NEW YORK (AP) Residents of New York City have been disposing of their trash by throwing plastic bags filled with foul-smelling trash directly onto the sidewalk for the past fifty years.
Rats feast on the rubbish that spills into the street when the bags eventually leak or burst apart. The city’s image as unclean is further cemented in the winter when the rubbish mounds are buried in snow and stay frozen in place for days or even weeks.
On Saturday, November 16, 2024, a walkway in the Brooklyn borough of New York is lined with piles of trash. (Photo courtesy of Yuki Iwamura)AP
At least for the largest metropolis in America, New Yorkers are now gradually getting used to a completely new routine: placing their trash in containers. with covers.
All residential buildings with fewer than ten units were required to have covered bins earlier this month. Most residential properties are like that. Earlier this year, bins were to be used by all city companies.
Before taking over as the city’s new police commissioner last week, Jessica Tisch, the previous sanitation commissioner, stated, “I know this must sound absurd to anyone listening who lives pretty much in any other city in the world.” However, by New York City’s standards, it is revolutionary because we have been putting all of our trash on the curbs for the past 50 years.
It’s long past for New York City to catch up, according to locals who have previously witnessed waste containerization abroad.
On Saturday, November 16, 2024, sanitation workers pick up trash in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (Photo courtesy of Yuki Iwamura)AP
John Midgley, who owns a brownstone in Brooklyn and has lived in London, Paris, and Amsterdam, said, “You see plastic bags open with the food just rotting and stinking and then it leaks out over the sidewalk and into the road.” You know, week after week after week, the stench of it accumulates.
The city’s sanitation agency collects around 24 million pounds (11 million kilograms) of the 44 million pounds (20 million kilograms) of rubbish that New York City residents, companies, and institutions leave out on the curb each day. Private garbage carters handle a large portion of the remainder.
FILE: On the third day of a sanitation workers’ strike, trash is piled up in a roadway in New York City. February 6, 1968. (AP Image)AP
Trash had to be put in metal cans in New York City at the beginning of the 20th century. However, in the days before plastic bags were widely used, trash was dumped straight into the trash cans, leaving them dirty and unclean.
The city’s sanitation workers then went on strike in 1968. Trash cans were overflowing for nearly a week. Like a dystopian nightmare, garbage piles were piled high on sidewalks and spilled into the streets.
According to Steven Cohen, a dean of Columbia University’s public affairs department, plastic bag manufacturers gave thousands of bags to help clean up the mess, and New Yorkers never looked back.
He said that convenience was the reason. The sanitation workers favored the new, lighter, and supposedly cleaner sealed plastic bags after the walkout.
FILE: Following a sanitation strike, a sanitation worker clears the remainder of a mountain of trash from a pile of empty garbage cans on a Harlem street in the Manhattan borough of New York, February 11, 1968. (Photo from an AP file)AP
Compared to the original metal containers, plastic retained more scents. A worker might easily throw a bag onto a truck by grabbing its neck.
However, in his well-documented battle against the city’s infamous rats, Democratic Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has designated garbage bag mounds as Public Enemy No. 1.
Rats may enter a plastic bag with little difficulty. Theoretically, sturdy bins with lids that latch and close should keep them out better.
There are difficulties associated with the bin requirement, which went into force on November 12. Finding a location for big, wheeled trash cans in areas where the majority of buildings lack garages, alleys, or yards is one of them. In addition, unlike with plastic bags, landlords and homeowners must pick up the empty trash cans and carry them back from the curb in the morning.
FILE: During a private garbage collectors’ strike on December 4, 1981, trash accumulates on the roof of the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. (David Bookstaver, File/AP Photo)AP
Manhattan resident Caitlin Leffel claimed that her building’s occupants had to pay an unexpectedly high price to have the trash cans taken out the night before and returned three times a week.
“I am aware that the garbage collection system in this city has been flawed for years,” she stated. However, many of the subtleties of living in New York City have not been considered in the manner this program has been implemented.
The additional effort required to retrieve bins from the curb is another issue that building superintendents are complaining about.
Dominick Romeo, the founder of NYC Building Supers, a group of building managers who recently demonstrated against the new regulations in front of City Hall, claims that it has totally upended our lives. People are rushing around wildly.
The biggest residential structures—those with more than thirty-one units—will eventually have a special container on the street. They will then be removed by new garbage trucks equipped with automatic, side-loading arms, another invention that is currently widespread in many other nations.
Even though it may take longer for garbage collectors to complete their rounds, the improvements should make collections simpler and cleaner, according to Harry Nespoli, president of the union that represents around 7,000 city sanitation workers.
He claims that employees are still physically loading rubbish onto their vehicles at the moment, which has drawbacks of its own.
They don’t even use bags in certain regions. Nespoli said that they were merely placing their rubbish in the containers. Getting everyone to execute things correctly will take time, but ultimately, we must accept responsibility for it.
Tisch thinks the new reality will eventually be accepted by the people of New York.
For the time being, city officials are threatening non-compliance in writing. Not everyone is yet aware of the new regulations. However, fines of $50 to $200 will start to apply on January 2.
According to Tisch, nobody wants to live on a filthy block. When parents are walking their children home from school or heading to work, nobody likes to pass a pile of trash and trash juice.
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