
A Filthy History: When New Yorkers Lived Knee-Deep in Trash - danso
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/when-new-yorkers-lived-knee-deep-in-trash/
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peterwwillis
For those who haven't traveled to the big apple recently: the trash is still
piled waist or chest-high on the street, albeit in trash bags. Every time I go
back it seems to be trash day, but maybe that's a coincidence. Either way, DC
smells like cherry blossoms and NYC smells like hot garbage.

~~~
rayiner
NYC's street grid was made with no space for alleys. As a result, the vast
majority of the city has no place to put their trash out for pickup except on
the sidewalk. The commercial areas are a bit better because the high-rises
have trash storage and direct pickup.

Trash pickup days are two-three times per week, but are staggered by address
(blocks or something bigger). So there is always some garbage somewhere except
the weekends.

As an aside, DC smells like armpits and cherry blossoms.

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peterwwillis
If the street is the semi-permanent resting place for trash between pickups,
they should build some kind of storage container... some kind of a large box
that trash goes into with a lid that contains it until it's picked up. It
could help contain the garbage so it doesn't leak all over the street and
smell up the place, and keep it more compact. But i'm probably over-
engineering again!

~~~
potatolicious
Garbage isn't (supposed to be) stored on the street between pickups, you're
only supposed to put them out on garbage day.

The main issue is that garbage sits out in the sun for a few hours waiting for
the truck to swing by, and gets, er, _rather ripe_ in the meantime.

Many buildings _do_ wheel their garbage out in standardized things that look
rather like mine carts. Some do not, I wish there was more regulation in this
regard - so at least garbage juice doesn't leak all over the sidewalk.

Note that this is really a Midtown Manhattan problem. In the residential
neighborhoods the garbage situation is (relatively) under control - doesn't
smell like roses, but you don't have garbage juice flowing like rivers down
the sidewalk. A lot of the older Midtown buildings are too old to have
internal garbage management, and are densely packed enough to produce a _lot_
of garbage.

Midtown Manhattan is, IMO, one of the worst places a smell-sensitive person
can find themselves. Ever.

~~~
hunterrible
The real reason Manhattan's garbage smells so bad is because they have no
system for composting, which would remove the vast majority of rotting plant
and animal parts from the standard waste stream. NYC is far behind other major
cities in this regard, though they've been piloting the project in some of the
outer boroughs recently.

~~~
tomkarlo
Most NY apartments also don't have garbage disposals in their kitchen sinks,
because they were banned until about a decade ago. Apartments that haven't
been built or renovated since then generally won't have one. This further
boosts the amount of food waste going into garbage cans.

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columbo
Off Topic: Having just browsed over this website I have to say it has a great
layout for depth-heavy articles. Better than any news site that I can think
of. Great images, uncluttered, and a wide variety of topics. Very nice!

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danso
I don't know why I feel inclined to preemptively defend this submission from
the "How does this relate to hackerism?" comments...but if you've ever had to
maintain an ongoing software service, I think you'll find plenty of insights
in an article about the hidden costs and infrastructure of garbage management
(and the politics/schemeing it takes to build it) :)

~~~
davidw
This to me looks like an in-depth look at something most of us don't consider
from day to day, making it more of the 'intellectually stimulating' sort of
article rather than "OMG, the TSA did something outrageous!!!".

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shanev
There's a flip side to this story. While it's true that rates of certain acute
diseases have gone down since NYC has gotten cleaner, rates of chronic
diseases such as asthma have gone up. There's a school of thought that thinks
our modern city existence is too clean, and we're no longer exposed to "old
friends" that keep asthma and other chronic illnesses at bay. Check out the
book "An Epidemic of Absence" for more details:
[http://amzn.to/12Blhij](http://amzn.to/12Blhij). In ten years from now, we
may be taking pills for "beneficial parasites" as we do now for beneficial
bacteria.

~~~
nooneelse
Instead of pills, what about little wet-wipe like rags bearing germs in
packaging labeled with the age at which one should have one's child play with
the rag (or wipe it on their favorite toy) in order to safely, effectively
expose them and work-out/teach their immune system.

~~~
lostlogin
Daycare. These hotbeds of disease are to be avoided by adults however. I'm fit
and healthy are rarely get sick. This year, thanks to my daughters daycare, I
have had chickenpox (god awful, getting it as a child doesn't prevent an adult
dose I now know), some kind of deathly vomit bug (first time I've had such a
thing), about three colds, and sinusitis. The little girl has a minor sickness
and I nearly die.

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healthenclave
Awesome!! On a realted note everyone should read / hear to the book "Ragged
Dick" from early 19 hundreds (1920 I suppose) about a story (fiction)of a
orphan boy who lived in the streets of NYC , used to polish shoes and who grew
up to be the one of the most richest and prominent individuals.

Very inspirational stuff and remind about the early not so charming history of
NY [http://librivox.org/ragged-dick-by-horatio-alger-
jr/](http://librivox.org/ragged-dick-by-horatio-alger-jr/)

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fywacro
"For street cleaning, he first reached out to Teddy Roosevelt, who basically
said, ‘What, are you nuts? Nobody should do that. That’s an impossible job.
I’m not going to do that.’ So Roosevelt took over the police department, which
was also in dire need of reform."

Back in college, a history-buff friend told me this story, but I thought she
was telling me a joke. Who'da thunk it?

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gergles
If you want a good trash collection system in NYC, move to Roosevelt Island.
[http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/08/trash-sucking-
island/...](http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/08/trash-sucking-island/all/1)

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cfesta9
Strike "When" Drop d on "Lived"

