This Is How New York City Takes Out Its Trash

Summary of This Is How New York City Takes Out Its Trash

by Bloomberg

52m•November 9, 2026
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Overview of This Is How New York City Takes Out Its Trash

This Odd Lots episode explores the massive logistics, politics, and urban design behind New York City’s trash system, featuring Joshua Goodman, Deputy Commissioner at the NYC Department of Sanitation. The conversation centers on how the city is shifting from curbside black bags to a containerized waste system as part of what Goodman calls the “trash revolution” — a long-term effort to make streets cleaner, reduce rat and litter problems, and improve conditions for sanitation workers, all while preserving New York’s universal, free trash service.

Main Takeaways

Trash collection is not actually apolitical

  • The famous LaGuardia line — “There is no Democratic or Republican way to pick up the garbage” — is treated as only partly true.
  • Goodman argues that trash collection is deeply shaped by policy choices, infrastructure, and ideology, even if it doesn’t map neatly onto left-right politics.
  • The biggest political question in New York is not whether trash gets collected, but how it gets collected and who bears the costs.

New York’s current system is the result of history, not design

  • Two big historical factors shaped NYC’s trash habits:
    • The 1811 street grid, which left the city without alleys for storing waste.
    • The 1968 sanitation strike, after which plastic garbage bags became normalized.
  • Unlike many cities, New York historically had to store trash in public space, which made curbside black bags the default.

The city is moving toward containerization

  • NYC has spent years building a new “front of house” waste system after first overhauling the “back of house” export infrastructure.
  • The new approach is based on a 70,000-block volumetric analysis to figure out how much trash each block generates and where containers can physically fit.
  • The city is rolling out a container model tailored to building size:
    • 1–9 units: wheeled bins
    • 10–30 units: either small bins or shared arrangements
    • 31+ units: on-street “Empire Bins”
  • The pilot began in West Harlem (Manhattan Community District 9) and is next expanding to Brooklyn Community District 2.
  • Full rollout is expected over the next several years, with city funding committed through 2031.

How NYC Trash Actually Moves Through the System

From curb to transfer stations

  • Sanitation trucks collect trash, recycling, and compost, typically overnight.
  • Trucks hold about 12–13 tons and are optimized to finish routes in a single shift.
  • After collection, waste goes to a network of transfer stations, where it’s loaded onto barges or rail cars and shipped out of the city.
  • This replaced the old model of sending waste to the Staten Island landfill, which closed in 2000.

Recycling and compost are built into the system

  • Recyclables are sent to a facility in Sunset Park, where they’re processed into new material.
  • Goodman pushes back on the idea that “recycling is a scam,” saying NYC’s system is backed by long-term contracts and market arrangements.
  • Paper and cardboard can become new products relatively quickly — even pizza boxes.
  • Food scraps go to composting facilities, especially on Staten Island, where material is turned into finished compost for parks, gardens, and residents.
  • Some food waste also goes to Newtown Creek digester eggs, where it becomes biosolids and biogas used for energy.

Why the New System Matters

It changes public space and neighborhood life

  • The city is trying to move trash off sidewalks and into purpose-built containers.
  • Goodman argues this frees up pedestrian space and improves the look and feel of the street.
  • The program also tries to assign responsibility more clearly: a bin in front of a building belongs to that building, rather than being a vaguely shared public nuisance.

It improves working conditions for sanitation workers

  • Sanitation work is physically demanding and injury-prone.
  • Roughly half of line-of-duty injuries are sprains and strains from lifting bags.
  • The shift to mechanized collection should reduce back and knee injuries and lower needle-stick risks.
  • The city has about 6,500 sanitation workers out of roughly 10,000 total employees.

It’s meant to be practical, not perfect

  • Bulky waste like couches will still be collected.
  • NYC is avoiding a pure “European-style” shared-bin model because it doesn’t fit New York’s density, street layout, or property system.
  • The city also wants to preserve universal service — no means testing, no pay-per-bag system, no opt-in barrier for residents.

Broader Lessons About Urban Design

Streetscape design affects behavior

  • Goodman ties cleanliness to ideas from urban planner Oscar Newman’s “Defensible Space” theory:
    • Spaces that feel unowned tend to attract neglect and disorder.
  • The sanitation department is applying that logic to trash:
    • Make responsibility visible.
    • Reduce ambiguity.
    • Design spaces so residents feel ownership over cleanliness.

New York exceptionalism is partly an excuse

  • Goodman argues that “New York is different” is often overstated.
  • The city does have real constraints — no alleys, extreme density, limited curb space — but that doesn’t mean clean streets are impossible.
  • He frames the trash revolution as proof that New York can modernize if it is willing to change.

Notable Points and Quotes

  • “The definitional Sisyphean task”: NYC must collect trash every day, forever.
  • “The last free unlimited service”: trash collection in NYC is universal and not pay-as-you-go.
  • “The trash revolution”: the city’s name for its overhaul of waste collection and street cleanliness.
  • “What’s under the trash”: the real city — streets, people, and public life — should be the focus, not the garbage itself.

Bottom Line

This episode is a deep dive into the hidden infrastructure of New York City. The big story is that trash collection is not just about removing bags from the curb — it’s about redesigning how an entire city uses public space, how it treats workers, and how it defines responsibility for cleanliness. New York is trying to move from a bag-on-the-street model to a containerized system that is more efficient, safer, and cleaner, while still preserving the city’s core commitment to universal service.