Does Removing Trash Cans from the Subway Equate to Less Garbage?
The cash-strapped MTA in New York City is conducting trials at both the 8th Street Station in Lower Manhattan and the Main Street Station in Queens to examine if removing trash cans from the New York City Subway is a viable option. One report suggests that MTA executives proposed the trials after numerous complaints of mounding garbage in stations throughout the city.
As a person who follows the MTA, there are few relevant questions which I must ask about this trial:
Will removing the trash cans reduce the number of rodents in the system?
Will this prompt riders to dispose of their trash outside the system?
What are the cost savings directly tied to cutting trash cans?
Even though the MTA is trying to get positive answers to those questions as a result of the trials, I have to think to myself the following: “What the [expletive] is the MTA thinking?”
One commenter (Larkinvo’s) on NY Mag writes :
What a GREAT idea! To eliminate garbage, get rid of the garbage cans. I can’t WAIT to try this at home.
The MTA seems to be banking on the idea that riders will dispose of their trash before or after they exit the system. Even though I’m sure many would dispose of the trash outside of the system, there are many others who would rather throw garbage onto the tracks or leave it on benches in stations, not knowing the trash cans were intentionally removed. I agree that the amount of trash underground needs to be reduced, but it won’t be easily accomplished.
Commerce will complicate the removal of trash cans. The MTA currently leases space in stations to small newspaper stands and retailers that sell a variety of products, ranging from beverages to candy and, in some cases, meals, clothing and household goods. The perfect example is at the 34th Street – Herald Square Station where one may find a Burger King underground. To fully reduce the amount of trash within the system, they would have to eliminate the retailers which produce trash and ban the consumption of food and beverages in the system. Eliminating the source, in this case, would be foolish. Thomas DiNapoli, New York State Comptroller, estimated last year that the MTA makes $200 million in revenue from various real estate deals, with the potential to make more.
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