StreetsBlog NYC article: The City’s ‘Clean Curbs’ Pilot is Too Small
The CITIBIN enclosure as part of the Clean Curbs pilot, at W. 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue. Photo: CITIBIN
May 10th, 2022: the Put Waste to Work campaign is featured in an article on StreetsBlog NYC. The article addresses the scale and scope of the City's "Clean Curbs" pilot, and quotes Clare Miflin of the Center for Zero Waste Design:
“There is so much pressure to do things quickly and would be better to spend a little more time designing the pilot and aims,” said Clare Miflin, the founder of the Center for Zero Waste Design, which advocates for a comprehensive solution to the city’s trash problem. Miflin said that DSNY should consider a much-more-ambitious scheme: adding lifting mechanisms — a long-used and not-too-expensive technology — to rear-loading trucks, which would allow Clean Curbs enclosures to be bigger.
Larger bins, Mifflin argued, would make trash pickup quicker and more space efficient while bettering labor condition for “New York’s Strongest,” who could still work two per truck (as they do now) without having to lift five tons of heavy bags per shift. The wheeled bins could be brought straight to trucks from near buildings and wouldn’t necessarily require curbside enclosures (although street-safety advocates like the curbside idea because the enclosures take up space that would be used for free car storage).
“Really, the next [solid waste management plan] needs to be comprehensive and consider everything from collection logistics to final disposal, and the pilots should serve those larger aims of how can the whole system be improved so there are no bags of trash full of food waste and attracting rats and causing litter. That is what our putwastetowork.org advocacy campaign is all about.”
Read the full article on the StreetsBlog NYC website here.
Image credit: Clare Miflin
StreetsBlog NYC article: The City’s ‘Clean Curbs’ Pilot is Too Small
The CITIBIN enclosure as part of the Clean Curbs pilot, at W. 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue. Photo: CITIBIN
May 10th, 2022: the Put Waste to Work campaign is featured in an article on StreetsBlog NYC. The article addresses the scale and scope of the City's "Clean Curbs" pilot, and quotes Clare Miflin of the Center for Zero Waste Design:
“There is so much pressure to do things quickly and would be better to spend a little more time designing the pilot and aims,” said Clare Miflin, the founder of the Center for Zero Waste Design, which advocates for a comprehensive solution to the city’s trash problem. Miflin said that DSNY should consider a much-more-ambitious scheme: adding lifting mechanisms — a long-used and not-too-expensive technology — to rear-loading trucks, which would allow Clean Curbs enclosures to be bigger.
Larger bins, Mifflin argued, would make trash pickup quicker and more space efficient while bettering labor condition for “New York’s Strongest,” who could still work two per truck (as they do now) without having to lift five tons of heavy bags per shift. The wheeled bins could be brought straight to trucks from near buildings and wouldn’t necessarily require curbside enclosures (although street-safety advocates like the curbside idea because the enclosures take up space that would be used for free car storage).
“Really, the next [solid waste management plan] needs to be comprehensive and consider everything from collection logistics to final disposal, and the pilots should serve those larger aims of how can the whole system be improved so there are no bags of trash full of food waste and attracting rats and causing litter. That is what our putwastetowork.org advocacy campaign is all about.”
Read the full article on the StreetsBlog NYC website here.
Image credit: Clare Miflin