Latest news with #trashrevolution
New York Times
4 days ago
- General
- New York Times
Trash Containerization Comes to Harlem
Good morning. It's Tuesday. Today we'll look at the start of a pilot program to put trash in bins. It's part of an effort to rid New York City sidewalks of a notorious scene: rat-infested mounds of smelly, black garbage bags. City officials are calling it a 'trash revolution.' A pilot program in the West Harlem neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights is providing residents with large, blocky, lock-tight garbage containers in an attempt to rid the sidewalks of messy, oozing garbage bags. The plan calls for residential buildings with 31 units or more to use oversize bins that can hold 800 gallons of trash, and for buildings with fewer than 10 units to use smaller 'wheelie bins.' Buildings with 10 to 30 units can choose between the two options. Food waste must be placed in designated brown bins or other sealed containers, in line with the city's new composting rules, while recycling, which attracts fewer rats, can still go in clear bags. One casualty of the container pilot is parking. One bin is the size of about half a car and takes the place of roughly 28 garbage bags, according to a spokesman for the Sanitation Department. The rows of oversize bins — some 1,000 of them in the pilot program — have taken up hundreds of parking spots. Double-parking in front of the bins can cause problems, too, since 16 new side-loading garbage trucks are supposed to scoot up to them three times a week to empty their contents. Expanding the program citywide would require the removal of more than 50,000 parking spots, city officials said. There is also the expense: Buying enough bins and trucks could cost hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
5 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
The Next Phase of New York City's ‘Trash Revolution' Is Here
At sunrise in Manhattan on a recent morning, Anthony J. Martin jumped out of a garbage truck and gave a thumbs up for the driver to lower a set of red mechanical arms to pick up a trash bin from the street. The bin rose high into the air and a cascade of trash bags fell into the truck. As a sanitation worker in New York City for almost two decades, Mr. Martin is well accustomed to tossing bags of acrid, leaky garbage from the curb into the back of a truck. Now he is pioneering a new approach that starts in one neighborhood this week and could expand across the city — part of what city officials are calling a 'trash revolution.' All large residential buildings in Community Board 9 in the West Harlem neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights are now required to use so-called Empire Bins that hold 800 gallons of trash. Hundreds of parking spots were removed to accommodate the 1,000 European-style bins lining the streets, serviced by 16 new side-loading garbage trucks. The idea that New York City is finally putting its trash in cans, long after most urban civilizations have done so, has led to a fair amount of ridicule. But it is a significant change in a city where piles of trash bags have clogged sidewalks for decades. The shift in trash collection is viewed as one of the major achievements of Mayor Eric Adams's first term. Most of his rivals in the mayor's race this year say it is one of the few policies of his they would keep. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
