Parked Cars Hamper NYC Trash Containerization Effort

Despite a recent program to containerize garbage, New York City sanitation workers still have to contend with parked cars blocking trash containers, forcing them to continue manually collecting garbage bags from the city’s sidewalks.

As Kevin Duggan explains in Streetsblog NYC, “The agency is equipping some of its roughly 2,000 rear-loaders with tippers to mechanically hoist the newly mandated wheelie bins, but because they're on the sidewalk, these upgrades will run up against the steel wall of the roughly 3 million parking spaces the city provides to motorists largely at no cost.”

The city’s new containerization program is part of the effort to reduce the rampant rat population. Next year, the Sanitation Department will begin installing street-side stationary containers for buildings with 31 or more units, while smaller buildings can choose stationary containers or mobile bins.

In addition to keeping the city’s streets cleaner, containerization can also reduce the physical impact on sanitation workers, who haul “as much as 20 tons per shift in some neighborhoods.” According to Duggan, “The answer to this issue is clawing back space from cars for better uses, advocates said, urging Sanitation officials to work with the Department of Transportation to mark sections of the streetscape to wheel out trash.”