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I'm Ed Grayson, New York City Sanitation Commissioner.
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Today, I'll be answering your questions from Twitter.
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This is Trash Support.
0:10
V69 Radio asks, "What's the craziest thing you've ever found in the trash?"
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The most interesting thing that I ever removed from a cleanup site was a prosthetic leg when we were cleaning up the aftermath of the New York City ball drop here for New Year's Eve.
0:27
So I always wondered, "How did that person get home?"
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They clearly made it in okay.
0:31
Must have been a good party night.
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Sometimes you'll see what one would call maybe bedroom paraphernalia inside the hopper of the truck, and it always does make you do that wonder.
0:43
But other than that, everything's usually cut and dry.
0:45
Rosie Posey asks, "So New York was built on garbage?"
0:50
Sorta, not the whole thing.
0:50
I mean, it's an island.
0:53
We're really talking about the borough, Manhattan, for the most part.
0:57
Believe it or not, The Battery, a whole part like on the southern tip of Manhattan, that was literally built on using fill.
1:02
Some of it was garbage, some of it was earth fill.
1:09
But in the end of the day, that is landfill.
1:09
So yes, parts of New York City were in fact terraformed using garbage.
1:09
And Tony Usgark writes, "You ever just watch the robot arm of a garbage truck hoist your refuse into the trash trunk and think, 'What a time to be alive?'"
1:09
All the time, my friend, all the time.
1:26
Actually, though, there are some really cool technologies on garbage trucks.
1:27
This is one of our front end loaders.
1:29
Now, this guy, he's primarily used at some of our transfer stations.
1:33
And we use it all the time when we're doing debris removal.
1:35
And when this arm's up in the air, everybody's on high alert because this thing probably weighs, I don't know, about 6,000 pounds.
1:45
And then it holds, oh, I don't know, three yards material.
1:45
So let's add another three tons.
1:45
So anytime this thing's swinging around, you got almost 10 tons of material possibly above your head.
1:45
So you're going to be looking at that, and it is a thing of wonder.
1:45
So here is an iconic New York City collection truck.
1:45
This thing's fantastic.
1:45
Right here in the back, what you can get caught up and mesmerized by is that nice sweeper action.
1:45
The men and women are loading into the back of that thing, and then they pull the handles, and it is really a ballet of sights and smells.
1:45
The compactor on this will gladly eat just about anything you put in it.
2:15
When you send out our metal trucks, they will crush a washer, dryer, hot water heater; they'll crush just about anything.
2:20
Mr. Levenstein Ty, "My girlfriend broke up with me while I was standing next to a no dumping sign.
2:29
Can I sue her?"
2:29
I don't know if that's exactly illegal dumping that they were talking about.
2:33
Now, most times when you see no dumping or illegal dumping signs out, that's because the location that's there, they've had a notorious bad actor come by quite some time and illegally dump construction material or other materials because they don't want to bring it to where it's supposed to go.
2:49
And I want to say this out loud now, if you're illegal dumping anywhere, stop doing that.
2:54
It's so easy to do the right thing with garbage.
2:56
It's literally the easiest thing to do to just follow the local ordinances and get rid of it.
3:00
So please stop illegal dumping, and please, if you're listening, give Mr. Levenstein another chance.
3:08
Lara 65 writes, "How does one properly dispose of a knife?"
3:11
Real question.
3:15
Seems like tossing it in the garbage is likely a hazard for someone in waste disposal.
3:17
Thank you for caring.
3:17
We love you.
3:17
That's fantastic.
3:20
If it's all metal, it's a recyclable product.
3:22
But that doesn't mean you can't do something.
3:24
Perhaps you could take like a piece of plastic film, tape up where the blade is, make sure that we're really not going to get stuck because if we don't know that it's in there, that could come out and hurt us.
3:33
So thank you for thinking of us.
3:35
Definitely try to protect the blade, but a 100% metal knife is clearly a recyclable object.
4:02
Jeff Aldridge writes, "New York City is an amazing city, the infrastructure, the history, but why, why, why do they still put trash on the streets like it's 1890?"
4:02
I couldn't agree with you more.
4:02
It is an amazing city, and the infrastructure, and the history.
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But there you go, those are two parts of the reason.
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A lot of the buildings are built to not do that.
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We don't have a lot of alleyways in New York City.
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We don't have a lot of buildings and building spaces that have a dedicated refuse and recycling room.
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And we have a lot of people, and we have the charm of the city, and we have a lot of subterranean infrastructure, but we're changing, we're evolving the entire time.
4:16
We have recently embarked on at least in New York City a new pilot proposal called Clean Curbs where we are going to start installing corral areas in residential and commercial areas.
4:26
Normally we do from the curb through the parking lane into the street where the truck is.
4:31
This is going to be having the material in a sealed container, probably ergonomic design, more than likely aesthetically beautiful, much better than looking a bunch of black bags on the floor.
4:42
And then we're going to service from there where we're going to change possibly how much garbage you see, but just remember not seeing it doesn't mean it's not there.
4:50
So we still want to focus on is, let's get the garbage generation and all that to be lower than it is and that'll even make it look more like the city that you want.
5:01
Miss Leah H asks, "I didn't know how to dispose of my bacon grease so I panicked and made a batch of gravy instead.
5:08
LOL."
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Wellness Leah H, bacon and then gravy made from bacon.
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We may be soul mates.
5:15
You did two good things there.
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Number one, you didn't pour that grease down the drain, and believe me, everybody in the sewage treatment plant appreciates that.
5:21
One of the ways that you can totally get rid of bacon grease is pour it into a cup, put it in the freezer, turn it back into a solid, and then just throw it out.
5:33
Jacob Meshke asks, "Why is New York City Sanitation Department the world's largest when New York isn't even close to the largest city in the world?"
5:33
So, are there bigger cities?
5:33
Sure.
5:33
Are there places with more population?
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Sure.
5:33
Do they host an entire municipal workforce that is on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to meet the changing needs of the city that never sleeps and its 8.8 million people?
5:33
No, they don't.
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So we are in charge of the refuse, recycling, and snow removal, all street cleaning, all special event cleaning, all emergency debris management.
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We have a pretty robust workload.
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We have a really committed city to making sure that New York stays the Gotham of the free world, and we can keep you all healthy, safe, and clean.
5:33
Next, it's Timothy De La G, "Does anyone happen to know how much it would cost to rent a garbage truck for the day?"
5:33
One thing I can tell you, garbage trucks are for rent.
5:33
Not New York City's garbage trucks, but from municipal and heavy-duty equipment supply places, you can rent a garbage truck.
6:25
Right now in New York City, our average, you know, iconic white garbage truck that you see going on has to house crib to curb.
6:35
It's a little over $250,000 per truck because it's got the highest level of technology.
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We use renewable diesel.
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We have a lot of things built in there to make sure that we're one of the most sustainable fleets across the country.
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But I can tell you this much, it's going to cost you a lot for a garbage truck.
6:35
I'd say you may want to let the professionals handle that one.
6:35
Machine Gun Kelly asks, "Where does all the New York City trash go after trucks pick it up?
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I'm worried."
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Where does it go?
6:35
It goes to one of our many transfer stations where from there it gets processed, sorted, and then taken to a final destination.
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In New York City, we host about five different transfer stations, four by barge, one by rail.
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And we have a myriad of recycling contract vendors.
7:11
We bring the recyclable materials from there, it makes its sorting process, and then moves on to either landfill, waste-to-energy plant, or proper recycling for beneficial reuse.
7:22
Next up, Aquila Obviously, "Can I ask something?
7:22
How are we supposed to be throwing batteries away?"
7:22
It all depends on where you live.
7:22
You should really check your local ordinances because they may have a different waste management plan.
7:22
But if you're in New York right now and you have, let's say, small disposable alkaline batteries, because there's no mercury in them, you can actually put them out in the trash.
7:22
Certain batteries like, let's say, automotive batteries here in New York, they have to go back to wherever you bought that.
7:22
So if it's a retailer that sells an automotive battery, they have to take it back and then they'll properly recycle it.
7:22
Some of the lithium ion batteries and, you know, the more rechargeable ones, they can be pretty dangerous, and we want them safe to handle.
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Also, you can go to like the New York City website, nyc.gov/sanitation, and we have this great portal where we tell you, "How do I dispose of?" and you can find out all the different ways that you can dispose of not only batteries, but a bunch of other stuff that people have those lingering questions on.
8:13
Think Shiv, "Why does NYC Sanitation only pick up recyclable materials once a week?
8:19
If they increased it, I would recycle more.
8:26
#justsaying"
8:24
It comes down to trying to effectively and efficiently route throughout the entire city.
8:28
We know pretty much on average how much recycling is going to be out on every block face, and we use a lot of data and trend analysis to know exactly how many trucks are on in the city.
8:39
With 8.8 million people, though, we are trying to route efficiently, make sure that we're getting out there, hitting every community board fairly and equitably and giving everybody the same opportunity to recycle.
8:46
Us trying to get more opportunity for each resident, that's one of the long-term goals.
8:49
Tristan Convert asks, "How does recycling actually work?
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What do you think?"
8:55
I think that the big cornerstone on recycling, it makes us conscious about how we're behaving.
8:58
We go out every day and we pick up, you know, a thousand tons of paper in New York City, and we bring that back and that's going to a paper mill and that mixed paper is getting repulped, remanufactured, and we're making new things.
9:10
We're making things like pizza boxes, we're making things like recycled paper.
9:13
More and more and more you're seeing sustainable ways that we can do beneficial reuse for some of the things that are totally consumables.
9:19
Metal recycling for example, you know, all those cans and all the the bulk metal that's going to be sorted by metal type and re-smelted back into things to make new things.
9:28
That's the ultimate goal.
9:30
One of the ideas that we have to hold true is that recycling is not a bad thing if we can keep it out of the landfill while we're working on the next way to find ways to make better products, have more sustainable packaging to begin with.
9:44
That's the real answer.
9:46
Pooja Vixen writes, "What do landfills do with garbage?"
9:49
What do landfills do with garbage?
9:51
They hold it for us.
9:51
Usually modern-day landfilling involves high-tech design landfill with industrial and environmental protection base layers underneath silt layers, drainage runoff caps, all kinds of seals and, you know, sub-terrain infrastructure so that everything's done in an environmentally sustainable way.
10:10
And then as it biodegrades, you're building up methane.
10:14
That methane is going to be pumped out and put to beneficial use, usually as energy.
10:23
And then all along the way, what you're going to do is you're going to be capping at different intervals.
10:23
So there'll be an active bank where the garbage is being dumped and then they'll keep moving the herd around to try to level out the playing field until it runs out of room.
10:23
And then people say, "Well, then what happens?"
10:23
Then what you're going to do then is you're going to seal up the landfill, and you're going to monitor that for anywhere from 30 plus years.
10:23
And then usually what happens is that's when you can start looking to use that land again for something other than being a waste disposal site.
10:48
Yalawale asks, "Where will the trash go when all the landfills are full?"
10:54
Great question, because it hits on why does everybody think zero waste, reuse, and recycling?
11:06
Some of the greatest time of of actual individual recycling and recapture rate during the World War I, World War II efforts, when we were literally trying to get back all the metal, and, you know, our grandparents and great grandparents would tell us all the stories about how they were saving everything and bringing in all the tin cans from the local neighborhood because they really thought they had to get all these materials back in so that they could, you know, preserve our way of life.
11:23
Well, guess what, folks?
11:23
We need to preserve our way of life right now.
11:28
What are we going to do when the landfills run out?
11:28
Exactly.
11:32
We're going to have all this garbage, no place to bring it.
11:30
That's why trying to reduce consumption, learn everything we can do to be living a recyclable life, finding beneficial reuse for these products, and more importantly, thinking, "So where does it go?"
11:40
I think that's entirely up to us.
11:42
Let's work on that together.
11:44
Shabazz Jab says, "I feel like it's trash day every day in New York City.
11:49
Like, how does everybody have this much garbage?"
11:51
That's what I'm saying, but the reality of it is, is that every year we're doing on the residential side a little over 3 million tons away of material.
12:02
Every day is trash day because every single person is consuming something, and whether you think about it or not, you have created your own personal piece of the waste stream every single day.
12:02
Can we do stuff that'll make that different?
12:02
Absolutely.
12:02
Maybe we don't have to buy as much.
12:02
Maybe not throw out half the strawberries because you didn't get to them for the smoothie.
12:02
Think about those things, you can consume less, you can generate less waste, and then maybe every day won't feel like garbage day.
12:02
Dorky Mark writes, "What is waste segregation?"
12:02
It's just another word for sorting.
12:02
So what does that mean?
12:02
A lot of places are going to ask you to source separate your material.
12:02
We do it here in New York City.
12:02
We're asking all of the residents to source separate their paper and their MGP and then a handful of community boards here, we're asking to separate their organic waste before they put it out so that we can come and properly delineate it so we could take it to the respective stream.
12:46
Jurors Devil 2000 asks, "Will composting ever work in New York?"
12:51
Absolutely.
12:51
It works everywhere.
12:54
The question is, will we do enough to make it work?
12:56
Can we get it scalable?
12:56
And I have to tell you, we're on our way there.
12:59
We have to do this incredible thing as a city and try to remind ourselves of why we're doing it, because what we're going to do there is going to turn into nutrient-dense compost.
13:06
We're going to take all that food waste and we're going to segregate it, we're going to put it into places where it can become nutrient-dense compost because that doesn't have to go to a landfill.
13:16
It's completely wasting all of that beautiful energy that happens as it breaks down.
13:16
Will composting work?
13:16
Yes.
13:16
It's going to take people like you who care, it's going to take people in the positions that make those decisions on a municipal level and the government level to give you the access to those programs and the education.
13:16
But can we do it?
13:16
Absolutely.
13:16
Great question.
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Alright, that's it.
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I hope you learned something and you had fun.
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Until next time!