A Trashy Debate

Walking up Third Avenue tonight I noticed all of the waste baskets brimming with trash. It was rather disgusting and more so because I had to find a niche to put my own refuse in so it wouldn't fall to the ground. Later on I know that a garbage truck with two men will drive by, throw the contents into the back of their truck and drive away. I see it all the time, but rarely do I ever ask the question....what happens next?

If someone asked me on the spot I'd have to guess that most of the trash New York creates goes out on barges somewhere far, far away, like New Jersey. Instead the real answer is that thousands of miles are driven collectively by private companies that throw the garbage (12,000 tons a day) into landfills out in Pennsylvania and various other states. It doesn't take much thought to come up with "thats not a good idea" so then what should we do? What can be done?

Well New York's leaders (including my own State Senator Liz Krueger) got together and talked about what we can do about the trash problem. Ideas range from taxing individuals on their garbage, burning it in waste-to-energy incinerators nearby, building a railroad that transports trash to a super landfill upstate and plain old conservation efforts. The participants agreed and disagreed on all ideas (depending on which idea and who was talking) and in the end, nothing was accomplished.

Well, why not compromise? Why can't we have some waste-to-energy plants, fund conservation efforts and build a slightly smaller landfill that uses trains to transport the garbage. Doing a little bit of both spreads it around and doesn't force us to put all our eggs in one metaphorical basket. All ideas have their pros and cons and dealing with garbage on the scale that NYC creates is no easy task. So why not try all of them and see where it goes from there. If the incinerators work better, than focus more on those. If the landfill works best, then build it bigger. And if conservation makes us a Zero Waste city....nah, that'll never happen, this is still New York.