Upper East Siders in Manhattan will Share Waste Burden

Date: July 22, 2012

Source: News Room

A controversial New York City waste transfer station proposed for the Upper East Side of Manhattan has won final regulatory approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, despite strident local opposition. Cas Holloway, the city's deputy mayor for operations, said he expects the $240 million station will help double the city's recycling rate once operational in 2015. It also ensures, according to Holloway, "that every borough bears some responsibility for handling its own waste," an essential component of the city's 20-year solid waste plan approved in 2006. The city currently generates an estimated 50,000 tons of waste per day. Among other things, the plan seeks to boost recycling and reduce the number of garbage trucks on the road by reopening marine waste terminals throughout the city. Waste that cannot be recycled is aggregated at a rail-served transfer station on Staten Island where it is loaded into rail cars and shipped to landfills down the eastern seaboard.

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