New York City waste management system

File:SANITATION WORKERS COLLECT GARBAGE ON 172ND STREET IN MANHATTAN - NARA - 549844.jpg (DSNY) workers collecting garbage on 172nd Street in Manhattan in 1973]]

New York City's waste management system is a refuse removal system primarily run by the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY). The department maintains the waste collection infrastructure and hires public and private contractors who remove the city's waste. For the city's population of more than eight million, The DSNY collects approximately eleven thousand tons a day of garbage, including compostable material and recycling.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nyc.gov/assets/dsny/site/about|title=About DSNY|website=www1.nyc.gov|access-date=25 July 2023|quote=DSNY collects 24 million pounds of trash, recycling, and compostable material every day.}}

Waste management has been an issue for New York City since its New Amsterdam days.{{Cite web|url=http://www.citylab.com/crime/2014/12/life-inside-the-drunk-rowdy-world-of-new-amsterdam/383427/|title=Life Inside the Drunk, Rowdy World of New Amsterdam|last=Goodyear|first=Sarah|website=CityLab|language=en|access-date=2020-04-04}} As a 1657 New Amsterdam ordinance states, "It has been found, that within this City of Amsterdam in New Netherland many burghers and inhabitants throw their rubbish, filth, ashes, dead animals and suchlike things into the public streets to the great inconvenience of the community".{{Cite web|url=https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2019/08/talking-trash-a-history-of-new-york-city-sanitation.html|title=Talking Trash: A History of New York City Sanitation|date=2019-08-09|website=The Bowery Boys: New York City History|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-04}}

Collection

= Curbside pickup =

File:Monday must be garbage day (2116462531).jpg

DSNY provides curbside pickup of trash and recycling multiple times per week for every residential building in the city. Trash must be placed in black bags and recycling in clear or blue bags. This leads to complaints about the sidewalk space taken up by trash, especially as large residential buildings produce 'trash bag mountains' daily.{{cite web |last1=Paybarah |first1=Azi |title=Finally, a Plan for New York's Sidewalk Trash Bag Mountains |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/nyregion/ny-garbage-recycling.html |website=The New York Times |date=13 March 2020}} Some buildings do place their garbage in special containers.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

= Commercial carting =

Businesses are not served by the Department of Sanitation and instead are required to purchase waste collection service from a private hauler. The city's private carting industry has a long history of mob ties, with a 1996 indictment of several firms resulting in the creation of the New York City Business Integrity Commission.{{cite web |title=About BIC - BIC |url=https://www1.nyc.gov/site/bic/about/about-bic.page |website=nyc.gov}} In 2003, commercial carting accounted for 7,248 tons of solid waste, 2,641 tons of recycling, 8,626 tons of construction and demolition waste, and 19,069 tons of clean fill per day.{{cite web |title=Solid Waste Management Plan - ATTACHMENT IV - COMMERCIAL WASTE QUANTITIES AND PROJECTIONS FOR PLAN PERIOD |url=https://dsny.cityofnewyork.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/about_swmp_attach4_0815.pdf |publisher=DSNY}}

= Litter baskets =

File:Trash Can DSNY.JPG

DSNY collects litter from litter baskets placed on street corners in commercial areas throughout the city. Misuse of the litter baskets for household or business waste carries a fine, and often when this occurs the basket is removed.{{cite web |title=As The Sanitation Department Gets Rid Of Trash Baskets, Find Out How Many Are Left In Your Neighborhood |url=https://gothamist.com/news/as-the-sanitation-department-gets-rid-of-trash-baskets-find-out-how-many-are-left-in-your-neighborhood |website=Gothamist |language=en |date=20 August 2018}}

In some business improvement districts, litter baskets are handled by the district sponsor or its contractors, with many contracting this work to The Doe Fund, which employs homeless men while providing housing, educational opportunities, counseling, and career training.{{Cite web |last=New York City Council|title=Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito Partners with Doe Fund to Bring Cleanup NYC Initiative to East Harlem and South Bronx |url=https://council.nyc.gov/press/2015/01/13/280/ |access-date=2022-04-22 |website=New York City Council |language=en-US |date=13 January 2015}}

= Street cleaning =

In the 1890s, New York City implemented a street cleaning program that picked up after the large amounts of litter in the streets, as well as cleaning up after the city's horse-powered transportation. In 1895, New York City became the first U.S. city with public-sector garbage management.{{cite web|last=Oatman-Stanford|first=Hunter|title=A Filthy History: When New Yorkers Lived Knee-Deep in Trash|url=https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/when-new-yorkers-lived-knee-deep-in-trash/|access-date=2021-01-08|website=Collectors Weekly|language=en}} Sanitation engineer George E. Waring Jr. organized the "white wings" to clean the streets.{{Cite web|title=From the History Books: How the White Wings Cleaned up New York City – ManageMen|url=https://managemen.com/from-the-history-books-how-the-white-wings-cleaned-up-new-york-city/|access-date=2021-09-27|website=managemen.com}}

DSNY's street sweepers collect more than 100 tons of dust, dirt, and litter from the streets each day.{{cite web |title=Annual Report: New York City Municipal Refuse and Recycling Statistics FY 2019 |url=https://dsny.cityofnewyork.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/about_dsny-non-dsny-collections-FY2019-1.pdf}} Commercial streets which do not permit overnight parking are swept at night or in the early morning, while on residential streets car owners must move their cars once or twice a week for alternate-side parking to permit each side of the street to be swept.

Property owners are required to clean sidewalks as well as streets within 18 inches of the curb.{{cite web |url=https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-02443 |title=Sidewalk Cleaning |publisher=NYC311 |access-date=2022-04-22}}

As of 2020, excessive littering remains an issue in all boroughs of NYC, especially Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens.{{Cite web|date=2019-09-04|title=Sick of the stink: Sunset Park locals implore BP to help fix trash overflow|url=https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2019/09/04/sick-of-the-stink-sunset-park-locals-implore-bp-to-help-fix-trash-overflow/|access-date=2020-04-22|website=Brooklyn Eagle|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|date=2017-02-09|title=Bronx Litter Hotspots are Stains Where, Often, no One's to Blame|url=https://citylimits.org/2017/02/09/bronx-litter-hotspots-are-stains-where-often-no-ones-to-blame/|access-date=2020-04-22|website=City Limits|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Salinger|first=Tobias|title=Persistent 'epidemic' of littering, dumping continues to plague Southeast Queens|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/field-day-litterbugs-jamaica-article-1.1590860|access-date=2020-04-22|website=nydailynews.com}}

Recycling

File:Cycle sorters.jpg]]

New York City began mandatory curbside recycling in the late 1980s.{{cite news|last=Lubasch|first=Arnold H.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/14/nyregion/new-york-starts-required-recycling.html|title=New York Starts Required Recycling|date=1989-07-14|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-04-04|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} The primary recycling facility is the Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility in Brooklyn.{{cite web|last=Yakas|first=Ben|date=2016-10-17|title=Photos, Videos: The Beautiful Trash Graveyard At The Sunset Park Recycling Plant|url=http://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/photos-videos-the-beautiful-trash-graveyard-at-the-sunset-park-recycling-plant|access-date=2021-04-23|website=Gothamist|language=en}}

= Container deposit =

New York City is a hotbed of canning activity largely due to the city's high population density mixed with New York State's container deposit laws.{{cite news|last=Watt|first=Cecilia|url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/01/new-yorks-canners-the-people-who-survive-off-a-citys-discarded-cans|title=New York's canners: the people who survive off a city's discarded cans|date=2019-03-01|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-04-22|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}} Canning remains a contentious issue in NYC with the canners often facing pushback from the city government, the New York City Department of Sanitation, and other recycling collection companies.{{cite news|last=Nir|first=Sarah Maslin|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/nyregion/new-york-city-fights-scavengers-over-a-treasure-trash.html|title=New York City Fights Scavengers Over a Treasure: Trash|date=2016-03-20|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-04-22|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} Sure We Can, a redemption center co-founded by nun Ana Martinez de Luco, is the only canner friendly redemption center in the city, providing lockers and communal space for the canners to sort their collections of redeemables.{{cite news|last=Kilgannon|first=Corey|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/nyregion/a-street-nun-who-specializes-in-redemption.html|title=A 'Street Nun' Who Specializes in Redemption|date=2015-06-19|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-04-22|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

File:Recyclables at Sure We Can Aug 2021.jpg redemption center Sure We Can]]

= Paper =

Roughly half of the paper and cardboard collected by DSNY is placed on barges at the West 59th Street Marine Transfer Station and taken to a Pratt Industries paper mill on Staten Island where it is recycled into new paper products.{{cite web |title=How NYC Works: City's Paper Recycling Program Saves Thousands of Trees Every Day |url=http://www.ny1.com/content/news/how_nyc_works/213904/how-nyc-works--city-s-paper-recycling-program-saves-thousands-of-trees-every-day |website=NY1 |date=20 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150120164050/http://www.ny1.com/content/news/how_nyc_works/213904/how-nyc-works--city-s-paper-recycling-program-saves-thousands-of-trees-every-day |archive-date=2015-01-20 }}

= Metal, glass, and plastic =

Metal, glass, plastic, and cartons collected citywide are taken to the Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility in Brooklyn. Recyclables from the Bronx and Queens are taken there by barge. There the recyclables are sorted by eddy current separators and optical scanners, then baled for sale. Clear glass is sold to bottlers and colored glass is sold as construction aggregate. Roughly 15% of material entering the facility ends up in a landfill, either because it cannot be separated or is not economically recyclable.{{cite web |title=Ars tours the Sims Municipal Recycling facility in Brooklyn, NY |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGaJIITLYsE&list=PLCF08231wtMehQOTwjiNQ0jezng5RdVqD&index=9 |website=YouTube |language=en}}

Composting

New York City first began composting in the borough of Staten Island in 2012. The program was instituted by then-mayor Michael Bloomberg. By 2017, the program had expanded to include 300,000 households, 722 schools, agencies, and institutions, and 80 drop-off points, across the city. In 2019 the city collected 50,000 tons of compostables from curbside service.{{cite web|last=staff/audrey-carleton|date=2021-01-12|title=NYC's Ambitious Composting Initiative Has Decomposed|url=http://gothamist.com/food/nycs-ambitious-composting-initiative-has-decomposed|access-date=2021-04-22|website=Gothamist|language=en}} In 2020, citing budget cuts related to the COVID-19 pandemic, New York City suspended its curbside composting and organics recycling for schools.{{Cite web|date=2021-03-03|title=As Food Scrap Collection Peaks, NYC Community Compost Sites Face Evictions|url=https://civileats.com/2021/03/03/as-food-scrap-collection-peaks-nyc-community-compost-sites-face-evictions/|access-date=2021-04-22|website=Civil Eats|language=en}} Through the effort of a community coalition called "Save Our Compost," enough funds were retained in the city budget to allow four community-scale composting sites to remain open. The city also created an interactive map to show all publicly avail composting sites.{{Cite web |title=Food Scrap Drop-off - DSNY |url=https://www.nyc.gov/site/dsny/collection/residents/food-scrap-drop-off.page |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=www.nyc.gov}}

In 2021, city-funded composting in New York City remains tenuous. The New York City Parks Department has made efforts to relocate two of the remaining composting sites on Parks-managed land, currently operated by Big Reuse and the LES Ecology Center, raising concerns among composting advocates.

In 2024, New York City is expanding its curbside composting program across all boroughs to reduce organic waste and generate compost or biogas. The program launched in phases, starting with Queens, which piloted the initiative successfully. Brooklyn began full curbside composting on October 2, 2023, with the Bronx and Staten Island following in March 2024. Manhattan's rollout is scheduled for October 7, 2024.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/084-23/mayor-adams-roadmap-nation-s-largest-compost-collection-program-including-achieving#/0 |title=Mayor Adams Announces Roadmap for Nation's Largest Compost Collection Program, Including Achieving Decades-Long Goal of Providing Curbside Service to Every New York City Resident |website=nyc.gov |date=2023-02-01 |access-date=2024-10-26}}

The initiative aims to mirror the success of mandatory composting programs in cities like San Francisco by emphasizing participation over penalties. While fines for non-compliance won't start until March 2025, education efforts are underway to ensure residents understand the benefits and logistics of composting before enforcement begins.

In 2025, the NYC Community Compost Network restored the Master Compost Certificate Course which combines workshops, field trips, and volunteer opportunities through community composting organizations around the five boroughs of NYC. The program is funded by the New York City Council.{{Cite web |last=Bierend |first=Doug |date=2024-07-15 |title=Can New York City Treat Its Food Scraps As More Than Trash? |url=https://civileats.com/2024/07/15/can-new-york-city-treat-its-food-scraps-as-more-than-trash/ |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=Civil Eats |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Master Composter |url=https://nyccommunitycompostnetwork.org/mastercomposter |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=NYC Community Compost Network |language=en-US}}

As of April 1st, 2025 composting has become mandatory in all of NYC. Failing to separate leaf/yard waste and food scraps incurs escalating fines depending on the number of offenses and the size of the building. {{Cite web|title=Trash Collection Laws |url=https://www.nyc.gov/site/dsny/collection/residents/collection-laws-residents.page#plant-food-waste/ |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=NYC.gov |language=en}}

Disposal

File:HOUSEHOLD TRASH HAS BEEN DUMPED IN FRONT OF THE NEW YORK CITY INCINERATOR PLANT AT GRAVESEND BAY - NARA - 547868 - restored.jpg

File:Bottle Beach, Dead Horse Bay jeh.jpg]]

In the 1930s the city ended the practice of ocean dumping of trash, instead incinerating the trash at 11 municipal incinerators and dumping the resulting ash in landfills scattered across the five boroughs.

= Trash incineration =

In 1885, New York City opened the nation's first trash incinerator on Governors Island. Until the 1960s, eleven unfiltered trash incinerators operated in NYC, burning garbage without regulation. The last municipal incinerators in the city closed in the 1990s.{{cite web |last1=Martin |first1=Douglas |title=Boroughs Battle Over Trash As Last Landfill Nears Close |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/16/nyregion/boroughs-battle-over-trash-as-last-landfill-nears-close.html |website=The New York Times |date=16 November 1998}}

Currently, trash from Manhattan is sent to the Essex County Resource Recovery Facility, a waste-to-energy incineration power station. Ash from the incinerator is sent to landfills, after recoverable metal is extracted.{{cite web|url=http://www.energymanagertoday.com/covanta-to-upgrade-essex-county-wte-facility-084489/|title=Covanta to Upgrade Essex County WtE Facility|work=Energy Manager Today|date=13 September 2012|accessdate=29 December 2014}}

= Landfills =

File:DUMPING_LANDFILL_AT_FRESH_KILLS,_ON_THE_WEST_SHORE_OF_STATEN_ISLAND_-_NARA_-_548348.jpg (1948-2001) was a dumping site part of NYC's waste management system located on the west shore of Staten Island]]

In the 18th and 19th centuries, New York residents were encouraged to throw their trash into the East River to shore up low-lying sections of Lower Manhattan.{{Cite web|url=https://streeteasy.com/blog/where-nyc-garbage-goes/|title=Where NYC garbage goes?|website=streeteasy.com|date=March 2017|access-date=2020-04-24}} In the 1950s and 1960s, city planner Robert Moses encouraged residents to dump their trash to fill numerous swamps and rivers around the city to make them more hospitable to development for parkland, fairgrounds, and airports. Examples include Pelham Bay Park and Flushing Meadows Park.

At the height of its use, Staten Island's Fresh Kills landfill was the largest dump in the world, sprawling across 2,200 acres. Fresh Kills first opened in 1948{{Cite web|url=https://www.city-journal.org/html/garbage-gridlock-12673.html|title=Garbage Gridlock|date=2015-12-23|website=City Journal|language=en|access-date=2020-04-04}} as a temporary landfill and closed in 2001. Starting in the late 20th century, NYC is making an effort to turn old landfill sites into parks. Notable examples of this are Freshkills Park in Staten Island{{Cite web|url=https://ny.curbed.com/2016/9/13/12891320/freshkills-park-nyc-staten-island-engineering-design|title=How the world's largest landfill became New York's biggest new park|last=Jacobs|first=Karrie|date=2016-09-13|website=Curbed NY|language=en|access-date=2020-04-22}} and Shirley Chisholm State Park in Brooklyn.{{cite web | title=Shirley Chisholm State Park opens on former landfill in East New York, Brooklyn | website=Crain's New York Business | date=July 2, 2019 | url=https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/cuomo-debuts-brooklyn-state-park-named-iconic-congresswoman | access-date=July 3, 2019}} Most of NYC's waste ends up in landfills outside of the city.{{Cite news|last=Galka|first=Max|url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/oct/27/new-york-rubbish-all-that-trash-city-waste-in-numbers|title=What does New York do with all that trash? One city's waste – in numbers|date=2016-10-27|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-04-22|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}} In 2017, the DSNY disposed of 3.2 million tons of refuse to facilities outside of New York City.{{cite journal|last=Dinapoli|first=Thomas|title=Local Governments and the Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Business|journal=Office of the New York State Comptroller}}

= Waste export =

File:Oak_Point_Link_triboro_jeh.jpg in the Bronx]]

Since the city of New York's last municipal incinerator closed in 1990 and last municipal landfill closed in 2001 all of the city's trash has been exported to landfills and incinerators far outside the city. Trash is placed in containers at one of the three marine transfer stations, the containers are taken by barge to the Staten Island waste transfer station and placed on trains bound for landfills and incinerators outside the city. {{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

Sewage

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New York City's sewage system carries more than 1,000 tons of solids (including leaves, dirt, and fecal matter) per day to 17 wastewater treatment plants, where the majority of the liquid waste is extracted, treated, and discharged into the waterways. The remaining sewage sludge is then carried on a sludge ship to the Wards Island Water Pollution Control Plant on Randalls Island. There the sludge is dewatered and the remaining solids are placed in sealed containers which are taken to landfills far from the city.{{cite web |title=Poop Train - Radiolab |url=https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/poop-train |website=WNYC Studios |language=en}}