NYC’s Outdated Infrastructure and Litter

By Angus Jackson

New York City is large, vibrant, and chaotic. Some of that chaos is the sheer volume of waste, trash, and litter with which NYC's infrastructure has to contend. One of the most pressing issues is that the current sanitation system is overburdened, and litter is both a cause and symptom of that strain.

First, how much trash are we talking about? NYC generates around 44 million pounds of trash daily, or roughly 20 million kilograms for those of you using the metric system. Nearly half of that is curbside trash serviced by the Department of Sanitation (DSNY), with the rest being serviced by private carters. Commercial buildings, businesses, and high-rise residential buildings disproportionately contribute to that load.

So much trash is still littered on sidewalks in bags rather than in covered containers; bags split, leak, and spill, especially in wet or windy environmental conditions, leaving loose litter. Food debris, paper, plastic, and packaging disperse before they can be collected or pulled out by pests or blown by the wind. To address that, NYC has newly passed legislation requiring businesses to containerize waste, which should put 20 million pounds of garbage daily under containerization. Additionally, on residences with fewer than 10 units, lids are being mandated on dumpsters. These reforms are intended to reduce how often trash bags rupture or are tampered with prior to collection. 

And why is litter significant, both socially and environmentally? There are various cascading harms. First, litter instigates rodent infestation: rats consume food within exposed garbage bags. Rodents carry disease, create allergens, and degrade the quality of life. Second, litter results in health harms: airborne droppings, smell from rot, and contact with pathogens from spoiled food. Significantly, there is destructive environmental degradation associated with litter: plastic trash, like bottles, containers, and disposable products, doesn't disintegrate, or doesn't disintegrate for decades/centuries. It clogs storm drains, which ends up in dirty runoff when it rains. Therefore, this trash reaches water bodies, kills animals, and contributes to microplastics. Lastly, there's also great aesthetic, psychological, and economic damage: littered streets reduce residents' pride in their city, creating a cyclic relationship as a less prideful city will be more likely to litter. Garbage can lower property values, deter business, reduce foot traffic, and increase feelings of abandonment and disorganization, too. A report, "Overflowing Disparities: Examining the Availability of Litter Bins in New York City," illustrates that lower-income communities have fewer litter bins, and thus people have fewer easy, accessible locations where they can dispose of small items, which in turn leads to more litter. It also presents excessive litter in communities with risks like trips/falls, higher perception of crime, health hazards, etc.

Finally, the production size of litter is immense in terms of quality and quantity: every day, thousands of people discard wrappers, cups, bottles, and tissues anywhere because there is no trash can in view. Even with DSNY's massive fleet of mechanical brooms, litter receptacles, curb collections, and private haulers, the system remains reactive. The infrastructure always remains behind the city's waste output. Trash cans overflow, pickups are delayed, enforcement of NYC anti-littering law is patchwork (and hard to achieve), and public awareness is spotty. In a Sanitation Foundation survey in 2025, over 80% of New Yorkers responded that they think about litter as a big problem, but a large percentage also said littering happens partly because there simply aren't any cans available.

Tackling NYC's litter requires reducing production (e.g. fewer single-use items), increasing containment in closed bins and through containerization, improving collection logistics, and advocating equitable distribution of sanitation services.

Sources Used:

New York City generates 44 million pounds of garbage a day. The city has a plan to contain the mess: https://apnews.com/article/694694360479c6c31a75d55b4c784755

Examining the Availability of Litter Bins in New York City: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5107

New York to enforce citywide commercial waste containerization in 2024: https://www.wastedive.com/news/new-york-adams-containerize-commercial-waste-bags-rats/694185/

Trash City No More: 70 Percent of NYC Trash Now Covered by Bin Rules as First Residential Container Requirement in 50 Years Takes Effect — https://www.nyc.gov/site/dsny/news/24-027/trash-city-no-more-70-percent-nyc-trash-now-covered-bin-rules-first-residential-container

Overflowing Disparities: Examining the Availability of Litter Bins in New York City — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35564502/