NYC Trash: A study in persistence | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too and it's just the three of us Oscar. the Grouch in it here on stuff you. should. know yeah uh I think this I think there. may be one more in this sort of semi. Suite that we've been tackling over the.

years which is to say the the operations. of New York City it's fascinating stuff. I love it cuz every time I'm there I'm. like God how do they how do they deal. with all this trash and deliver all that. mail so if if mail is interesting enough. well I'm going to do a little research. and see if New York City mail is uh. worth its own deal okay we did one on. the USPS before oh sure we've done stuff. on landfills and all kind of things but.

New York City is very specific to its. own self yeah as they say living it up. between the Moon and New York. City I can't remember the rest living it. up yeah is that what he says no living. it up between yeah I like that better. say it's if you get caught but I like. living it up yeah I like living it up. better. too oh oh goodness all right so we're. talking New York City trash Chuck.

uh I didn't ever really give much. thought to it I've been in New York. plenty of times and been like wow. there's a lot of trash everywhere all. the time some of it in bags some of it. on the street some of it in overflowing. trash containers but it turns out that. it is an enormous issue and has been an. ongoing and very longstanding issue in. New York um and they now have a mayor. and a sanitation commissioner who's like. enough it's done we're we're cleaning. the city up once and for all oh yeah and.

what's yeah um Eric Adams he's got a. whole like his whole like campaign is. called get stuff done and the the trash. branch of that is get stuff clean and. just ksh the new garbage commissioner is. from one of the wealthiest families in. America possibly the world oh wow but. who's decided to dedicate her career to. Civil Service specifically in New York. so she's worked in a few agencies and. now she's the head of the the sanitation.

department the. dsny and um is basically just like. steamrolling through with new changes. and just being like Oh I don't care. that's the way you used to do it. apparently it's wrong because it didn't. get it done we're doing it this way now. so they're actually making huge enormous. changes by Leaps and Bounds that seem. like they actually possibly could clean. New York up in the next couple years do. you know what uh how the Tish family uh. what their deal. is what their what their deal is like.

how they communicate Thanksgiving well. no he said one of the wealthiest. families in the world I was kind of. curious oh I get what you mean so what. from or whatever her father is the CEO. of um like the Lowe's theaters the. Lowe's. hotels apparently they own a distilling. brand like the the parent company's the. CEO of the parent. company but I have a feeling like like. her family is like Legacy wealthy that's. my impression yeah New York NYU has the.

Tish School of Arts but I'm sure it's. the same family yes it it is as a matter. of fact there's a. really interesting profile on her and. the New York sanitation department and. The New Yorker of all places and they. rattled off like three different things. that are named after her family so yes. they've been around for a while but. apparently that's pretty cool she's like. I'm incredibly wealthy but I'm going to. go you know work my way up in New York. bureaucracy you know.

it's really pretty incredible um so. should we go back in time yeah let's. yeah we've talked before about what old. New York was like and when you see. movies about old New York they you know. they might grunge it up a little bit. like um scors st's Gangs of New York. probably did one of the closest truest. depictions of early New York and just. kind of how disgusting it could be right. and we've talked about the amounts of. manure from horses on the sides of the. street but it was really really gross.

New York was a disgusting place uh back. in the day um they did have a law and. this Show's kind of got it as kind of. got it all it's got like amazing facts. of the episode uh right off the bat we. have a great album title uh which was. this law from the 1650s that banned uh. tubs of odor and. nastiness if that's not like a stoes. album title or something I don't know. what it. is that's good uh but it was it was. gross um I think uh the the first fact.

of the podcast for me is that about. 20% of Manhattan or really the whole. metro area is built on land that didn't. used to be there it's literally land. that came from garbage fill from. construction debris uh dirt from the. subway project um like Lower Manhattan. in particular just kept growing and. expanding in size uh and here's another. fun fact on that Ellis Island is 28.

Acres now it started out as 3 acres oh. wow it's was literally built from I. guess just waste yeah because I mean if. you think about it if you just go dump. one load off of an island you just you. just littered but if you keep doing it. you're developing the land it becomes. art yeah you just got to stick with it. and eventually it becomes an okay thing. right yeah it's really pretty incredible. to think about that when you they're. overlays that show like you know how.

Manhattan uh Lower Manhattan. grew uh just from dumping stuff oh yeah. I but there's pretty cool maps like that. I love that kind of stuff too like I. love walking around and being like what. what was this building originally you. know what used to be here I ask that out. loud sometimes and people just the. building never answers does no so um. this is not the first time under Eric. Adams and Jessica Tish that um a New. York administrator has tried to clean. City up plenty have tried but the last.

truly successful one was in the century. before last a Civil War I think Colonel. a Union Colonel named George wearing uh. who became the head of the Department of. street cleaning which is what the. sanitation department was called um back. then um and he cleaned up the city. starting around 1895 but he was not the. first um head of the Department of. street cleaning that department was. almost 20 years old by the time he came.

along but it had just basically been a. place where tamy Hall in the political. machine um gave jobs to um to supporters. political supporters and it was like you. don't need to show up to work you're. still going to get a paycheck kind of. thing yeah I mean they either did that. or they outright just stole money that. was allocated for those uh cleaning up. projects to begin with um I I saw a uh a. name um back then in the 1800s that the. the sludge of just manure and garbage.

and cess is cess a thing I guess cess is. the. best the pool I know it sess pool is a. thing but is is cess the thing in the. pool I would think so all right anyway. uh they called the sludge that lined the. streets uh corporate pudding so gross. because I guess it was just you know. those was it wasn't getting cleaned up. cuz all that money like I said was. either stolen or reallocated and uh of. cronies uh there's someone named Robin.

Nagel who's an NYU Professor who uh it's. an unpaid position but um has basically. worked as the uh unsanctioned unsalaried. Anthropologist from uh for the. sanitation department of New York and. just has an incredible amount of. knowledge about this stuff yeah we've. talked about Robin Nigel before and. George wearing and the the changes he. made so supposedly you can look at. Harper Harper's magazine between 1893.

and 1895 and it's like it's like George. wearing came along and and waved a magic. wand like the difference is so distinct. like he created kind of like a military. type um institution hierarchy he uh. outfitted as people with um uh White. outfits designed by John Paul. gotier um and pth helmets and they went. around and they cleaned up New York and. apparently they throw parades for him. once in a while because they were just.

so successful and loved and revered. because they did such a good job um but. you can see the difference between these. these photos in Harper's Weekly that. Robin Nagel has and I think we talked. about all this in um the tyho Mary. episode I think it was in the beginning. of that one that makes sense I'm pretty. sure that's where it was yeah I imagine. George wearing came in on day one it was. like for starters how about you get that. dead hog off the side of the road.

somebody's like. genius uh he was famous by the way for. Designing the Memphis sewage system uh. after the Civil War before New York. they're like hey he did such a good job. you know working out the San or sewage I. guess in Memphis come on to New York. because we have sewage in the streets. nice it worked his way up yeah if you. can make it in New York sanitation you. can make it anywhere with sanitation. believe. me so uh as things were going um they.

had landfills that came along obviously. but a lot of the trash was handled by. incinerators um still is to Great. controversy as we'll get to later but uh. a lot of these smaller apartment. buildings had their own incinerators. they would just burn their trash um the. city was like this is a an air quality. nightmare I can't imagine so let's let's. ban these things um and I thought it. said 1889 but they were banned finally. in 1989 yeah that tracks I mean it.

wasn't until the '90s that New York. really started to kind of turn around. some no that's true so one of the other. things they did aside from Banning. individual buildings having. incinerators which just seems like. Madness in retrospect you know what I. mean it kind of does yeah um they also. started slowly shutting down the um. landfills that were within the city. limits and finally the last one fresh. kill on Staten Island um was famously.

shut down uh in 2001 and the the one of. the reasons it became famous is it was. the the landfill that accepted a lot of. the waste from the um Twin Towers after. the World Trade Center attacks um and. that was it it's kind of like kind of. fitting you know what I mean in a really. weird Bittersweet poetic way yeah like a. turning of the page I guess so yeah but. that was it so the thing is is New York. still has tons of trash that they. accumulate every day I mean just as.

we'll see a mindboggling amount of trash. is generated by New York every. day um and they have trouble getting it. off the street but then also they're. starting to to find like we are having. problems identifying where to send this. trash yeah for sure um so getting back. to wearing uh back then he was like all. right we got to we got to figure out a. way to um get this trash like people. just threw it in the street and wearing. was like that that's not a good good. system I don't know if anyone's notice.

but just throwing your trash out of your. literally out of your window sometimes. of your apartment isn't the way to go. about things if we want to live a. healthy life as a city and so why don't. we get trash cans uh you mentioned Oscar. the Grouch they were just sort of those. standard uh metal Oscar the Grouch cans. uh for a long long time until 1968 when. there was a sanitation strike that was. only 9 days long but it it doesn't take. long for a sanitation strike to really.

um I guess get a little steam not in New. York a little steam going because there. were 100,000 tons of garbage on the city. streets by the end of that nine days and. it was just a mess so they said all. right but how about this uh these trash. cans were working for a long time uh but. you're just dumping your trash right in. these cans why don't you put it in trash. bags inside the can and very sweetly. they thought that that might help the. rat situation like. contain the smell enough where rats.

wouldn't get to it uh which is kind of. cooky to think about of course rats will. get to trash anywhere uh and it was. better than um you know lifting up these. big heavy trash cans because they could. just pick the bags out of the trash cans. and throw them in and then finally just. a few years later in 71 they said let's. just get rid of these cans and just put. it in bags and put it out on the. sidewalk yeah let's one of the greatest. most important cities in the world just. leave our trash laying around in back.

for hours on end multiple times a week. every week let's do that instead because. you can stick them anywhere they'll fit. anywhere yeah and that's one of the. challenges that New York has is it lacks. a lot of the alleys and a lot of the um. little side well alleys I think is good. enough to where people in other cities. store trash cans and trash bins like. sane people so instead they have to use. these trash bags and basically tuck them. wherever they can um kind of out of the.

way and very frequently not out of the. way you have to walk around them on the. sidewalk pretty often too so that is um. that's the state of New York trash. collection now people leave their trash. out in bags on the sidewalk the. sanitation department workers come along. and pick up the bags and throw them in. the trash manually throw them in the in. the um garbage trucks manually and this. is staggeringly behind the times like. garbage technology has ADV by Leaps and. Bounds since then and New York just.

because of some of its unique. characteristics and traits has had a. really hard time implementing them like. other cities have yeah absolutely um but. like you said there's good news on the. horizon uh you want to take a break now. yeah all right we'll take a break good. little setup we'll come back and talk. about just how much trash there is right. after this. [Music].

all right so we promised talk of just. how much trash New Yorkers produce uh I. don't think like per person they're. creating an exceptional amount of trash. not picking on New Yorkers sure there's. just a lot of people there uh 800,000.

more than 800,000 residential apartment. buildings and they produce about 4 and a. half million tons of just residential. trash every year so uh 24 million pounds. a day or about 12,000 tons per day of. just residential people trash from. Apartments yeah so every day they. generate an equivalent weight of trash. to 50, 5263 116 Big Macs I knew something like.

that was coming that's a lot of Big Macs. imagine all of that being produced every. day is that net weight after cooking. sorry that's yes that's the completed. weight that's what you get when you um. they put it on the tray okay gotcha and. what's interesting is eating either one. has about the same impact on your health. uh that's good thank you it's morning. for us which is unusual so I'm a little. slower yeah and uh a little little less. giving with my laugh count as long as.

I'm getting a little bit of it little. bit goes a long way you've had plenty. you got me right off the bat there with. the what was that first joke that really. got me the Oscar the Grouch one no that. was okay though oh the the mistaken um. living it up in New York City yeah yeah. yeah that that got me going right off. the bat so you would not be surprised to. learn uh dear listener that the the dsny. which is the New York City's sanitation. department is the largest in the country. MH um one reason is obviously because.

there are so many people and so much. trash but also uh New York is a little. bit unique among large cities and that. they are responsible for more trash than. other large cities are mhm yeah right. yeah a lot of other cities they they'll. handle some like maybe houses or. something on the outskirts of town or in. neighborhoods but you know the the. apartment buildings and commercial stuff. all that's handled by private companies. and then in other cities it's all.

private companies these days in some. cases too especially suburbs um but yeah. with New York they're like nope we're. going to handle it if you're a resident. we're going to take care of your trash. that's right uh and as we'll see they on. the private side they handle the. commercial trash that's coming up. shortly but as far as the residential. stuff goes uh they collect from each uh. residential building two or three times. a week uh there are 59 different. districts uh that cover New York uh each. each having its own garage that house.

more than 2,000 uh collection trucks. over those 59 districts yeah and that's. just the collection trucks they have. other kinds of trucks too yeah I saw. that um I was trying to find out about. maintenance of these things but. collectively the just the garbage trucks. of New York Drive about 4 and a half. million miles a year that's crazy yeah. it's a lot of miles so um yeah they have. all sorts of different trucks this is. where the the the part of me who was. once a little boy who loved looking at. picture books of like Caterpillar Earth.

movers and those giant Volvo dump trucks. really kind of came back to the surface. but they've got some dual bin models and. if you look at them they basically do. what it says on the tin there's half. divided um into half for trash and the. other half for recycling so you can pick. up both on the same day at the same time. yeah they have top loaders that you know. go up to like a dumpster and just pick. it up and shake it like a and some and. you might on the street who who weighed.

much less than. you and then the the they also have just. the regular kind that are called the. white elephants and those are just so. incredibly massive each of the New York. City regular single bin garbage trucks. can hold 12 tons of waste that's. incredible a full siiz American Standard. School Bus weighs 14 tons so they fit. almost School Bus weight of of trash in.

just one single truck at a time how many. big Banks is that I didn't do that one. okay uh this is the other fact of the. podcast for me is that every uh garbage. truck in New York has two sets of. steering wheels and pedals on both sides. so either person can drive uh and no. matter who's driving uh each brake pedal. is live so uh the if someone doesn't see. somebody in the person that's not. driving see someone you know Dart in.

front of the garbage truck they can hit. the brakes as well yep uh they they yeah. it's good idea they also have street. sweepers AKA mechanical brooms and I. should say I've seen those are starting. to be rolled out in electric versions. but apparently they're trying to slowly. Electrify their entire fleet seems like. street sweepers were one of the first to. to be electrified salt spreaders snow. plows front end loaders basically. everything you could possibly need to. clean up in clear trash the New York.

City Department of Sanitation has it. yeah for sure and if you're like well. why do they have uh snow plows and all. that kind of stuff it's because besides. trash and recycling and composting uh. which there is sort of a newer program. uh and it came about because it's it's a. big problem I think about 20% of New. York City's garbage is food waste they. can really really cut down on that with. a good composting uh system system in in. the city but they're working on that.

we'll get to that later but uh they have. to clean vacant Lots they're the ones. who remove the snow uh here's another. fun fact if there is a car on the street. that has the license plates torn off of. it and someone has just dumped it and. it's worth under. $1,250 uh the the police say that's a. garbage car it's not our responsibility. so it's uh the dsny has to take care of. it yeah so um I was looked up a little. bit on that and I couldn't find how they.

make that assessment of how much the. thing is worth no Kelly Blue Book I. guess I would think just by virtue of. having the license plate removed and it. being abandoned on the street would. indicate that it was worth less than. $1,250 you know well usually the $50 is. what kills. me like that's where they landed instead. of just 12 1300 but hey I guess it was a. formula um similarly they also clean up. abandoned bike that are like chained to. public property uh if the bike can just.

no longer be ridden because it's so bent. or it's missing some essential Parts. they will take care of it they'll clip. that that chain and throw the whole. thing away but if you have a bike that. you want to get rid of you don't have to. abandon it in New York City you can take. the wheels off put them in with your. trash and then you can put the bike. itself out with your recycling oh very. nice yeah I thought so too um and as if. that wasn't enough um last year in 2023. Eric Adams the mayor said all right you.

also now have to regulate uh and enforce. Street vendors you got to clean up the. highways and take care of the graffiti. uh in New York and I'm sure they were. like great it's not like we didn't have. enough to do already well what's. interesting is that's creating a lot of. grumbling because there's a lot of jobs. from other agencies that are just being. taken oh I'm sure and the the. justification is is like hey you're. doing other stuff you have other stuff. to focus on so this part has become kind. of low priority so the it makes sense. the department of sanitation would clean.

up graffiti we're cleaning up the whole. city and apparently there was a backlog. of a thousand requests for graffiti. removal they cleared 800 of them in one. month so they're doing some amazing work. there that's awesome I mean I like good. graffiti like graffiti art yes so if. you're a resident of New York you put in. a request for graffiti removal you can. also um request that graffiti be left. alone and there's like this whole. procedure and process. um but they give you like a certain.

amount of time between the time you say. I want this graffiti removed and then. the time they come out I guess to give. you a chance to to really think about. whether you want it removed or not and. then they'll remove it yeah like do you. want the the vulgar tag just spray. painted across the front of a business. removed or is it art exactly depends on. who did it I guess so uh 8,000. sanitation workers total uh 2,000 other. employees um well eight yeah so I guess.

that's 10,000 total but 8,000 actual you. know sort of you know bag Slingers and. cleaner ERS uh they're known as New. York's strongest uh they are 90% male. right now so uh props to that 90% but. and really props to that 10% of uh these. ladies that are getting in there and and. getting their hands dirty because it is. tough tough uh dangerous work yes. so one of the things one of the reasons.

that it's particularly dangerous for um. sanitation workers in New York is again. because they use bags they're not in. cans if you've not been to New York just. imagine bags of trash just piled. everywhere the problem is when they're. grabbing them and throwing them in the. truck um they're probably trying to. avoid garbage juice which is a very. distracting thing it's very gross it's. rarely harmful but you don't want it on. you but it can distract you from things. that can harm you from like some rusty.

sharp thing poking out of the bag that. you put your hand on um there's a lot of. Hazards sometimes the stuff that's in. there could pose a hazard to you in. other ways like garbage juice would um. there was an article I found from 1996. where a sanitation worker named Michael. Hanley died because some jerk threw. hydrofor acid away in with the regular. garbage and when it was compressed in. the hopper it exploded and Hanley. inhaled it and died basically on the. spot yeah yeah I mean that's the thing.

that happens when that uh Hopper you. know squishes all that stuff down. there's going to be stuff that sprays. out they you know try to get out of the. way but sometimes they can't and Olivia. found this another fun little factoid. here that um apparently enough of that. garbage juice is uh coffee related that. whatever season it is if it's like. pumpkin spice season or whatever the. sanitation workers just like so oh God. here comes the pumpkin this you know.

this fall yeah I can imagine that just. gets really old really fast when can you. imagine yeah CU it's the worst version. of that coffee it's not hot and fresh. and in the cup it's it's cold and runny. and mixed with other stuff and leaking. out of a garbage bag like hydrop Floric. acid right so there's also it's also. just hard like a lot of this stuff is. very heavy you can fit a lot of stuff. into a trash bag and apparently. residential places with compactors use. what are called sausage bags where you. can fit multiple compacted rounds of.

trash into one single bag you need two. people to toss those in and then the. cans they're also in charge of the cans. right like I think those little very. famous um kind of. meshwire New York City trash cans that. that open like a door I think at the at. the base yeah am I making sense here. sort of just street street corner trash. cans let's just call them that uh those. weigh 30 PBS empty so uh I've never seen.

a New York City trash can that wasn't. absolutely overflowing so that's a lot. more weight and they're doing that by. hand uh some of these routes can have as. many of 400 of these so that's so crazy. D that's really really really hard. strenuous labor you also so you said. that there's never a New York City. Corner trash can that is empty so I. found a study from 1987 that estimated. that a 60 lb can so a trash can with. about 30 pounds of waste you can imagine. that's probably pretty average um to.

lift it the 40 in into the hopper and. dump it requires three and a half. horsepower um from the sanitation worker. and then like you said there might be. 400 of those on a route I just can't. imagine how just tired you would be at. the end of this well and all the stuff. you're breathing in too uh especially if. you're a street sweeper uh all kinds of. you know sort of respiratory issues can. pop up um before um uh covid you know. before people are like hey maybe we.

should wear masks and uh sanitize things. um thousands of New York City workers uh. got sick during the early covid days uh. nine of them died uh about a hundred uh. sanitation workers died from illnesses. cleaning up ground zero so it is a you. know not only is it a strenuous job uh. and can be dangerous because of you know. sharp and Rusty things but it's just. it's just hard on your body period right. fortunately they have a really good.

union they're members of Teamsters Local. 831 the uniform sanitation men's. association and thanks to the union they. uh when you are an entry-level. sanitation worker you start out making. $43,000 305 a year not great uh which is. no especially in New York it's hard to. live on that but if you stick with it. for five and a half years it more than. doubles to 88,9 79 that's pretty great. yeah and once you reach that point there. are plenty of New York City sanitation.

workers that are making $100,000 or over. from all of the extra um pay that can. come from Bonus work like they get. Triple overtime for snow removal and. stuff like that so you can make a pretty. good middle class income for New York. City as a sanitation worker just from. sticking with it for a few years plus. also you can retire in just over 20. years too with full benefits yeah I mean. that's that's a big deal you get about. 18 days of vacation but if you start in.

your early 20s uh you put in your 22. years they don't have like an age thing. where like you have to work to a certain. age so if you start in your early 20s. you could potentially retire with your. full pension uh in your early to mid 40s. and you know you could do a lot worse. than that for sure yeah because I mean. you just you you can be like well I want. to keep working but I'll go over here. and take this other job but I'll still. get paid for my old job because I. retired exactly uh you do have to pass a.

civil service exam um you have to get. your CDL your commercial driver's. license uh there's about a month of. training and then you have to you know. once you get that license they they have. a little practice area uh where they. practice like a little obstacle course. basically where you practice driving. that garbage truck because you know New. York driving through New York is uh I. find it enjoyable and kind of fun and. exciting but driving a garbage truck I. imagine is is is there's stuff all over. the place and you can't just uh Mad Max.

it through there you know no you can't. because people get killed like that. because there's a lot of people walking. and and running and um riding bikes. around New York that you have to look. out for yeah increasingly distracted. people we should add right yeah um so we. said that they shut down all of the. landfills within New York's borders but. that means that they have to ship this. trash one way or another outside of New. York some of it gets diverted to. incinerators they're like we don't want. incinerators in New York because it it.

contributes to poor air quality but. we'll pay you to burn it for us. elsewhere um fortunately they've now. converted some of those incinerators to. waste to energy plants so you're. actually getting something out of. burning the trash as far as these uh. waste of energy plants go uh if you're. thinking like what do you mean they burn. trash and get something out of it it's. it basically works just like coldwood. like any kind of energy creation like. like that is just burning something to.

create steam to spin that you know to. boil water to create steam to spin that. turbine and in this case they just burn. trash instead of coal right which you. think is like oh that's great you know. uh we may maybe this should be a whole. episode at one point but there there are. um a lot of people say like these are an. environmental nightmare you are creating. energy but you're also creating a. landfill in the Sky by what you're. putting into the air so uh we might want. to look into that a full one at some. point remember we did our plasma waste.

generator episode and that thing was. Flawless in its design and execution but. I don't think that's what they're using. for these waste energy plants I don't. think so so in it so some of the garbage. is being diverted and incinerated but. from what I understand the vast majority. is sent outside of New York to landfills. in places like Virginia or South. Carolina or Ohio and the way that they. get there predominantly is by um Rail. and by barge. and so New York set up uh five what are.

called Marine transfer stations that are. amazing if you look into did you look. into them at all because they're crazy. awesome I did and they are crazy awesome. uh yeah those marine stations I think uh. they built those over about a 20-year. period uh starting in the early. 2000s uh there's five of them um the. neighborhoods you know where these were. going to be near we're obviously not too. excited about them uh when you know when. they were first proposed. uh but apparently they've done a pretty.

good job as far as the smell goes they. aren't too stinky uh I think it's noise. more than anything because you're you. constantly just have trucks going in and. out of there right um but they've done a. great job with uh deodorizing and uh and. venting this stuff uh even have Hawk. calls being played on loudspeakers to. keep seagulls away cuz that would be a. nightmare oh yeah um but apparently. they're not as bad as everyone thought. they were going to be no plus also the. neighborhoods that they're in are like. already kind of ports and there's other. industry nearby anyway and they set up.

essentially access roads so that when. the trucks start backing up they're not. on the street they're off of the street. and then the whole thing is enclosed. right so garbage truck goes into the. building sealed shipping container comes. out the other side um and inside the. building like you said they've taken all. these measures to keep the smell down. and just keep it from being gross but. what happens is a garbage truck comes in. backs up uh to the Tipping station tips.

um its contents all the way down to the. to the next Story down next Story down. is just basically like that trash. compactor in Star Wars the first one mhm. it's essentially like that but rather. than having like that pneumatic arm. Crush everything they have front loaders. that basically push all the stuff into. shipping containers and a shipping. container can hold just over about two. full trucks worth of waste I think 25. tons they top that thing off Seal it and.

say here you go waste management take. over from here yeah and you know you. mentioned some of this goes to different. states um I saw that uh almost all of. Manhattan's trash goes to New Jersey oh. nice sorry New Jersey um Virginia. Pennsylvania and Ohio is where most of. the rest of it goes as far as landfills. go and then uh weirdly uh Staten Island. trash goes to South. Carolina that is a little weird I don't.

know why but I guess they just you know. worked out a Exchange program or. something yeah and I guess it's totally. up to private companies like I said. Waste Management's a good example of. taking possession of those shipping. containers stacking them up on barges I. think you can fit like 48 full on a. barge and taking it on a slowboat to. South Carolina or taking it up River to. Niagara Falls I think that's where one. of the incinerators is Niagara in New. York yeah and then um also if it's.

somewhere like Ohio it's very tough to. sail a barge to Ohio so you just take it. to a rail station and the shipping. containers get shipped by rail to Ohio. where it gets dumped uh all right maybe. oh actually right before we take a break. let's um cover this one more thing I. think um which is if you've lost. something and you want to get it back uh. in the. trash it it's it's probably not going to. happen but it really depends on how good. of a looker you are because what you'll. do is is you'll call up you'll say uh I.

lost a wedding ring in the garbage uh. I'm pretty upset about this and they say. oh great we have a program called The. Lost valuable search um just come on. down to the Marine transfer station um. we'll work with you to determine which. truck is yours and then uh there's a. huge pile of trash and you have 90. minutes to go through and find it by. yourself and or I guess with whatever. friends you are able to talking into. coming with you and people have they.

found all sorts of stuff sure it happens. yeah it does happen apparently also. there's people who are like oh that's. what I have to do just forget about it. I'm I'm good thanks anyway yeah I'll get. a new wedding ring so let's take a break. and we'll come back and talk about um. some of the Shady business that goes on. in the Private Industry all right cool. [Music].

okay Chuck so we said that the um the. city picks up residential trash but for. the most part commercial trash like. stores Office Buildings uh industry. that's handled by private companies and. that's not actually new that goes all. the way back to I think the mid to late. 50s 1957 I think when the city was like.

hey we we could use some help collecting. trash how about private companies get. involved and the mafia sat up and said. yes let's do that and apparently the. gambino and genoves crime families were. really big into what's called carting. it's private trash collection yeah for. decades it was extraordinarily corrupt. and finally in the 90s um New York did. something about it got the got the crime.

families out of the carting business but. the companies are like no less Shady. than they were before and they're just. Shady in different ways whereas before. they were screwing over the customers. now they're screwing over the workers. because back then at least they had they. were they were mob run but they were in. really good unions and as these private. companies came along they don't have. very good unions so I saw somewhere that. a a work at a private company today.

makes less as a driver for a truck than. a Helper made in. 1985 wow $16 an hour they make less than. that 1985 to 2016 isn't that crazy yeah. that's what happens when you have a. union that's good that goes away in. favor of Union that's bad and that's in. cahoots with the with the ownership or. if there is no Union at all which is the. case sometimes true uh wouldn't Tony. soprano in sanitation or didn't he say. he was yes he was in caring yeah yeah I.

remember that I also remember when I. lived in New Jersey the Italian uh I'm. not saying it was a mafia truck CU that. would be um wrong to assume but whoever. picked up our trash had a big Italian. name on the side of the truck yeah and. it was during that time of The Sopranos. where I was kind of like what's going on. here oh you know what's going on there. but supposedly that was after they. cleaned things up although that was. Jersey huh so yeah they they probably. didn't that that was probably Mafia run.

well and it was also mid90s so I think. they were just like that's when they. were cleaning it up gotcha so uh there. are about. 250 private handlers uh that are now. overseen by the business Integrity. commission uh which may as well be. called the don't let the mafia get. involved commission and except sometimes. yeah except exactly so uh you mentioned. you know just bad conditions uh and some. of these private companies like very. long work hours maybe safety training.

Maybe not maybe safety gear maybe not uh. there if if you hear of a story about a. a pedestrian that's killed in New York. by a garbage truck chances are it's a. private company not always but there are. much much higher incidents of I didn't. say incidences somebody called us out on. that you remember that yeah yeah it's. we're really progressing here in year 16. hey we're trying to uh but many more. incidents from the private companies you.

know uh running over somebody than uh. the dsny and largely because of training. U but also because they're just they're. working too long they're too tired and. they have too much to do in general yeah. a a investigative journalist named Kira. Feldman um wrote an article for pro. public called trashed and I don't. remember what came after the colon but. it is it's really eye openening I mean. even if you don't care about trash. collection or New York City just the.

fact that people are being treated this. way is just nuts man so it's a it's. definitely worth a read if this if this. episode piqu your interest at all yeah. there's an African immigrant named MTAR. Dio and I don't think we mentioned that. some of these private companies will. just like you know pick up the the dude. in the parking lot that's looking for. day work MH so they're not covered at. all or insured or anything like that. they'll just like we'll pay you under. the table to like run out in front of. the truck and uh get bags out you know.

to where they can be collected easier. right and MTAR was one of these guys and. he was uh crushed under a truck and uh. when it came time to um talk about this. the company said uh this we don't know. this guy he he just he's a homeless guy. that ran out in front of the truck and. uh of course it later came out what. really happened so uh in. 2019 New York passed a law that said all. right we're dividing this into zones now. there can be no more than three. companies picking up in each Zone uh.

just trying to sort of reain in the. chaos a little bit right and you have to. if you want to do this you have to sign. a contract that meets certain standards. of safety and working conditions and. it's you know it's kind of being. implemented now so it is still currently. changing for the better yeah and you. mentioned all the miles that the dsny. travels just on their routes every year. these commercial haulers might be. driving from what you know one one spot. to many many blocks over to the next.

spot and just wasting so much time and. burning so much gas where as if it's. like there's only three companies in. this one quadrant they're going to be. driving a lot around a lot less and. they're also going to be burning a lot. more a lot fewer fossil fuels and. releasing fewer emissions too so it's. altoe a pretty good plan of course the. companies are like can't do that like. what about competition but New York's. not really listening apparently and. that's what's happening right now and. that's just part of a another again this.

larger push for reforming the whole. place under Eric Adams and Jessica Tish. and one of the big ones is getting rid. of the black bags in favor of containers. like the same plastic bins that you see. in basically every other city in the. world in one way shape or form or. another um New York's finally being like. we're going to get in on that are they. black. bags uh think they were blue there's. blue too yeah they have all different. colors but there's definitely blue as. well yes okay I wasn't sure it's been a.

while but I just I have a visual in my. head of like mountains of blue bags on. trash day and if you've never been to. New York at all or you haven't been many. times you you would probably be shocked. to come out on trash day on on a hot. summer rainy trash day because it's. quite a sight and quite a smell but um. like you said they're moving toward Benz. uh in Fe just a few months ago in. February of this year uh they said all. right here's our new plan uh we're going.

to get if you got a smaller apartment. building you're going to have those. little wheelie bins like almost every. other city in the United States M uh if. you are in a really big apartment. building um it's basically a dumpster. but it's plastic but it's it's like a. large container uh you mentioned the. fact that there aren't a lot of alleys. in New York uh it's it's kind of a movie. Trope when you've seen alley scenes set. in New York City probably not being. filmed in New York cuz most of the. buildings on a block are just you know.

cram you know right next to each other. right so these dumpsters have to go. somewhere and they said all right uh. we'll make him small enough to fit in a. parking spot we'll lose 150,000 parking. spots all over the city MH uh but we we. have to do it and it'll also help us. reclaim some of this sidewalk space that. we're losing yeah and apparently parking. spots is one of the most politically. charged issues in all of New York. politics sure so that's really gutsy to. be like 150,000 parking spots are going.

away so we can put these bins there and. it's not it's not even across the board. there's some blocks I read that are. losing a quarter of their parking spots. oh I'm sure so it's definitely going to. take an adjustment for sure but there. won't be bags of trash everywhere. there'll just be like different colored. bins that are on the street just off the. sidewalk um that a truck comes along and. picks up that it doesn't require human. hands to throw bag after bag into the. truck anymore boy New York City the.

residents really have to get on board. with this to make that work well they. they did a pilot study of it in Harlem. and uh this is back in September 2023. and apparently it was extremely. successful rat sightings were down. 68% where did they go uh I don't know I. think they just kind of they disappear. they go poof into nothingness after they. don't eat for two days oh boy that means. they're organizing this could get really. scary but supposedly um they the people.

of Harlem were like this is this is cool. we can we can definitely deal with this. so they're rolling it out to the rest of. New York yeah I think they will see the. benefit to where people get on board uh. because what would really screw up that. system is that truck is going using the. the mechanics to dump those cans but. then there's four or five bags that. wouldn't fit in the can just sitting. there right so you're still going to. have to have some people down there. slinging bags definitely for sure but. it'll it should speed up the whole thing. and clean it up if everyone if everyone.

chips in yeah and isn't that what living. in New York is all about everybody. chipping in a little bit for sure you. got anything else uh no uh just another. mention of composting they're they're. getting that going I mentioned earlier. uh still pretty new program uh since 20%. of that total waste is food waste uh if. they really got a a pretty efficient. composting system going then it would do. a lot to reduce trash and uh do better. things for Mother Earth so you did have.

something else I. did uh well if you want to know more. about New York trash collection go to. New York and just walk around and you'll. find out everything you need to know. about it and while you're booking your. flight how about it's time for listener. mail uh I'm going to call this uh what. is this oh arson investigation okay uh. Hey guys in 2019 I moved to to St Paul. with some friends from college it's. really fun I made many new friends in.

fact two of my roommates I had never met. one was a local rapper uh the other was. a firefighter EMT St Paul is the arson. capital of the country is it really it. wouldn't surprise me after listening to. this story uh this guy said it was a a. glorious era of my life filled with. healing fun and young adulting uh within. a few months I got a job at a discount. movie theater H and I was working one. day when the theater got a call um from. our boss and said uh hey your house is.

on fire oh my God you should come by so. the firefighters uh walked me through. the burning home I saw no flames but it. was s SM o k y uh went up to my room. nothing was burnt there which is great. but it did smell like a bonfire for. about a year after that man uh everyone. was gone at the time so nobody was heard. about a month later my landlord uh SL. boss same person which is why that. sounded weird earlier mhm uh mentioned. that there was a big break in the fire. investigation uh but made me do a little.

work to figure out who it was it turns. out the firefighter EMT that I live with. decided he didn't want to live with us. anymore so a week before he moved a. couch to the basement and set it on fire. and walked away oh my God what a Twist I. know I only found out because he. admitted it to me uh my life went. haywire uh Haywire for a while after. that but I'm happy to report that I'm. settled in full-on adulting. uh with love that is tan Tores fantastic.

what a great great story thanks a lot. Tegan who saw that coming I not me that. was a Twist that you'd find at a. discount movie theater right well if you. want to be like Tegan and send us an. amazing story about something we talked. about we love that kind of thing you can. send it via email to stuff podcast at. iheartradio.com. stuff you should know is a production of. ihart heart radio for more podcasts my. heart radio visit the iHeart Radio app.

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