NYC Cleans Up Subways by...Removing Trash Cans?

Matt Flegenheimer reports on the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) counter-intuitive plan to clean up its subway stations by removing trash receptacles. "Officials have described the logic of the program simply: If there is nowhere to discard trash, riders will take it with them - often outside of a station."

"Some riders, though, have expressed reservations about the plan," notes Flegenheimer. "Less trash, they argue, does not imply a more hygienic subway experience."

"'I don't know what to do with this,' Christopher DiScipio, 22, said on Thursday clutching a nearly-finished apple at the Eighth Street station."

"Nearby, in a narrow alcove between a pay phone kiosk and a vertical beam, riders appeared to have fashioned a rogue receptacle. Detritus piled about three feet high - a mélange of crushed energy drink cans; bottles of water and, in at least one case, vodka; mounds of wrappers and paper cups; and what appeared to have once been a white T-shirt."