significant,” said Eric Goldstein, the Natural Resources Defense Council's New York City environment director.
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Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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