Open Thread Wednesday

“Don’t we need the compostable trash in the landfill? Seems like it would help decompose the other trash, back to it’s natural state.”

Absolutely not. That’s the whole point. Anything that CAN decompose in a reasonable amount of time is compostable and can yield tremendous energy and dramatically reduce the amount of landfill needed.

The “other trash” as you call it, can’t decompose. It’s generally plastic, metal, ceramics, mixed materials, treated woods… things that will still be there in recognizable form 50 years from now.

Not when you include the resources used to build, maintain and fuel the trucks as well as resources needed to sustain the workers who could be used for higher productivity activities. You’d also need to maintain the same rate of pickup (with a separate fleet of trucks) to prevent a surge in the rat population and the associated strain on the healthcare system.

While cities transition I expect you’re right that there will be some additional cost to maintaining a larger fleet and larger crews. But once the system settles in those costs go away.

First, cities that have been doing this awhile have vehicles that take compost in one section of the truck and paper recycling in another section. So they don’t need any additional trucks.

Second, as people compost more (remember, compostable material is a full 33% of NYC trash) their regular trash will reduce in volume. This means that the city can go to 2x or 1x a week pickup instead of the 3x/week we currently have. For those who are concerned about having to keep trash around longer, remember, the regular trash won’t smell because it won’t have much, if any, food waste in it.

Finally, ultimately the same volume of trash is being thrown out so no additional staff or vehicles should be needed.

Bottom line, change can be hard and transitions can be bumpy. But this will ultimately benefit the environment as well as save the city (and therefore every tax payer) real money.

Dont worry i wont be anywhere near the Tuesday compost bin because I am not wasting my time sorting any more garbage and will never use it. The people in other neighborhoods dont recycle and put garbage out 7 days a week with total impunity. The city only pulls this garbage utopia bull&&&& in wealthy areas. They simply dont enforce it in other areas. Its a ruse to further tax our neighborhood.

Running to Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park this morning I noticed that construction crews have begun the excavation for the first skyscraper there. Has this been settled in court yet? Or are they trying to get construction started before a judge puts a stop to it (as we saw at Pier 1)? If the latter, I’d hope the news media reports on this. CC: Claude

Sorry I’ve ben remiss in running old BH postcards. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by e-mails and keeping up with events.

Here’s the Church of the New Jerusalem, torn down by Robert Moses. How ironic that this is now the site of Congregation Mt. Sinai!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/768395a31f333eda8cd6eed274f42068abffe21e0419f169236a44b70db9294a.jpg

You could always line it with a paper Trader Joe’s bag, which will decompose along with the smelly contents.

I understand that by number, cigarette butts and filters are the most common form of litter.