Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty and Waste Management of New York, LLC announced that New York City has taken the next step in implementing its historic Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) by exporting North Brooklyn’s residential and municipal solid waste by rail instead of truck.
Instead of using long−haul tractor trailers, which clog City roads, bridges and tunnels as they travel to out−of−state landfills, rail cars will export waste using a newly re−designed transfer station.
The announcement took place at the Waste Management Varick Avenue I transfer station in East Williamsburg. The Solid Waste Management Plan establishes a cost−effective, equitable and environmentally sound system for managing the City’s waste for the next 20 years, and it is a key part of the city’s effort to improve air quality, cut traffic, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“By exporting 950 tons of residential and municipal waste per day by rail, we’re eliminating more than 40 long haul tractor trailer trips each day — or about 13,000 trips per year,” said Bloomberg. “That’s not only going to help reduce congestion on the borough’s streets and highways, it also will reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and improve the air we breathe — especially in communities that have long been unjustly saddled with handling other people’s waste.”
“The Solid Waste Management Plan has revolutionized the way our City handles its solid waste,” said Doherty. “Our long−term contracts with our partner, Waste Management, and the utilization of the Varick Avenue I transfer station, will bring us one step closer to each borough handling their waste more equally.”
Six days per week, the newly re−designed Varick Avenue I transfer station will receive an average of 950 tons of waste per day from Brooklyn Community Boards 1, 3, 4, and 5. Waste will be loaded into rail containers, each holding approximately 18 tons. Once sealed, the containers will be loaded onto rail cars at the adjoining rail yard, and moved by the New York & Atlantic Railway to the Fresh Pond Yard, where it will be connected to CSX Transportation trains for transport to disposal sites.
