NYC Commercial Waste Management Needs Overhaul
study finds low recycling rates and inefficient collection routes (creating more waste.) could be opportunity to add more data analytics for routes, weight per building and per route, recycled vs. disposed per route, etc. via gothamist:
A report released today by Transform Don't Trash NYC found that New York City businesses produce 5.5 million tons of waste per year—of those, 4 million are disposed rather than recycled. And while Bloomberg's 2011 PLaNYC report set the city's recycling rate by offices, restaurants, stores, hotels, and hospitals at 40%, TDTNYC estimates that the actual percentage is closer to 24%.
via transform don’t trash nyc:
Our survey revealed individual blocks in several neighborhoods where collection trucks from 8-10 different hauling companies serviced businesses, and one multi-block commercial strip serviced by 22 different hauling companies. The constant struggle to gain and retain customers leads haulers to operate inefficient routes.
For example, a typical team of two workers operating a truck might collect waste from 70 different restaurants in one night. While a dense customer base would allow these workers to fill their trucks from restaurants in a single neighborhood, in NYC’s open system these workers are likely to drive across multiple neighborhoods and even boroughs to collect the same amount of waste from the same number of restaurants.
