NYC New York City Litter Garbage “Scene” CASE STUDY: What’s going on to achieve a “cleaner physical environment” in America’s Largest City? (Possible to have true Green Improvements?)

Steve Spacek [“American State Litter Scorecard”]

The 2nd Annual Northeastern Conference on Public AdministrationJohn Jay College of Criminal Justice

New York City, New York USA

Saturday. October 29, 2011

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NYC declared 5th “Dirtiest American City,” by June 2011 Travel+ Leisure expose from Katrina Brown Hunt.

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FACT: Littering and dumping BREEDS DISEASES and PESTS and is Injurious/deadly to humans, animals, landscapes.

******************NYC Top Littered Items: Cigarette butt litter (75 % of NYC Beach litter!), Plastic Bags, Polystyrene. NYC Citizens throw away 2.87 lbs. per person per day…NY State residents toss 2.235 lbs. per day. NYC commercial operations generate extra 13,000 tons per days (sources: CNN, May 2011; Earth911.com; NYC Sanitation, Spacek). Top NYC litter/dumping Locations: Beaches, Gowanus Canal, Subway Entrances/Ticket Vending Machines; Ridgewood (Queens), Bronx (152nd Street,-Jackson, Union, Concord, Wales, Union Avenues), Bay Ridge, Washington Heights/Inwood (Broadway and Dyckman Streets) [sources: DNAinfo.com, Aug. 2011; Eco Poiltics Daily, Sept. 2011] . See Huffington Post: “Do you live in NYC’s Dirtiest Neighborhood? Tell Us Why.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/26/do-you-live-in-nycs-dirti_n_437610.html

Deaths from Debris/Litter Vehicle Crashes: 16 died within NY State in 2008 (source: NHTSA). The NYC Political/Environmental Culture: Mixed Individualistic/Moralistic, with much firmer Individualistic strain that rest of NY State—exceptionally strong ruling of market place but some public sector intervention to meet citizen aims as merited (source: Elazar, Koven and Mausloff, Neal, Spacek). NYC Citizen Excuses To Litter: Too busy to properly dispose trash; Lack of cigarette filter receptacles; lack of litter baskets/bins (only 25,000 litter baskets/”public bins”); Litter will magically “go away” without human intervention, or even be sold as cube art by Justin Gignac. NYC residents are a supplier of nearby New Jersey and Pennsylvania urban littering/dumping (sources: 2004 NJ Litter Survey; NY Litter 2004; NY Observer, April 2008; 1990 and 1998 PA Litter Surveys). NYC Profiled Litterer: Number of NYC Male population age 16-24 in 2010 is 615,555 or 7.52 % of total 8,175,133population (sources: 2006 City of NY Population Projections; 2010 U.S. Census Bureau).

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Source Reduction Activities provide a healthy, enjoyable Surface Environment for humans, animals and nature.

NYC Source Reduction Activities: Physical

Actual Litter/Debris Removal: Department of Sanitation’s 5,800+ workers collect over 12,000 tons of residential/institutional refuse and recyclables per day out of 59 districts, using 2,230 trucks and 91 special litter basket trucks; 6,000 miles of city streets are swept daily. $400+ Million spent to collect and dispose trash, which is moved to transfer facilities in New Jersey, surrounding states ; some trash carted to landfills in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia (Source: EPA; NY Daily News, Dec. 2010; New York Observer, April 2008; NYC Sanitation; The Cooperator.com, 2006)

Adopt a Street/ Road Program: None known in NYC at present.

City/Statewide Anti- Litter Slogan/Campaign: “Stomp Out Litter” (city); “Let’s Pick it Up New York” (state)

Environmental Organizations: NYC Park Advocates; KAB; “Clean Up the World (United Nations)—UN” ; Earthjustice; NYC Garbage Project; Litterbutt.com; Litter-Butt.org

Beverage Container Deposits: Statewide mandate.

Comprehensive Recycling:? NYC has “Waste Less, Recycle More” program. http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/recycling/recycling_nyc.shtml There is still NO Comprehensive Recycling guidelines for the Empire State’s cities and counties.

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NYC Source Reduction Activities: Legal

Litter Laws/Statutes: NY State CLS Vehicle and Trash Section 1220; NY State Administrative Code 16-118 (Littering), 16-119 (Dumping) prohibited; violation code 1219-A; NY City Lawn Litter Law, (Chapter 585): No defiance of a property owner’s request to not receive hand-delivered circulars/advertising . NY State litter laws appear weaker than other populated states (source: NYC Garbage Project; Spacek)

Litter Source Taxation: Not yet seen in NYC nor NY State.

Anti-Litter Complaint Hotline/Websites: In 2007, 1,145 calls to 311 hotline “Sanitation Specialists” (sources: NYC Park Advocates; NY Post, Aug. 2007) http://www.nyc.gov/html/dsny/html/contact/requests_litter.shtml Litter Basket Service RequestLawn Litter Law: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/laws/state_lawnlitter.shtml NYC Dept. of Parks and Recreation http://www.nycgovparks.org/email_forms/litter_survey/Other website: Litterbutt.com http://www.litterbutt.com/Home/Stop-Roadway-Litter.aspx

Dept. of Sanitation programs: Illegal Dumping Tippers get 50% of caught offenders fine; Illegal Dumping Award requires signing of affidavit.

Public Space Littering Observations: SCOUT (Street Condition Observation Unit); Project Scorecard Street Cleanliness Rating)[sources: NYC Sanitation; US. Conference of Mayors]. Street Cleanliness Site: http://www.nyc.gov/html/ops/html/data/street_scorecard.shtml

Citation Writing: Sanitation Agents wrote 2, 515 tickets, Summers of 2006-2007, for litter basket dumping (source: NY Post, Aug. 2007).

Punishment: $50 to $250 Fine for litter/dumping on property or sidewalk up to 18 inches from curb; $400 illegal public bin dumping (source NYC Garbage project). Each $100 fine has minimum $80 Surcharge; Potential Vehicle Impoundment by NYC Sanitation