From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Why New York’s Giant Trash Bag Piles May Be an Endangered Species   
   By Emma G. Fitzsimmons, May 3, 2023, NY Times   
   New York City, where sidewalks have long been overrun by foul-smelling heaps   
   of garbage bags that force passers-by to yield to oncoming rat traffic, is   
   about to try a not-so-novel idea to solve the problem.   
      
   The concept, known as trash containerization, seems simple enough: Get trash   
   off the streets and into containers. The strategy has been used successfully   
   in cities across Europe and Asia, like Barcelona and Singapore.   
      
   But in New York, nothing is that simple.   
      
   In a highly anticipated new report being released on Wednesday, city   
   sanitation officials estimate that it would be possible to move trash to   
   containers on 89% of the city’s residential streets. To do so, however, will   
   require removing 150,000 parking    
   spots, and up to 25% of parking spots on some blocks.   
      
   The report does not address the cost of implementing trash containerization   
   citywide, but it could easily cost hundreds of millions of dollars over the   
   next decade. City officials must buy new specialized trash trucks and   
   stationary containers, while    
   also increasing the frequency of trash collection in large swaths of the city.   
      
   The new approach could revolutionize trash collection in New York. Mayor Eric   
   Adams, a Democrat in his second year in office, has said attacking trash is   
   one of his priorities, framing it as part of broader efforts to improve   
   quality of life in the city    
   after the disruption of the pandemic. He has hired a new rat czar with a   
   “killer instinct” for slaying rats.   
      
   But embracing trash containers will require trade-offs, including sacrificing   
   more parking spots than were taken for outdoor dining or the city’s popular   
   bike-share program — both of which stirred pockets of outrage.   
      
   The city’s sanitation commissioner, Jessica Tisch, said in a statement that   
   sanitation officials were working hard to remove trash more quickly, including   
   setting new hours for placing trash on the curb, and that trash    
   ontainerization was the critical    
   next step.   
      
   “Mayor Adams wants a permanent solution, something like what other global   
   cities have that takes our sidewalks back from the black bags — and from the   
   rats,” she said. “The detailed street-level analysis in this report shows,   
   for the first time,    
   that containerization — in the form of individual bins and shared containers   
   — actually is viable across the vast majority of the five boroughs.”   
      
   The new trash program would look different across the city depending on the   
   block. For a single-family home in eastern Queens, residents could be required   
   to use individual bins for trash, recycling and compost. On a block lined with   
   six-story apartment    
   buildings in northern Manhattan, the street could get a dozen large   
   aboveground containers — artist renderings suggest a cross between a   
   dumpster and a giant laundry bin — placed in parking spaces.   
      
   By this fall, the city will start a major new pilot program in West Harlem, in   
   Community Board 9, that will install large trash containers in parking spots   
   on up to 10 residential blocks and at more than a dozen schools. On   
   residential blocks, trash    
   collection will double from three times a week to six.   
      
   At a time when Mr. Adams is cutting spending across city agencies, he included   
   more than $5.6 million for the pilot program in his latest executive budget   
   proposal — a sign of his commitment to the idea, city officials said.   
      
   Shaun Abreu, a City Council member who represents West Harlem, said in a   
   statement that he was excited for the neighborhood to be a part of the pilot   
   program and that it would “make a real difference and teach the city a lot   
   about the path forward.”   
      
   The city’s 95-page new report examined trash containerization in cities   
   across the world that have been experimenting with the idea for 15 years and   
   analyzed the program’s feasibility in each neighborhood. In the United   
   States, San Francisco and    
   Chicago remove garbage bags from the streets, mostly using individual bins and   
   Chicago’s famed alleyways which New York City does not have.   
      
   New York City is a bit of a global pariah when it comes to trash. On garbage   
   days in Manhattan, towers of fetid trash bags line the streets, with food and   
   liquids oozing on to sidewalks. Sanitation workers carry out the Sisyphean   
   task of carting away 24    
   million pounds of trash and recycling every day.   
      
   Other cities have successfully reined in their garbage. Amsterdam uses   
   underground storage and electric boats. Singapore and other cities use a   
   pneumatic pressure chute system. Barcelona, Buenos Aires and Paris rely on   
   shared and individual trash    
   containers, providing the most useful examples of what is possible in New   
   York, city officials said.   
      
   The report was written by Sanitation Department staffers and informed by a   
   study by McKinsey & Company, the consulting firm, that was initially reported   
   to cost $4 million. The city ultimately paid McKinsey & Company $1.6 million   
   for the study, city    
   officials said.   
      
   Ms. Tisch said in an interview that it was too early to provide an estimate   
   for the total cost. But she acknowledged that the cost was “not   
   inexpensive.”   
      
   “It is one of the most massive, complicated infrastructure programs this   
   city can undertake over the next decade because it affects every borough,   
   every neighborhood, every block and frankly every resident in the City of New   
   York,” she said.   
      
   Parking is one of the third rails of New York City politics, and the plan   
   could face pushback in some communities. The city has roughly 3 million free   
   street parking spots. Trash containerization would remove up to 10% of   
   available parking spots on    
   residential streets citywide, compared to less than 1% of parking spots   
   removed for outdoor dining. Citi Bike, the city’s bike-share program, has   
   taken about half of a percent of curb space in its service area for bike   
   docks, according to the company.   
      
   On 11% of the city’s most densely populated residential streets in places   
   like Lower Manhattan, the city found that it was not feasible to install   
   containers because there was not enough street space for the trash produced in   
   those areas.   
      
      
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