From Streets to Streams: How NYC Litter Travels Downriver

Written By Angus Jackson

By Angus Jackson

When we litter the curb or sidewalk with garbage, we think it just remains there. But in NYC, much of it takes an unseen route—carried by the rainstorms, windstorms, and storm systems into rivers, canals, and bays. Understanding that route helps us see why neighborhood trash is more than a neighborhood problem—it's a watershed issue.

Hudson River Foundation's "Stopping Trash Where It Starts" report explains how litter bins located precisely at the littering points all too often do not catch all the litter. Even with the presence of bins, litter rolls off them, spills off them, or bypasses the receptacle. Hydrologic forces carry that litter off into gutters, catch basins, and storm drains before the litter ever has any chance of being seen. Too many streets in the city go directly into the water.

New York City's street upkeep infrastructure entails keeping 6,000 miles of streets clear and functional and maintaining over 23,000 litter receptacles within the city in operational condition. These programs try to intercept litter before it enters the storm sewers. The 2023 Waste Characterization Study also systematically inspected litter baskets and on-street litter bin contents and back-traced them to what finds its way into the water sampling.

Litter is more prone to becoming waterborne during heavy rainfall. Stormwater runoff collects plastics, organic material, wrappers, and miniature garbage and directs them into catch basins. Where catch basins clog or do not have screens installed, litter falls straight into rivers. The GreeNYC initiative has photographed floating garbage near the outfalls of sewers that has the typical street litter profile and illustrates the visible continuity between street and stream. Aquatic and marine ecosystems suffer. Plastic trash, also microplastics and chemical leachates, enter rivers and kill fish, invertebrates, and affect the overall quality of the water. The Brooklyn and certain Staten Island canal systems (like the Gowanus Canal) already face extreme contaminating conditions, and litter contributes to the chemical load. The Gowanus has also, for many years, contained industrial toxins; litter is another burden.

Environmental organizations operating near the New York Harbor insist that preventing litter upstream rather than cleaning it downstream is less expensive. Every dollar dedicated to intercepting litter on the street costs significantly less than dredging or cleaning the water. The report on the Hudson River maintains that minimizing litter at the source is the ultimate barrier.

Finally, citizen education programs like MyCoast NY track litter in the areas surrounding storm drains and shoreline borders. Volunteers report having observed cigarette trash, chunks of foam, and small plastics in areas surrounding city streets. The latter's research records the spatial association between littering near drains and higher debris in streams.

Lastly, litter in the Big Apple seldom remains stagnant. A discarded wrapper on a prominent street may end up in the East River or Hudson within days. Treating litter in the context of watershed flow versus neighborhood blight makes it easier for policies to focus on catch basin upgrade work, screening at inlets, street filtration devices, and reducing loose litter at the source. Pristine waters translate to keeping the litter in the spot where it falls, though it should really be picked up before that.

Sources Used:

Angus Jackson
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