Sanitation Expert Answers Trash Questions From Twitter | Tech Support | WIRED

i'm ed grayson new york city sanitation commissioner today i'll be answering your questions from twitter this is trash support [Music] v69 radio asks what's the craziest thing you've ever found in the trash the most interesting thing that i ever removed from a cleanup site was a prosthetic leg when we were cleaning up the aftermath of the new york city ball drop here for new year's eve so i always wondered how did that person get home they clearly made it in okay must have been a good party night sometimes you'll see what one would call maybe bedroom paraphernalia inside the hopper of the truck and it always does make you do that wonder but other than that everything's usually cut and dry rosie posey asks so new york was built on garbage sorta not the whole thing i mean it's an island we're really talking about the borough manhattan for the most part believe it or not the battery a whole part like on the southern tip of manhattan that was literally built on using fill some of it was garbage some it was earth fill but in the end of the day that is landfill so yes parts of new york city were in fact terraformed using garbage and tony usgark writes you ever just watch the robot arm of a garbage truck hoist your refuse into the trash trunk and think what a time to be alive all the time my friend all the time actually though there are some really cool technologies on garbage trucks this is one of our front end loaders now this guy he's primarily used at some of our transfer stations and we use it all the time when we're doing debris removal and when this arms up in the air everybody's on high alert because this thing probably weighs i don't know about six thousand pounds and then it holds oh i don't know three yards material so let's add another three tons so anytime this thing's swinging around you got almost 10 tons of material possibly above your head so you're going to be looking at that and it is a thing of wonder so here is an iconic new york city collection truck this thing's fantastic right here in the back what you can get caught up and mesmerized by is that nice sweeper action the men and women are loading into the back of that thing and then they pull the handles and it is really a ballet of sights and smells the compactor on this will gladly eat just about anything you put in it when you send out our metal trucks they will crush a washer dryer hot water heater they'll crush just about anything mr levenstein ty my girlfriend broke up with me while i was standing next to a no dumping sign can i sue her i don't know if that's exactly illegal dumping that they were talking about now most times when you see no dumping or illegal dumping signs out that's because the location that's there they've had a notorious bad actor come by quite some time and illegally dump construction material or other materials because they don't want to bring it to where it's supposed to go and i want to say this out loud now if you're illegal dumping anywhere stop doing that it's so easy to do the right thing with garbage it's literally the easiest thing to do to just follow the local ordinances and get rid of it so please stop illegal dumping and please if you're listening give mr levenstein another chance lara 65 writes how does one properly dispose of a knife real question seems like tossing in the garbage is likely a hazard for someone in waste disposal thank you for caring we love you that's fantastic if it's all metal it's a recyclable product but that doesn't mean you can't do something perhaps you could take like a piece of plastic film tape up where the blade is make sure that we're really not going to get stuck because if we don't know that it's in there that could come out and hurt us so thank you for thinking of us definitely try to protect the blade but 100 metal knife is clearly recyclable object jeff aldridge writes new york city is an amazing city the infrastructure the history but why why why do they still put trash on the streets like it's 1890 i couldn't agree with you more it is an amazing city and the infrastructure and the history but there you go those are two parts of the reason a lot of the buildings are built to not do that we don't have a lot of alleyways in new york city we don't have a lot of buildings and building spaces that have a dedicated refuse and recycling room and we have a lot of people and we have the charm of the city and we have a lot of subterranean infrastructure but we're changing we're evolving the entire time we have recently embarked on at least in new york city a new pilot proposal called clean curbs where we are going to start installing corral areas in residential and commercial areas normally we do from the curb through the parking lane into the street where the truck is this is going to be having the material in a sealed container probably ergonomic design more than likely aesthetically beautiful much better than looking a bunch of black bags on the floor and then we're going to service from there where we're going to change possibly how much garbage you see but just remember not seeing it doesn't mean it's not there so we still want to focus on is let's get the garbage generation and all that to be lower than it is and that'll even make it look more like the city that you want miss leah h asks i didn't know how to dispose of my bacon grease so i panicked and made a batch of gravy instead l-o-l wellness leah h bacon and then gravy made from bacon we may be soul mates you did two good things there number one you didn't pour that grease down the drain and believe me everybody in the sewage treatment plant appreciates that one of the ways that you can totally get rid of bacon grease is pour it into a cup put it in the freezer turn it back into a salad and then just throw it out jacob meshke asks why is new york city sanitation department the world's largest when new york isn't even close to the largest city in the world so are there bigger cities sure are there places with more population sure do they host an entire municipal workforce that is on duty 24 hours a day seven days a week to meet the changing needs of the city that never sleeps and it's 8.8 million people no they don't so we are in charge of the refuse recycling and snow removal all street cleaning all special event cleaning all emergency debris management we have a pretty robust workload we have a really committed city to making sure that new york stays the gotham of the free world and we can keep you all healthy safe and clean next it's timothy de la g does anyone happen to know how much would cost to rent a garbage truck for the day one thing i can tell you garbage trucks are for rent not new york city's garbage trucks but from municipal and heavy-duty equipment supply places you can rent a garbage truck right now in new york city our average you know iconic white garbage truck that you see going on has to house crypt to curb it's a little over 250 000 per truck because it's got the highest level of technology we use renewable diesel we have a lot of things built in there to make sure that we're one of the most sustainable fleets across the country but i can tell you this much it's going to cost you a lot for a garbage truck i'd say you may want to let the professionals handle that one machine gun kelly asks where does all the new york city trash go after trucks pick it up i'm worried where does it go it goes to one of our many transfer stations where from there it gets processed sorted and then taken to a final destination in new york city we host about five different transfer stations four by barge one by rail and we have a myriad of recycling contract vendors we bring the recyclable materials from there it makes its sorting process and then moves on to either landfill waste energy plant or proper recycling for beneficial reuse next up aquila obviously can i ask something how are we supposed to be throwing batteries away it all depends on where you live you should really check your local ordinances because they may have a different waste management plan but if you're in new york right now and you have let's say small disposable alkaline batteries because there's no mercury in them you can actually put them out in the trash certain batteries like let's say automotive batteries here in new york they have to go back to wherever you bought that so if it's a retailer that sells an automotive battery they have to take it back and then they'll properly recycle it some of the lithium ion batteries and you know the more rechargeable ones they can be pretty dangerous and we want them a safe handle also you can go to like the new york city website nyc.gov sanitation and we have this great portal where we tell you how do i dispose of and you can find out all the different ways that you can dispose of not only batteries but a bunch of other stuff that people have those lingering questions on think shiv why does nyc sanitation only pick up recyclable materials once a week if they increased it i would recycle more hashtag just saying it comes down to trying to effectively and efficiently route throughout the entire city we know pretty much on average how much recycling is going to be out on every block face and we use a lot of data and trend analysis to know exactly how many trucks are on in the city with 8.8 million people though we are trying to root efficiently make sure that we're getting out there hitting every community board fairly and equitably and giving everybody the same opportunity to recycle us trying to get more opportunity for each resident that's one of the long-term goals tristan convert asks how does recycling actually work what do you think i think that the big cornerstone on recycling it makes us conscious about how we're behaving we go out every day and we pick up you know a thousand tons of paper in new york city and we bring that back and that's going to a paper mill and that mixed paper is getting re-pulped remanufactured and we're making new things we're making things like pizza boxes we're making things like recycled paper more and more and more you're seeing sustainable ways that we can do beneficial reuse for some of the things that are totally consumables metal recycling for example you know all those cans and all the the bulk metal that's going to be sorted by metal type and re-smelted back into things to make new things that's the ultimate goal one of the ideas that we have to hold true is that recycling is not a bad thing if we can keep it out of the landfill while we're working on the next way to find ways to make better products have more sustainable packaging to begin with that's the real answer pooja vixen writes what do landfills do with garbage what do landfills do with garbage they hold it for us usually modern-day landfilling involves high-tech design landfill with industrial and environmental protection base layers underneath silt layers drainage runoff caps all kinds of seals and you know sub-terrain infrastructure so that everything's done in an environmentally sustainable way and then as it biodegrades you're building up methane that methane is going to be pumped out and put the beneficial use usually as energy and then all along the way what you're going to do is you're going to be capping at different intervals so there'll be an active bank where the garbage being dumped and then they'll keep moving the herd around to try to level out the playing field until it runs out of room and then people say well then what happens then what you're going to do then is you're going to seal up the landfill and you're going to monitor that for anywhere from 30 plus years and then usually what happens is that's when you could start looking to use that land again for something other than being a waste disposal site yalawale asks where will the trash go when all the landfills are full great question because it hits on why does everybody think zero waste reuse in recycling some of the greatest time of of actual individual recycling and recapture rate during the world war one world war ii efforts when we were literally trying to get back all the metal and you know our grandparents and great grandparents would tell us all the stories about how they were saving everything and bringing in all the tin cans from the local neighborhood because they really thought they had to get all these materials back in so that they could you know preserve our way of life well guess what folks we need to preserve our way of life right now what are we gonna do in the landfills run out exactly we're gonna have all this garbage no place to bring it that's why trying to reduce consumption learn everything we can do to be living a recyclable life finding beneficial reuse for these products and more importantly thinking so where does it go i think that's entirely up to us let's work on that together shabazz jab says i feel like it's trash day every day in new york city like how does everybody have this much garbage that's what i'm saying but the reality of it is is that every year we're doing on the residential side a little over three million tons away of material every day is trash day because every single person is consuming something and whether you think about it or not you have created your own personal piece of the waste stream every single day can we do stuff that'll make that different absolutely maybe we don't have to buy as much maybe not throw out half the strawberries because you didn't get to them for the smoothie think about those things you can consume less you can generate less waste and then maybe every day won't feel like garbage day dorky mark writes what is waste segregation it's just another word for sorting so what does that mean a lot of places are going to ask you to source separate your material we do it here in new york city we're asking all of the residents to source separate their paper and their mgp and then a handful of community boards here we're asking to separate their organic waste before they put it out so that we can come and properly delineate it so we could take it to the respective stream jurors devil 2000 asks will composting ever work in new york absolutely it works everywhere the question is will we do enough to make it work can we get it scalable and i have to tell you we're on our way there we have to do this incredible thing as a city and try to remind ourselves of why we're doing it because what we're going to do there is going to turn into nutrient-dense compost we're going to take all that food waste and we're going to segregate it we're going to put it into places where it can become nutrient dense compost because that doesn't have to go to a landfill it's completely wasting all of that beautiful energy that happens as it breaks down will composting work yes it's going to take people like you who care it's going to take people in the positions that make those decisions on a municipal level and the government level to give you the access to those programs and the education but can we do it absolutely great question all right that's it i hope you learned something and you had fun until next time

Channel: WIRED

Views: 728,635

Keywords: boss, commissioner, ed grayson, ed grayson garbage, garbage, garbage boss, garbage collection, garbage expert, garbage support, garbage trucks, garbage wired, innovation, nyc commissioner, nyc garbage, nyc sanitation, nyc trash, ott tech support, recycling, recycling nyc, sanitation, sanitation department, sanitation nyc, science & technology, tech support sanitation, trash, trash support, wired, wired garbage, wired tech support

Id: bnGBqzqA9mo

Length: 13min 43sec (823 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 20 2022