0
SPEAKER_00
Guess what, Will?
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What s up, Mango?
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SPEAKER_00
I ve been trying to write a promo for our podcast, Part-Time Genius, but even though we ve done over 250 episodes, we don t really talk about murders or cults.
0
SPEAKER_00
I mean, we did just cover the Illuminati of cheese, so I feel like that makes us pretty edgy.
0
SPEAKER_00
We also solve mysteries like how Chinese is your Chinese food and how do dollar stores make money?
0
SPEAKER_00
And then, of course, can you game a dog show?
0
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So what you re saying is everyone should be listening.
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Listen to Part-Time Genius on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
0
SPEAKER_04
I m Diosa.
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And I m Mala.
0
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We are the creators of Locatora Radio, a radiophonic novela, which is a fancy way of saying... A podcast!
0
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Welcome to Locatora Radio, Season 9.
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Love at first listen.
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SPEAKER_05
We re older, we re wiser, and we re podcasting through a new decade of our lives.
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This season, we re falling in love with podcasting all over again and getting to the heart of our stories.
0
SPEAKER_04
We re going places we ve never gone before, and we re bringing you along with us with new segments, correspondence and a brand new sound.
0
SPEAKER_04
Season nine is kicking off with an intimate interview with Grammy Award winning singer songwriter Natalia Lafourcade.
0
SPEAKER_04
What s giving you hope right now?
0
SPEAKER_04
Well, when I see what music does to people, it gives me a lot of hope.
0
SPEAKER_05
If you liked Locatora before, you re going to love season nine.
0
SPEAKER_04
Subscribe to our show and you ll see why Locatora is your prima s favorite podcast.
0
SPEAKER_05
Listen to Locatora Radio as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0
SPEAKER_03
Get emotional with me, Radhi Devlukia, in my new podcast, A Really Good Cry.
0
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We re going to be talking with some of my best friends.
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I didn t know we were going to go there on this.
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People that I admire.
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When we say listen to your body, really tune in to what s going on.
0
SPEAKER_03
Authors of books that have changed my life.
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Now you re talking about sympathy, which is different than empathy.
0
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Never forget, it s okay to cry as long as you make it a really good one.
0
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Listen to A Really Good Cry with Radhi Devlukia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0
SPEAKER_02
Hey, everyone.
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Do you live in Washington, D.C.?
0
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Are you sitting around fretting about this upcoming election?
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SPEAKER_02
Maybe you re even working on one of these campaigns.
0
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Well, we ve got a great stress reliever for you, and that s coming out to see us on May 30th at the Warner Theatre for Stuff You Should Know Live.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, we guarantee zero political jokes.
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SPEAKER_01
100% zero political jokes.
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SPEAKER_01
If you come out and see us.
0
SPEAKER_01
We re going to be in Medford, Mass on May 29th.
0
SPEAKER_01
The next night we ll be in DC on May 30th.
0
SPEAKER_01
And then the night after that, we ll be at our old friend, the town hall in Manhattan town, NYC.
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That s right.
0
SPEAKER_02
So check out tickets.
0
SPEAKER_02
You can go to stuffyshouldknow.com.
0
SPEAKER_02
You can go to the theater websites themselves, avoid those secondary ticket brokers, or check out our link tree.
0
SPEAKER_02
Right, Josh?
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, linktree.com.
0
SPEAKER_03
Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.
0
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Hey, and welcome to the podcast.
0
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I m Josh and there s Chuck and Jerry s here too.
0
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And it s just the three of us, Oscar the grouch in it, here on Stuff You Should Know.
0
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Yeah, I think there may be one more in this sort of semi-sweet that we ve been tackling over the years, which is to say the operations of New York City.
0
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It s fascinating stuff.
0
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I love it because every time I m there, I m like, yeah, how do they, how do they deal with all this trash and deliver all that mail?
0
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So if, if mail is interesting enough, well, I m going to do a little research and see if New York city mail is, uh, worth its own deal.
0
SPEAKER_02
Okay.
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SPEAKER_02
We did one on the USPS before.
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SPEAKER_02
Oh, sure.
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SPEAKER_02
We ve done stuff on landfills and all kinds of things, but New York city is very specific to its own self.
0
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Yeah.
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As they say, living it up between the moon and New York City.
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I can t remember the rest.
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Living it up?
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
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Isn t that what he says?
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No.
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Living it up between the moon.
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Yeah.
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I like that better.
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It s if you get caught, but I like living it up.
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SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I like living it up better too.
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Oh, goodness.
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All right.
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So we re talking New York City trash, Chuck.
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I didn t ever really give much thought to it.
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I ve been in New York plenty of times and been like, wow, there s a lot of trash everywhere all the time.
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Some of it in bags, some of it on the street, some of it in overflowing trash containers.
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But it turns out that it is an enormous issue and has been an ongoing and very longstanding issue in New York.
0
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And they now have a mayor and a sanitation commissioner who s like, enough, it s done.
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We re cleaning the city up once and for all.
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And what s, yeah, Eric Adams, he s got a whole like, his whole campaign is called Get Stuff Done.
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And the trash branch of that is Get Stuff Clean.
0
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And Jessica Tish, the new garbage commissioner, is from one of the wealthiest families in America, possibly the world, but who s decided to dedicate her career to civil service, specifically in New York.
0
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So she s worked in a few agencies and now she s the head of the sanitation department, the DSNY.
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and is basically just like steamrolling through with new changes and just being like, oh, I don t care.
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That s the way you used to do it.
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Apparently it s wrong because it didn t get it done.
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We re doing it this way now.
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So they re actually making huge, enormous changes by leaps and bounds that seem like they actually possibly could clean New York up in the next couple of years.
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Do you know how the Tisch family, what their deal is?
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What their deal is?
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Like how they communicate Thanksgiving?
0
SPEAKER_02
Well, no, you said one of the wealthiest families in the world.
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SPEAKER_02
I was kind of curious.
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SPEAKER_02
Oh, I get what you mean.
0
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So what from or whatever her father is the CEO of, um, like the Lowe s theaters, the Lowe s hotels.
0
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Apparently they own a distilling brand, like the, the parent companies, the CEO of the parent company.
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But I have a feeling like, like her family is like legacy wealthy.
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That s my impression.
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Yeah, New York, NYU has the Tisch School of Arts, but I m sure it s the same family.
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Yes, it is.
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As a matter of fact, there s a really interesting profile on her and the New York Sanitation Department and the New Yorker of all places.
0
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And they rattle off like three different things that are named after her family.
0
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So yes, they ve been around for a while.
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But apparently that s pretty cool.
0
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She s like, I m incredibly wealthy, but I m going to go, you know, work my way up in New York bureaucracy, you know?
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It s really pretty incredible.
0
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So should we go back in time?
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Yeah, let s.
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Yeah, we ve talked before about what old New York was like.
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And when you see movies about old New York, they, you know, they might grunge it up a little bit, like Scorsese s Gangs of New York probably did one of the closest, truest depictions of early New York and just kind of how disgusting it could be.
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And we ve talked about the amounts of manure from horses on the sides of the street.
0
SPEAKER_02
But it was really, really gross.
0
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New York was a disgusting place back in the day.
0
SPEAKER_02
They did have a law.
0
SPEAKER_02
And this show s kind of got it all.
0
SPEAKER_02
It s got like amazing facts of the episode.
0
SPEAKER_02
Right off the bat, we have a great album title, which was this law from the 1650s that banned tubs of odor and nastiness.
0
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If that s not like a Stooges album title or something, I don t know what is.
0
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That s good.
0
SPEAKER_02
But it was it was gross.
0
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I think the first fact of the podcast for me is that about 20 percent of Manhattan or really the whole metro area is built on land that didn t used to be there.
0
SPEAKER_02
It s literally land that came from garbage spill, from construction debris, dirt from the subway project.
0
SPEAKER_02
Um, like lower Manhattan in particular, just kept growing and expanding in size.
0
SPEAKER_02
Uh, and here s another fun fact on that Ellis Island is 28 acres.
0
SPEAKER_02
Now it started out as three acres.
0
SPEAKER_01
Oh, wow.
0
SPEAKER_02
It s lit was literally built from.
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I guess just waste.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
0
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Because, I mean, if you think about it, if you just go dump one load off of an island, you ve just littered.
0
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But if you keep doing it, you re developing the land.
0
SPEAKER_01
It becomes art.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_01
You just got to stick with it, and eventually it becomes an okay thing, right?
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it s really pretty incredible to think about that.
0
SPEAKER_02
There are overlays that show, like, you know, how lower Manhattan grew just from dumping stuff.
0
SPEAKER_01
Oh, yeah.
0
SPEAKER_01
Oh, but there s pretty cool maps like that.
0
SPEAKER_01
I love that kind of stuff, too.
0
SPEAKER_01
Like, I love walking around being like, what was this building originally?
0
SPEAKER_01
You know, what used to be here?
0
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I ask that out loud sometimes.
0
SPEAKER_02
The building never answers, does it?
0
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So this is not the first time under Eric Adams and Jessica Tish that a New York administrator has tried to clean the city up.
0
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Plenty have tried.
1
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The last truly successful one was in the century before last, a Civil War, I think, colonel, a Union colonel named George Waring, who became the head of the Department of Street Cleaning, which is what the Sanitation Department was called back then.
1
SPEAKER_03
And he cleaned up the city starting around 1895, but he was not the first head of the department of street cleaning.
1
SPEAKER_03
That department was almost 20 years old by the time he came along, but it had just basically been a place where Tammany Hall and the political machine gave jobs to supporters, political supporters.
1
SPEAKER_03
And it was like, you don t need to show up to work.
1
SPEAKER_03
You re still going to get a paycheck kind of thing.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
I mean, they either did that or they outright just stole money that was allocated for those, uh, cleaning up projects to begin with.
1
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Um, I had, I saw a, uh, a name, um, back then in the 1800s, that the sludge of just manure and garbage and cess, cess a thing, I guess.
1
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Cess is the best pool.
1
SPEAKER_00
I know it says pool.
1
SPEAKER_00
Is that the thing in the pool?
1
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I would think so.
1
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All right.
1
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Anyway, uh, they called the sludge that lined the streets, uh, corporate pudding.
1
SPEAKER_03
So gross.
1
SPEAKER_00
Because I guess it was just, you know, there was it wasn t getting cleaned up because all that money, like I said, was either stolen or reallocated and to cronies.
1
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There s someone named Robin Nagel, who s a NYU professor, who is an unpaid position, but has basically worked as the unsanctioned, unsalaried anthropologist from for the Sanitation Department of New York and just has an incredible amount of knowledge about this stuff.
1
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Yeah, we ve talked about Robin Nagel before, and George Waring, and the changes he made.
1
SPEAKER_03
So, supposedly, you can look at Harper s Magazine between 1893 and 1895, and it s like George Waring came along and waved a magic wand.
1
SPEAKER_03
Like, the difference is so distinct.
1
SPEAKER_03
Like, he created kind of like a military type
1
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um, institution, hierarchy.
1
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He, uh, outfitted his people with, um, uh, white outfits designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, um, and pith helmets.
1
SPEAKER_03
And they went around and they cleaned up New York and apparently they throw parades for him once in a while because they were just so successful and loved and revered because they did such a good job.
1
SPEAKER_03
But you can see the difference between these photos in Harper s Weekly that Robin Nagel has.
1
SPEAKER_03
And I think we talked about all this in the Typhoid Mary episode.
1
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I think it was in the beginning of that one.
1
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That makes sense.
1
SPEAKER_03
I m pretty sure that s where it was.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
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I imagine George Wearing came in on day one and was like, for starters, how about you get that dead hog off the side of the road?
1
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Somebody s like, genius.
1
SPEAKER_00
He was famous, by the way, for designing the Memphis sewage system after the Civil War, before New York.
1
SPEAKER_00
They were like, hey, you did such a good job, you know, working out the sewage, I guess, in Memphis.
1
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Come on to New York, because we have sewage in the streets.
1
SPEAKER_03
Nice.
1
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He worked his way up.
1
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Yeah.
1
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If you can make it in New York sanitation, you can make it anywhere with sanitation.
1
SPEAKER_03
Believe me.
1
SPEAKER_00
So as things were going, they had landfills that came along, obviously.
1
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But a lot of the trash was handled by incinerators, still is, to great controversy, as we ll get to later.
1
SPEAKER_00
But a lot of these smaller apartment buildings had their own incinerators.
1
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They would just burn their trash.
1
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The city was like, this is an air quality nightmare.
1
SPEAKER_03
I can t imagine.
1
SPEAKER_00
So let s ban these things.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I thought it said 1889, but they were banned finally in 1989.
1
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Yeah.
1
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That tracks.
1
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I mean, it wasn t until the 90s that New York really started to kind of turn around some.
1
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That s true.
1
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So one of the other things they did, aside from banning individual buildings having incinerators, which just seems like madness in retrospect, you know what I mean?
1
SPEAKER_03
Kind of does, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_03
They also started slowly shutting down the landfills that were within the city limits.
1
SPEAKER_03
And finally, the last one, Fresh Kills on Staten Island, was famously shut down in 2001.
1
SPEAKER_03
And one of the reasons it became famous is it was the landfill that accepted a lot of the waste from the Twin Towers after the World Trade Center attacks.
1
SPEAKER_03
And that was it.
1
SPEAKER_03
It s kind of fitting, you know what I mean, in a really weird, bittersweet, poetic way.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, like a turning of the page.
1
SPEAKER_03
I guess so.
1
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
1
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But that was it.
1
SPEAKER_03
So the thing is, is New York still has tons of trash that they accumulate every day.
1
SPEAKER_03
I mean, just as we ll see a mind boggling amount of trash is generated by New York every day.
1
SPEAKER_03
And they have trouble getting it off the street.
1
SPEAKER_03
But then also they re starting to find like we are having problems identifying where to send this trash.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, for sure.
1
SPEAKER_00
So getting back to wearing back then, he was like, all right, we got to we got to figure out a way to get this trash like people just threw it in the street and wearing was like that.
1
SPEAKER_00
That s not a good system.
1
SPEAKER_00
I don t know if anyone s noticed, but just throwing your trash out of your literally out of your window sometimes of your apartment.
1
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isn t the way to go about things if we want to live a healthy life as a city.
1
SPEAKER_00
And so why don t we get trash cans?
1
SPEAKER_00
You mentioned Oscar the Grouch.
1
SPEAKER_00
They were just sort of the standard metal Oscar the Grouch cans for a long, long time until 1968, when there was a sanitation strike that was only nine days long.
1
SPEAKER_00
But it doesn t take long for a sanitation strike to really
1
SPEAKER_00
I guess, get a little steam.
1
SPEAKER_00
Not in New York.
1
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A little steam going because there were a hundred thousand tons of garbage on the city streets by the end of that nine days.
1
SPEAKER_00
And it was just a mess.
1
SPEAKER_00
So they said, all right, how about this?
1
SPEAKER_00
These trash cans were working for a long time, but you re just dumping your trash right in these cans.
1
SPEAKER_00
Why don t you put it in trash bags inside the can?
1
SPEAKER_00
And very sweetly, they thought that that might help the rat situation, like contain the smell enough where rats wouldn t get to it, which is kind of kooky to think about.
1
SPEAKER_00
Of course, rats will get to trash anywhere.
1
SPEAKER_00
And it was better than, you know, lifting up these big, heavy trash cans because they could just pick the bags out of the trash cans and throw them in.
1
SPEAKER_00
And then finally, just a few years later, in 71, they said, let s just get rid of these cans and just put it in bags and put it out on the sidewalk.
1
SPEAKER_03
Let s, one of the greatest, most important cities in the world, just leave our trash laying around in bags for hours on end, multiple times a week, every week.
1
SPEAKER_03
Let s do that instead, because you can stick them anywhere.
1
SPEAKER_03
They ll fit anywhere.
1
SPEAKER_03
And that s one of the challenges that New York has, is it lacks a lot of the alleys and a lot of the little side, well, alleys I think is good enough, where people in other cities store trash cans and trash bins.
1
SPEAKER_03
like sane people.
1
SPEAKER_03
So instead, they have to use these trash bags and basically tuck them wherever they can, kind of out of the way, and very frequently not out of the way.
1
SPEAKER_03
You have to walk around them on the sidewalk pretty often too.
1
SPEAKER_03
So that s the state of New York trash collection now.
1
SPEAKER_03
People leave their trash out in bags on the sidewalk.
1
SPEAKER_03
The sanitation department workers come along and pick up the bags and throw them in the trash
1
SPEAKER_03
manually, throw them in the garbage trucks manually.
1
SPEAKER_03
And this is staggeringly behind the times.
1
SPEAKER_03
Like garbage technology has advanced by leaps and bounds since then.
1
SPEAKER_03
And New York, just because of some of its unique characteristics and traits, has had a really hard time implementing them like other cities have.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, absolutely.
1
SPEAKER_00
But like you said, there s good news on the horizon.
1
SPEAKER_00
You want to take a break now?
1
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
All right.
1
SPEAKER_00
We ll take a break.
1
SPEAKER_00
Good little setup.
1
SPEAKER_00
We ll come back and talk about just how much trash there is right after this.
1
SPEAKER_01
Guess what, Mango?
1
SPEAKER_01
What s that, Will?
1
SPEAKER_01
So iHeart is giving us a whole minute to promote our podcast, Part-Time Genius.
1
SPEAKER_02
I know, that s why I spent my whole week composing a haiku for the occasion.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s about my emotional journey in podcasting over the last seven years, and it s called Earthquake House.
1
SPEAKER_01
Mango, I m gonna cut you off right there.
1
SPEAKER_02
Why don t we just tell people about our show instead?
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, that s a better idea.
1
SPEAKER_02
So every week on Part-Time Genius, we feed our curiosity by answering the world s most important questions.
1
SPEAKER_02
Things like, when did America start dialing 911?
1
SPEAKER_02
is William Shatner s best acting work in Esperanto.
1
SPEAKER_02
Also, what happened to Esperanto?
1
SPEAKER_01
Plus, we cover questions like how Chinese is your Chinese food?
1
SPEAKER_01
How do dollar stores stay in business?
1
SPEAKER_01
And of course, is there an Illuminati of cheese?
1
SPEAKER_01
There absolutely is.
1
SPEAKER_02
And we are risking our lives by talking about it.
1
SPEAKER_02
But if you love mind blowing facts, incredible history and really bad jokes, make your brains happy and tune in to
2
SPEAKER_05
to Part-Time Genius.
2
SPEAKER_05
Listen to Part-Time Genius on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
2
SPEAKER_02
Last season, millions tuned into the Betrayal podcast to hear a shocking story of deception.
2
SPEAKER_02
I m Andrea Gunning, and now we re sharing an all-new story of betrayal.
2
SPEAKER_02
Stacey thought she had the perfect husband.
2
SPEAKER_02
Doctor, father, family man.
2
SPEAKER_02
It was the perfect cover for Justin Rutherford to hide behind.
2
SPEAKER_03
They led me into the house, and I mean, it was like a movie.
2
SPEAKER_03
He was sitting at our kitchen table.
2
SPEAKER_03
The cops were guarding him.
2
SPEAKER_02
Stacey learned how far her husband would go to save himself.
2
SPEAKER_03
I slept with a loaded gun next to my bed.
2
SPEAKER_00
He did not just say, I wish he was dead.
2
SPEAKER_00
He actually gave details and explained different scenarios on how to kill him.
2
SPEAKER_03
He, to me, is scarier than Jeffrey Dahmer.
2
SPEAKER_02
Listen to Betrayal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
2
SPEAKER_01
A new season of Bridgerton is here.
2
SPEAKER_01
And with it, a new season of Bridgerton, the official podcast.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m your host, Gabrielle Collins.
2
SPEAKER_01
And this season, we are bringing fans even deeper into the ton.
2
SPEAKER_01
Colin Bridgerton has returned from his travels abroad.
2
SPEAKER_01
Is Betrothal written in the stars for the eligible bachelor?
2
SPEAKER_01
Meanwhile, the ton is reverberating with speculation of who holds Lady Whistledown s pen.
2
SPEAKER_01
We re discussing it all.
2
SPEAKER_01
I sit down with Nicola Coughlin, Luke Newton, Shonda Rhimes, and more to offer an exclusive peek behind the scenes of each episode of the new season.
2
SPEAKER_01
Watch season three of the Shondaland series on Netflix.
2
SPEAKER_01
Then fall in love all over again by listening to Bridgerton, the official podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
2
SPEAKER_01
Subscribe to catch a new episode every Thursday.
2
SPEAKER_04
All right.
2
SPEAKER_04
So we promised talk of just how much trash New Yorkers produce.
2
SPEAKER_04
I don t think like per person they re creating an exceptional amount of trash.
2
SPEAKER_04
Not picking on New Yorkers.
2
SPEAKER_04
Sure.
2
SPEAKER_04
There s just a lot of people there.
2
SPEAKER_04
Eight hundred thousand more than eight hundred thousand residential apartment buildings.
2
SPEAKER_04
And they produce about four and a half million tons.
2
SPEAKER_04
of just residential trash every year.
2
SPEAKER_04
So 24 million pounds a day or about 12,000 tons per day of just residential people trash from apartments.
2
SPEAKER_05
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_05
So every day they generate an equivalent weight of trash to 50,526,316 Big Macs.
2
SPEAKER_05
I knew something like that was coming.
2
SPEAKER_05
That s a lot of Big Macs.
2
SPEAKER_05
Imagine all of that being produced every day.
2
SPEAKER_05
Is that net weight after cooking?
2
SPEAKER_05
Sorry.
2
SPEAKER_05
Yes, that s the completed weight.
2
SPEAKER_05
That s what you get when they put it on the tray.
2
SPEAKER_05
Okay, gotcha.
2
SPEAKER_05
And what s interesting is eating either one has about the same impact on your health.
2
SPEAKER_05
Uh, that s good.
2
SPEAKER_05
Thank you.
2
SPEAKER_04
It s morning for us, which is unusual.
2
SPEAKER_04
So I m a little slower.
2
SPEAKER_05
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_04
And a little, a little less giving with my laugh count.
2
SPEAKER_04
As long as I m getting a little bit of it.
2
SPEAKER_05
A little bit goes a long way.
2
SPEAKER_05
You ve had plenty.
2
SPEAKER_05
You got me right off the bat there with, uh, what was that first joke that really got me?
2
SPEAKER_05
The Oscar the grouch one?
2
SPEAKER_05
No, that was okay though.
2
SPEAKER_05
Oh, the, the mistaken, um, living it up in New York city.
2
SPEAKER_05
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_04
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_04
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_04
That got me going right off the bat.
2
SPEAKER_04
So you would not be surprised to learn, dear listener, that the DSNY, which is the New York City s sanitation department, is the largest in the country.
2
SPEAKER_04
One reason is obviously because there are so many people and so much trash.
2
SPEAKER_04
But also, New York is a little bit unique among large cities in that they are responsible for more trash than other large cities are.
2
SPEAKER_05
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_04
Right.
2
SPEAKER_05
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_05
A lot of other cities, they, they ll handle some like maybe houses or something on the outskirts of town or in neighborhoods, but you know, the, the apartment buildings and commercial stuff, all of that s handled by private companies.
2
SPEAKER_05
And then in other cities, it s all private companies these days in some cases too, especially suburbs.
2
SPEAKER_05
Um, but yeah, with New York, they re like, nope, we re going to handle it.
2
SPEAKER_05
If you re a resident, we re going to take care of your trash.
2
SPEAKER_04
That s right.
2
SPEAKER_04
And as we ll see, they on the private side, they handle the commercial trash that s coming up shortly.
2
SPEAKER_04
But as far as the residential stuff goes, they collect from each residential building two or three times a week.
2
SPEAKER_04
There are 59 different districts that cover New York, each having its own garage that house more than 2000 collection trucks over those 59 districts.
2
SPEAKER_05
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_05
And that s just the collection trucks.
2
SPEAKER_05
They have other kinds of trucks, too.
2
SPEAKER_04
Yeah, I saw that, I was trying to find out about maintenance of these things, but collectively, just the garbage trucks of New York drive about four and a half million miles a year.
2
SPEAKER_05
That s crazy.
2
SPEAKER_04
Yeah, it s a lot of miles.
2
SPEAKER_05
So yeah, they have all sorts of different trucks.
2
SPEAKER_05
This is where the part of me who was once a little boy who loved looking at picture books of like Caterpillar, Earth Movers, and those giant Volvo dump trucks, really kind of came back to the surface.
2
SPEAKER_05
But they ve got some dual bin models.
2
SPEAKER_05
And if you look at them, they basically do what it says on the tin.
2
SPEAKER_05
There s half divided into half for trash and the other half for recycling.
2
SPEAKER_05
So you can pick up both on the same day at the same time.
2
SPEAKER_05
They have top loaders that go up to like a dumpster and just pick it up and shake it.
2
SPEAKER_05
Like an enemy you might on the street who weighed much less than you.
2
SPEAKER_05
Right.
2
SPEAKER_05
And then the, the, they also have just the regular kind that are called the white elephants.
2
SPEAKER_05
And those are just so incredibly massive.
2
SPEAKER_05
Each of the New York city, regular single bin garbage trucks can hold 12 tons of waste.
2
SPEAKER_04
That s incredible.
2
SPEAKER_05
A full-size American Standard school bus weighs 14 tons.
2
SPEAKER_05
So they fit almost a school bus weight of trash in just one single truck at a time.
2
SPEAKER_04
How many Big Macs is that?
2
SPEAKER_05
I didn t do that one.
2
SPEAKER_04
Okay.
2
SPEAKER_04
This is the other fact of the podcast for me, is that every garbage truck in New York has two sets of steering wheels and pedals on both sides, so either person can drive and
2
SPEAKER_04
No matter who s driving, each brake pedal is live.
2
SPEAKER_04
So if someone doesn t see somebody and the person that s not driving see someone, you know, dart in front of the garbage truck, they can hit the brakes as well.
2
SPEAKER_05
Yep.
2
SPEAKER_05
Yeah, it s a good idea.
2
SPEAKER_05
They also have street sweepers, aka mechanical brooms.
2
SPEAKER_05
And I should say, I ve seen those are starting to be rolled out in electric versions, but apparently they re trying to slowly electrify their entire fleet.
2
SPEAKER_05
Seems like street sweepers were one of the first to be electrified.
2
SPEAKER_05
Salt spreaders, snow plows, front end loaders, basically everything you could possibly need to clean up and clear trash, the New York City Department of Sanitation has it.
2
SPEAKER_04
Yeah, for sure.
2
SPEAKER_04
And if you re like, well, why do they have snow plows and all that kind of stuff is because besides trash and recycling and composting, which there is sort of a newer program.
2
SPEAKER_04
And it came about because it s it s a big problem.
2
SPEAKER_04
I think about 20 percent of New York City s garbage is food waste.
2
SPEAKER_04
And they can really, really cut down on that with a good composting system in the city.
2
SPEAKER_04
They re working on that.
2
SPEAKER_04
We ll get to that later.
2
SPEAKER_04
But they have to clean vacant lots.
2
SPEAKER_04
They re the ones who remove the snow.
2
SPEAKER_04
Here s another fun fact.
2
SPEAKER_04
If there s a car on the street that has the license plates torn off of it and someone has just dumped it and it s worth under twelve hundred and fifty dollars, the police say that s a garbage car.
2
SPEAKER_04
It s not our responsibility.
2
SPEAKER_04
So the DSNY has to take care of it.
2
SPEAKER_05
Yeah, so I looked up a little bit on that and I couldn t find how they make that assessment of how much the thing is worth.
2
SPEAKER_04
Kelly Blue Book?
2
SPEAKER_05
I guess.
2
SPEAKER_05
I would think just by virtue of having the license plate removed and it being abandoned on the street would indicate that it was worth less than $1,250, you know?
2
SPEAKER_04
Usually the $50 is what kills me.
2
SPEAKER_04
That s where they landed instead of just 12 or 1300.
2
SPEAKER_04
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_04
Hey, I guess it was a formula.
2
SPEAKER_05
Similarly, they also clean up abandoned bikes that are like chain to public property.
2
SPEAKER_05
If the bike can just no longer be ridden because it s so bent or it s missing some essential parts, they will take care of it.
2
SPEAKER_05
They ll clip that chain and throw the whole thing away.
2
SPEAKER_05
But if you have a bike that you want to get rid of, you don t have to abandon it.
2
SPEAKER_05
In New York City, you can take the wheels off, put them in with your trash, and then you can put the bike itself out with your recycling.
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh, very nice.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I thought so, too.
3
SPEAKER_01
And as if that wasn t enough, last year in 2023, Eric Adams, the mayor, said, all right, you also now have to regulate and enforce street vendors.
3
SPEAKER_01
You got to clean up the highways and take care of the graffiti in New York.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I m sure they were like, great.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s not like we didn t have enough to do already.
3
SPEAKER_00
Well, what s interesting is that s creating a lot of grumbling, because there s a lot of jobs from other agencies that are just being taken.
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh, I m sure.
3
SPEAKER_00
And the justification is like, hey, you re doing other stuff.
3
SPEAKER_00
You have other stuff to focus on.
3
SPEAKER_00
So this part has become kind of low priority.
3
SPEAKER_00
So it makes sense the Department of Sanitation would clean up graffiti.
3
SPEAKER_00
We re cleaning up the whole city.
3
SPEAKER_00
And apparently there was a backlog of 1,000 requests for graffiti removal.
3
SPEAKER_00
They cleared 800 of them in one month.
3
SPEAKER_00
So they re doing some amazing work there.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s awesome.
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I like good graffiti, like graffiti art.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_00
So if you re a resident of New York, you put in a request for graffiti removal.
3
SPEAKER_00
You can also, um, request that graffiti be left alone.
3
SPEAKER_00
And there s like this whole procedure and process.
3
SPEAKER_00
Um, but they give you like a certain amount of time between the time you say, I want this graffiti removed.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then the time they come out, I guess, to give you a chance to, to really think about whether you want it removed or not.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then they ll remove it.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like, do you want the vulgar tag just spray painted across the front of a business removed?
3
SPEAKER_01
Or is it art?
3
SPEAKER_01
Exactly.
3
SPEAKER_00
Depends on who did it.
3
SPEAKER_01
I guess so.
3
SPEAKER_01
8,000 sanitation workers total, 2,000 other employees.
3
SPEAKER_01
Well, yeah, so I guess that s 10,000 total.
3
SPEAKER_01
But 8,000 actual, you know, sort of, you know, bag slingers and cleaner uppers.
3
SPEAKER_01
They re known as New York s strongest.
3
SPEAKER_01
They are 90 percent male right now.
3
SPEAKER_01
So props to that 90 percent and really props to that 10 percent.
3
SPEAKER_01
of these ladies that are getting in there and getting their hands dirty, because it is tough, tough, dangerous work.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_00
So one of the things, one of the reasons that it s particularly dangerous for sanitation workers in New York is, again, because they use bags.
3
SPEAKER_00
They re not in cans.
3
SPEAKER_00
If you ve not been to New York, just imagine bags of trash just piled everywhere.
3
SPEAKER_00
The problem is, when they re grabbing them and throwing them in the truck,
3
SPEAKER_00
They re probably trying to avoid garbage juice, which is a very distracting thing.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s very gross, it s rarely harmful, but you don t want it on you, but it can distract you from things that can harm you, like some rusty sharp thing poking out of the bag that you put your hand on.
3
SPEAKER_00
There s a lot of hazards.
3
SPEAKER_00
Sometimes the stuff that s in there could pose a hazard to you in other ways like garbage juice would.
3
SPEAKER_00
There s an article I found from 1996 where a sanitation worker named Michael Hanley died because some jerk threw hydrofluoric acid away in with the regular garbage.
3
SPEAKER_00
And when it was compressed in the hopper, it exploded and Hanley inhaled it and died basically on the spot.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, that s the thing that happens when that hopper, you know, squishes all that stuff down.
3
SPEAKER_01
There s going to be stuff that sprays out.
3
SPEAKER_01
They, you know, try to get out of the way, but sometimes they can t.
3
SPEAKER_01
And Olivia found this another fun little factoid here that.
3
SPEAKER_01
Apparently enough of that garbage juice is coffee related that whatever season it is, if it s like pumpkin spice season or whatever, the sanitation workers just like, it s like, oh God, here comes the pumpkin this, you know, this fall.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I can imagine that just gets really old really fast.
3
SPEAKER_01
Can you imagine?
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, because it s the worst version of that coffee.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s not hot and fresh and in the cup.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s cold and runny and mixed with other stuff and leaking out of a garbage bag.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, like hydrofluoric acid.
3
SPEAKER_00
Right.
3
SPEAKER_00
So there s also, it s also just hard, like a lot of this stuff is very heavy.
3
SPEAKER_00
You can fit a lot of stuff into a trash bag.
3
SPEAKER_00
And apparently residential places with compactors use what are called sausage bags, where you can fit multiple compacted rounds of trash into one single bag.
3
SPEAKER_00
You need two people to toss those in.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then the cans, they re also in charge of the cans, right?
3
SPEAKER_00
Like I think those little
3
SPEAKER_00
Very famous kind of mesh wire New York City trash cans that open like a door I think at the base.
3
SPEAKER_00
Am I making sense here?
3
SPEAKER_00
Sort of, just street corner trash cans.
3
SPEAKER_01
Let s just call them that.
3
SPEAKER_01
Uh, those weigh 30 pounds empty.
3
SPEAKER_01
So, uh, I ve never seen a New York city trash can that wasn t absolutely overflowing.
3
SPEAKER_01
So that s a lot more weight and they re doing that by hand.
3
SPEAKER_01
Uh, some of these routes can have as many as 400 of these.
3
SPEAKER_01
So that s so crazy.
3
SPEAKER_01
Really, really, really hard, strenuous labor.
3
SPEAKER_00
You also, so you said that there s never a New York City corner trash can that is empty.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I found a study from 1987 that estimated that a 60-pound can, so a trash can with about 30 pounds of waste, you can imagine that s probably pretty average.
3
SPEAKER_00
To lift the 40 inches into the hopper and dump it requires three and a half horsepower from the sanitation worker.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then, like you said, there might be 400 of those on a route.
3
SPEAKER_00
I just can t imagine how just tired you would be at the end of this.
3
SPEAKER_01
Well, and all the stuff you re breathing into, especially if you re a street sweeper, all kinds of, you know, sort of respiratory issues can pop up before covid, you know, before people are like, hey, maybe we should wear masks and sanitize things.
3
SPEAKER_01
Thousands of New York City workers got sick during the early covid days.
3
SPEAKER_01
Nine of them died.
3
SPEAKER_01
About 100 sanitation workers died from illnesses cleaning up ground zero.
3
SPEAKER_01
So it is, you know, not only is it a strenuous job and can be dangerous because of, you know, sharp and rusty things, but it s just it s just hard on your body, period.
3
SPEAKER_00
Right.
3
SPEAKER_00
Fortunately, they have a really good union.
3
SPEAKER_00
They re members of Teamsters Local 831, the Uniformed Sanitation Men s Association.
3
SPEAKER_00
And thanks to the union, when you are an entry-level sanitation worker, you start out making $43,305 a year.
3
SPEAKER_01
Not great.
3
SPEAKER_00
Which is, no, especially in New York.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s hard to live on that.
3
SPEAKER_00
But if you stick with it for five and a half years, it more than doubles to $88,979.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s pretty great.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
And once you reach that point, there are plenty of New York City sanitation workers that are making $100,000 or over from all of the extra pay that can come from bonus work.
3
SPEAKER_00
Like they get triple overtime for snow removal and stuff like that.
3
SPEAKER_00
So you can make a pretty good middle class income for New York City as a sanitation worker just from sticking with it for a few years.
3
SPEAKER_00
Plus also you can retire in just over 20 years too with full benefits.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I mean, that s that s a big deal.
3
SPEAKER_01
You get about 18 days of vacation.
3
SPEAKER_01
But if you start in your early 20s, you put in your 22 years.
3
SPEAKER_01
They don t have like an age thing where like you have to work to a certain age.
3
SPEAKER_01
So if you start in your early 20s, you could potentially retire with your full pension in your early to mid 40s.
3
SPEAKER_01
And.
3
SPEAKER_01
you know, you can do a lot worse than that.
3
SPEAKER_00
For sure.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
Cause I mean, you just be like, well, I want to keep working, but I ll go over here and take this other job, but I ll still get paid for my old job because I retired.
3
SPEAKER_01
Exactly.
3
SPEAKER_01
Uh, you do have to pass a civil service exam.
3
SPEAKER_01
Um, you have to get your CDL, your commercial driver s license.
3
SPEAKER_01
Uh, there s about a month of training.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then you have to, you know, once you get that license, they, they have a little practice area, uh, where they practice like a little obstacle course, basically practice driving that garbage truck, because, you know, New York driving through New York is, uh, I find it enjoyable and kind of fun and exciting, but driving a garbage truck, I imagine is, is, is tough.
3
SPEAKER_01
There s stuff all over the place and you can t just, uh, Mad Max it through there, you know?
3
SPEAKER_00
No, you can t because people get killed like that because there s a lot of people walking and running and riding bikes around New York that you have to look out for.
3
SPEAKER_01
Increasingly distracted people, we should add.
3
SPEAKER_00
Right.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
So we said that they shut down all of the landfills within New York s borders, but that means that they have to ship this trash one way or another outside of New York.
3
SPEAKER_00
Some of it gets diverted to incinerators.
3
SPEAKER_00
They re like, we don t want incinerators in New York because it contributes to poor air quality, but we ll pay you to burn it for us elsewhere.
3
SPEAKER_00
Fortunately, they ve now converted some of those incinerators to waste-to-energy plants.
3
SPEAKER_00
So you re actually getting something out of burning the trash.
3
SPEAKER_01
As far as these waste to energy plants go, if you re thinking like, what do you mean they burn trash and get something out of it?
3
SPEAKER_01
It basically works just like coal would like any kind of energy creation like that.
3
SPEAKER_01
is just burning something to create steam to spin that, you know, to boil water to create steam to spin that turbine.
3
SPEAKER_01
And in this case, they just burn trash instead of coal.
3
SPEAKER_01
Right.
3
SPEAKER_01
Which you think is like, oh, that s great.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, we may maybe this should be a whole episode at one point.
3
SPEAKER_01
But there there are a lot of people say like these are environmental
4
SPEAKER_03
nightmare.
4
SPEAKER_03
You are creating energy, but you re also creating a landfill in the sky by what you re putting into the air.
4
SPEAKER_03
So we might want to look into that as a full one at some point.
4
SPEAKER_02
Remember we did our plasma waste generator episode and that thing was flawless in its design and execution, but I don t think that s what they re using for these waste energy plants.
4
SPEAKER_03
I don t think so.
4
SPEAKER_02
So some of the garbage is being diverted and incinerated, but from what I understand, the vast majority is sent outside of New York to landfills in places like Virginia or South Carolina or Ohio.
4
SPEAKER_02
And the way that they get there predominantly is by rail and by barge.
4
SPEAKER_02
And so New York set up five, what are called marine transfer stations that are amazing.
4
SPEAKER_02
If you look into, did you look into them at all?
4
SPEAKER_02
Cause they re crazy awesome.
4
SPEAKER_03
I did.
4
SPEAKER_03
And they are crazy awesome.
4
SPEAKER_03
Uh, yeah, those Marine stations, I think, uh, they built those over about a 20 year period, uh, starting in the early two thousands.
4
SPEAKER_03
Uh, there s five of them.
4
SPEAKER_03
Um, the neighborhoods, you know, where these were going to be near, we re obviously not too excited about them.
4
SPEAKER_03
Uh, when, you know, when they were first proposed, uh, but apparently they ve done a pretty good job as far as the smell goes, they aren t too stinky.
4
SPEAKER_03
Uh, I think it s noise more than anything, because you re, you constantly just have trucks going in and out of there.
4
SPEAKER_03
Right.
4
SPEAKER_03
But they ve done a great job with deodorizing and venting this stuff.
4
SPEAKER_03
Even have hawk calls being played on loudspeakers to keep seagulls away because that would be a nightmare.
4
SPEAKER_03
But apparently they re not as bad as everyone thought they were going to be.
4
SPEAKER_02
No, plus also the neighborhoods that they re in are like already kind of ports and there s other industry nearby anyway.
4
SPEAKER_02
And they set up essentially access roads so that when the trucks start backing up,
4
SPEAKER_02
they re not on the street, they re off of the street.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then the whole thing is enclosed, right?
4
SPEAKER_02
So garbage truck goes into the building, sealed shipping container comes out the other side.
4
SPEAKER_02
And inside the building, like you said, they ve taken all these measures to keep the smell down and just keep it from being gross.
4
SPEAKER_02
But what happens is a garbage truck comes in, backs up to the tipping station, tips its contents all the way down to the next story down.
4
SPEAKER_02
Next story down is just basically like that trash compactor in Star Wars, the first one.
4
SPEAKER_02
It s essentially like that, but rather than having that pneumatic arm crush everything, they have front loaders that basically push all the stuff into shipping containers.
4
SPEAKER_02
And a shipping container can hold just over about two full trucks worth of waste, I think 25 tons.
4
SPEAKER_02
They top that thing off, seal it, and say, here you go, waste management, take over from here.
4
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, and you know, you mentioned some of this goes to different states.
4
SPEAKER_03
I saw that almost all of Manhattan s trash goes to New Jersey.
4
SPEAKER_03
Oh, nice.
4
SPEAKER_03
Sorry, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio is where most of the rest of it goes as far as landfills go.
4
SPEAKER_03
And then weirdly, Staten Island trash goes to South Carolina.
4
SPEAKER_03
That is a little weird.
4
SPEAKER_03
I don t know why, but I guess they just, you know, worked out a exchange program or something.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
And I guess it s totally up to private companies.
4
SPEAKER_02
Like I said, waste management s a good example of taking possession of the shipping containers, stacking them up on barges.
4
SPEAKER_02
I think you can fit like 48 full on a barge and taking it on a slow boat to South Carolina or taking it up river to Niagara Falls.
4
SPEAKER_02
I think that s where one of the incinerators is, Niagara, New York.
4
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then also if it s somewhere like Ohio, it s very tough to sail a barge to Ohio.
4
SPEAKER_02
So you just take it to a rail station and the shipping containers get shipped by rail to Ohio where it gets dumped.
4
SPEAKER_03
All right.
4
SPEAKER_03
Maybe, or actually right before we take a break, let s cover this one more thing, I think, which is if you ve lost something and you want to get it back in the trash,
4
SPEAKER_03
It s probably not going to happen, but it really depends on how good of a looker you are.
4
SPEAKER_03
Because what you ll do is you ll call up, you ll say, I lost a wedding ring in the garbage.
4
SPEAKER_03
I m pretty upset about this.
4
SPEAKER_03
And they say, oh, great.
4
SPEAKER_03
We have a program called the Lost Valuable Search.
4
SPEAKER_03
Just come on down to the Marine Transfer Station.
4
SPEAKER_03
We ll work with you to determine which truck is yours.
4
SPEAKER_03
And then there s a huge pile of trash and you have 90 minutes to go through and find it by yourself.
4
SPEAKER_03
And, or I guess with whatever friends you are able to talk into coming with you.
4
SPEAKER_02
And people have, they found all sorts of stuff.
4
SPEAKER_02
Sure.
4
SPEAKER_02
It happens.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it does happen.
4
SPEAKER_02
And apparently also there s people who are like, Oh, that s what I have to do.
4
SPEAKER_02
Just forget about it.
4
SPEAKER_02
I m good.
4
SPEAKER_02
Thanks anyway.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
I ll get a new wedding ring.
4
SPEAKER_02
So let s take a break and we ll come back and talk about some of the shady business that goes on in the private industry.
4
SPEAKER_03
All right, cool.
4
SPEAKER_05
Guess what, Mango?
4
SPEAKER_05
What s that, Will?
4
SPEAKER_05
So iHeart is giving us a whole minute to promote our podcast, Part-Time Genius.
4
SPEAKER_04
I know, that s why I spent my whole week composing a haiku for the occasion.
4
SPEAKER_04
It s about my emotional journey in podcasting over the last seven years, and it s called Earthquake House.
4
SPEAKER_05
Mango, I m gonna cut you off right there.
4
SPEAKER_04
Why don t we just tell people about our show instead?
4
SPEAKER_04
Yeah, that s a better idea.
4
SPEAKER_04
So every week on Part-Time Genius, we feed our curiosity by answering the world s most important questions.
4
SPEAKER_04
Things like, when did America start dialing 911?
4
SPEAKER_04
is William Shatner s best acting work in Esperanto.
4
SPEAKER_04
Also, what happened to Esperanto?
4
SPEAKER_05
Plus, we cover questions like how Chinese is your Chinese food?
4
SPEAKER_05
How do dollar stores stay in business?
4
SPEAKER_05
And of course, is there an Illuminati of cheese?
4
SPEAKER_05
There absolutely is.
4
SPEAKER_04
And we are risking our lives by talking about it.
4
SPEAKER_04
But if you love mind blowing facts, incredible history and really bad jokes, make your brains happy and tune in to Part Time Genius.
4
SPEAKER_05
Listen to Part Time Genius on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
4
SPEAKER_07
Last season, millions tuned into the Betrayal podcast to hear a shocking story of deception.
4
SPEAKER_07
I m Andrea Gunning, and now we re sharing an all-new story of betrayal.
4
SPEAKER_07
Stacey thought she had the perfect husband.
4
SPEAKER_07
Doctor, father, family man.
4
SPEAKER_07
It was the perfect cover for Justin Rutherford to hide behind.
4
SPEAKER_06
They led me into the house, and I mean, it was like a movie.
4
SPEAKER_06
He was sitting at our kitchen table.
4
SPEAKER_06
The cops were guarding him.
4
SPEAKER_07
Stacey learned how far her husband would go to save himself.
4
SPEAKER_06
I slept with a loaded gun next to my bed.
4
SPEAKER_00
He did not just say, I wish he was dead.
4
SPEAKER_00
He actually gave details and explained different scenarios on how to kill him.
4
SPEAKER_06
He, to me, is scarier than Jeffrey Dahmer.
4
SPEAKER_07
Listen to Betrayal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
4
SPEAKER_01
A new season of Bridgerton is here.
4
SPEAKER_01
And with it, a new season of Bridgerton, the official podcast.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m your host, Gabrielle Collins.
4
SPEAKER_01
And this season, we are bringing fans even deeper into the ton.
4
SPEAKER_01
Colin Bridgerton has returned from his travels abroad.
4
SPEAKER_01
Is Betrothal written in the stars for the eligible bachelor?
4
SPEAKER_01
Meanwhile, the ton is reverberating with speculation of who holds Lady Whistledown s pen.
4
SPEAKER_01
We re discussing it all.
4
SPEAKER_01
I sit down with Nicola Coughlin, Luke Newton, Shonda Rhimes, and more to offer an exclusive peek behind the scenes of each episode of the new season.
4
SPEAKER_01
Watch season three of the Shondaland series on Netflix.
4
SPEAKER_01
Then fall in love all over again by listening to Bridgerton, the official podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
4
SPEAKER_01
Subscribe to catch a new episode every Thursday.
4
SPEAKER_02
OK, Chuck, so we said that the city picks up residential trash, but for the most part, commercial trash like stores, office buildings, industry, that s handled by private companies.
4
SPEAKER_02
And that s not actually new.
4
SPEAKER_02
That goes all the way back to, I think, the mid to late 50s, 1957, I think, when the city was like, hey, we could use some help collecting trash.
4
SPEAKER_02
How about private companies get involved?
4
SPEAKER_02
And the mafia sat up and said, yes, let s do that.
4
SPEAKER_02
And apparently the Gambino and Genovese crime families were really big into what s called carting.
4
SPEAKER_02
It s private trash collection.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
For decades, it was extraordinarily corrupt.
4
SPEAKER_02
And finally, in the 90s, New York did something about it, got the crime families out of the carting business.
4
SPEAKER_02
But the companies are like no less shady than they were before.
4
SPEAKER_02
And they re just shady in different ways.
5
SPEAKER_00
Before they were screwing over the customers, now they re screwing over the workers.
5
SPEAKER_00
Because back then, at least they were mob run, but they were in really good unions.
5
SPEAKER_00
And as these private companies came along, they don t have very good unions.
5
SPEAKER_00
So I saw somewhere that a worker at a private company today makes less as a driver for a truck than a helper made in 1985.
5
SPEAKER_00
$16 an hour.
5
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They make less than that.
5
SPEAKER_00
1985 to 2016.
5
SPEAKER_00
Isn t that crazy?
5
SPEAKER_00
That s what happens when you have a union that s good that goes away in favor of union that s bad and that s in cahoots with the ownership.
5
SPEAKER_01
Or if there is no union at all, which is the case sometimes.
5
SPEAKER_01
Uh, wouldn t Tony Soprano in sanitation or didn t he say he was?
5
SPEAKER_00
Yes, he was in carding.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
I remember that.
5
SPEAKER_01
I also remember when I lived in New Jersey, the Italian, uh, I m not saying it was a mafia truck.
5
SPEAKER_01
Cause that would be, um, wrong to assume, but whoever picked up our trash at a big Italian name on the side of the truck.
5
SPEAKER_01
And it was during that time of the Sopranos where I was kind of like, what s going on here?
5
SPEAKER_00
Oh, you know what s going on there.
5
SPEAKER_00
But supposedly that was after they cleaned things up, although that was Jersey.
5
SPEAKER_00
So, yeah, they they probably didn t.
5
SPEAKER_00
That was probably mafia run.
5
SPEAKER_01
Well, and it was also mid 90s.
5
SPEAKER_01
So I think they were like that s when they were cleaning it up.
5
SPEAKER_01
Gotcha.
5
SPEAKER_01
So there are about 250 private handlers that are now overseen by the Business Integrity Commission, which may as well be called the Don t Let the Mafia Get Involved Commission.
5
SPEAKER_01
And sometimes, yeah, except exactly.
5
SPEAKER_01
So you mentioned, you know, just bad conditions and some of these private companies like very long work hours, maybe safety training, maybe not, maybe safety gear, maybe not there.
5
SPEAKER_01
If you hear of a story about a pedestrian that s killed in New York by a garbage truck,
5
SPEAKER_01
Chances are it s a private company, not always, but there are much, much higher incidents of, I didn t say incidences, somebody called us out on that.
5
SPEAKER_01
You remember that?
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
We re really progressing here in year 16.
5
SPEAKER_01
Hey, we re trying to, uh, but many more incidents from the private companies, you know, uh, running over somebody.
5
SPEAKER_01
Then, uh, the DSNY and largely because of training, but also because they re just, they re working too long.
5
SPEAKER_01
They re too tired and they have too much to do in general.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, an investigative journalist named Kira Feldman wrote an article for ProPublica called Trashed.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I don t remember what came after the colon, but it s really eye-opening.
5
SPEAKER_00
I mean, even if you don t care about trash collection or New York City, just the fact that people are being treated this way is just nuts, man.
5
SPEAKER_00
So it s definitely worth a read if this episode piqued your interest at all.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, there s an African immigrant named Mukhtar Diallo.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I don t think we mentioned that some of these private companies will just like, you know, pick up the dude in the parking lot that s looking for day work.
5
SPEAKER_01
So they re not covered at all or insured or anything like that.
5
SPEAKER_01
They ll just like, we ll pay you under the table to like run out in front of the truck and get bags out, you know, to where they can be collected easier.
5
SPEAKER_01
And Mukhtar was one of these guys and he was crushed under a truck.
5
SPEAKER_01
And when it came time to talk about this, the company said, we don t know this guy.
5
SPEAKER_01
He s a homeless guy that ran out in front of the truck.
5
SPEAKER_01
And of course, it later came out what really happened.
5
SPEAKER_01
So in 2019, New York passed a law that said, all right, we re dividing this into zones now.
5
SPEAKER_01
There can be no more than three companies picking up in each zone, just trying to sort of rein in the chaos a little bit.
5
SPEAKER_01
And if you want to do this, you have to sign a contract.
5
SPEAKER_01
that meet certain standards of safety and working conditions.
5
SPEAKER_01
And it s, you know, it s kind of being implemented now.
5
SPEAKER_01
So it is still currently changing for the better.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
And you mentioned all the miles that the DSNY travels just on their routes every year.
5
SPEAKER_00
These commercial haulers might be driving from one spot to many, many blocks over to the next spot and just wasting so much time and burning so much gas.
5
SPEAKER_00
Whereas if it s like there s only three companies in this one quadrant, they re going to be driving a lot around a lot less.
5
SPEAKER_00
And they re also going to be burning a lot more, a lot fewer fossil fuels and releasing fewer emissions too.
5
SPEAKER_00
So it s altogether a pretty good plan.
5
SPEAKER_00
Of course, the companies are like, can t do that.
5
SPEAKER_00
Like what about competition?
5
SPEAKER_00
But New York s not really listening apparently.
5
SPEAKER_00
And that s what s happening right now.
5
SPEAKER_00
And that s just part of another, again, this larger push for reforming the whole place under Eric Adams and Jessica Tish.
5
SPEAKER_00
And one of the big ones is getting rid of the black bags in favor of containers, like the same plastic bins that you see in basically every other city in the world in one way, shape or form or another.
5
SPEAKER_00
New York s finally being like, we re going to get in on that.
5
SPEAKER_01
Are they black bags?
5
SPEAKER_00
I think they were blue.
5
SPEAKER_00
There s blue.
5
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
They have all different colors, but there s definitely blue as well.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
5
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
5
SPEAKER_01
I wasn t sure it s been a while, but I just have a visual in my head of like mountains of blue bags on trash day.
5
SPEAKER_01
And if you ve never been to New York at all, or you haven t been many times, you, you would probably be shocked.
5
SPEAKER_01
To come out on trash day on, on a hot summer, rainy trash day.
5
SPEAKER_01
Because it s quite a sight and quite a smell.
5
SPEAKER_01
But like you said, they re moving toward bins.
5
SPEAKER_01
And just a few months ago in February of this year, they said, all right, here s our new plan.
5
SPEAKER_01
We re going to get if you ve got a smaller apartment building, you re going to have those.
5
SPEAKER_01
little wheelie bins like almost every other city in the united states uh if you are in a really big apartment building um it s basically a dumpster but it s plastic but it s it s like a large container uh you mentioned the fact that there aren t a lot of alleys in new york uh it s it s kind of a movie trope when you ve seen alley scenes set in new york city probably not being filmed in new york because most of the buildings on a block are just you know crammed you know right next to each other right
5
SPEAKER_01
So these dumpsters have to go somewhere, and they said, all right, we ll make them small enough to fit in a parking spot.
5
SPEAKER_01
We ll lose 150,000 parking spots all over the city, but we have to do it, and it ll also help us reclaim some of this sidewalk space that we re losing.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and apparently parking spots is one of the most politically charged issues in all of New York politics.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m sure.
5
SPEAKER_00
So that s really gutsy to be like, 150,000 parking spots are going away so we can put these bins there.
5
SPEAKER_00
And it s not even across the board.
5
SPEAKER_00
There s some blocks I read that are losing a quarter of their parking spots.
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh, I m sure.
5
SPEAKER_00
So it s definitely going to take an adjustment for sure, but
5
SPEAKER_00
There won t be bags of trash everywhere.
5
SPEAKER_00
They ll just be like different colored bins that are on the street, just off the sidewalk that a truck comes along and picks up that it doesn t require human hands to throw bag after bag into the truck anymore.
5
SPEAKER_01
Boy, New York City, the residents really have to get on board with this to make that work.
5
SPEAKER_00
Well, they did a pilot study of it in Harlem, and this is back in September of 2023, and apparently it was extremely successful.
5
SPEAKER_00
Rat sightings were down 68%.
5
SPEAKER_01
Where did they go?
5
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
5
SPEAKER_00
I think they just kind of disappear.
5
SPEAKER_00
They go poof into nothingness after they don t eat for two days.
5
SPEAKER_01
Boy, that means they re organizing.
5
SPEAKER_01
This could get really scary.
5
SPEAKER_00
But supposedly, the people of Harlem were like, this is cool.
5
SPEAKER_00
We can definitely deal with this.
5
SPEAKER_00
So they re rolling it out to the rest of New York.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I think they will see the benefit to where people get on board because what real would really screw up that system is that truck is going using the mechanics to dump those cans.
5
SPEAKER_01
But then there s four or five bags that wouldn t fit in the can just sitting there.
5
SPEAKER_01
Right.
5
SPEAKER_01
So you re still going to have to have some people down there slinging bags.
5
SPEAKER_00
Definitely.
5
SPEAKER_00
For sure.
5
SPEAKER_01
But it should speed up the whole thing and clean it up if everyone if everyone chips in.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and isn t that what living in New York is all about?
5
SPEAKER_00
Everybody chipping in.
5
SPEAKER_00
A little bit, for sure.
5
SPEAKER_00
You got anything else?
5
SPEAKER_01
No, just another mention of composting.
5
SPEAKER_01
They re getting that going, I mentioned earlier.
5
SPEAKER_01
Still pretty new program since 20% of that total waste is food waste.
5
SPEAKER_01
If they really got a pretty efficient composting system going, then it would do a lot to reduce trash and do better things for Mother Earth.
5
SPEAKER_00
So you did have something else.
5
SPEAKER_00
I did.
5
SPEAKER_00
Well, if you want to know more about New York Trash Collection, go to New York and just walk around and you ll find out everything you need to know about it.
5
SPEAKER_00
And while you re booking your flight, how about it s time for Listener Mail.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m going to call this.
5
SPEAKER_01
What is this?
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh, arson investigation.
5
SPEAKER_00
OK.
5
SPEAKER_01
Hey, guys.
5
SPEAKER_01
In 2019, I moved to St.
5
SPEAKER_01
Paul with some friends from college.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s really fun.
5
SPEAKER_01
I made many new friends.
5
SPEAKER_01
In fact, two of my roommates I had never met.
5
SPEAKER_01
One was a local rapper.
5
SPEAKER_01
The other was a firefighter EMT.
6
SPEAKER_05
St.
6
SPEAKER_05
Paul is the arson capital of the country.
6
SPEAKER_00
Is it really?
6
SPEAKER_00
It wouldn t surprise me.
6
SPEAKER_00
After listening to this story, this guy said it was a glorious era of my life filled with healing, fun, and young adulting.
6
SPEAKER_00
Within a few months, I got a job at a discount movie theater, and I was working one day when the theater got a call
6
SPEAKER_00
from our boss and said, hey, your house is on fire, you should come by.
6
SPEAKER_00
So the firefighters walked me through the burning home.
6
SPEAKER_00
I saw no flames, but it was S-M-O-K-E-Y.
6
SPEAKER_00
I went up to my room, nothing was burnt there, which is great, but it did smell like a bonfire for about a year after that.
6
SPEAKER_00
Everyone was gone at the time, so nobody was hurt.
6
SPEAKER_00
About a month later, my landlord slash boss, same person, which is why that sounded weird earlier, mentioned that there was a big break in the fire investigation, but made me do a little work to figure out who it was.
6
SPEAKER_00
It turns out the firefighter EMT that I live with decided he didn t want to live with us anymore.
6
SPEAKER_00
So a week before, he moved a couch to the basement and set it on fire and walked away.
6
SPEAKER_05
Oh my God.
6
SPEAKER_05
What a twist.
6
SPEAKER_00
I only found out because he admitted it to me.
6
SPEAKER_00
My life went haywire for a while after that, but I m happy to report that I m settled and full-on adulting with love.
6
SPEAKER_00
That is Tegan Torres.
6
SPEAKER_00
Fantastic.
6
SPEAKER_05
What a great, great story.
6
SPEAKER_05
Thanks a lot, Tegan.
6
SPEAKER_05
Who saw that coming?
6
SPEAKER_05
Not me.
6
SPEAKER_05
That was a twist that you d find at a discount movie theater.
6
SPEAKER_05
Well, if you want to be like Teagan and send us an amazing story about something we talked about, we love that kind of thing, you can send it via email to stuffpodcasts at iheartradio.com.
6
SPEAKER_01
Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio.
6
SPEAKER_01
For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
6
SPEAKER_02
Guess what, Will?
6
SPEAKER_02
What s that, Mango?
6
SPEAKER_02
I ve been trying to write a promo for our podcast, Part-Time Genius, but even though we ve done over 250 episodes, we don t really talk about murders or cults.
6
SPEAKER_02
I mean, we did just cover the Illuminati of cheese, so I feel like that makes us pretty edgy.
6
SPEAKER_02
We also solve mysteries like how Chinese is your Chinese food and how do dollar stores make money?
6
SPEAKER_02
And then, of course, can you game a dog show?
6
SPEAKER_02
So what you re saying is everyone should be listening.
6
SPEAKER_02
Listen to Part-Time Genius on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
6
SPEAKER_04
Get emotional with me, Radhi Devlukia, in my new podcast, A Really Good Cry.
6
SPEAKER_04
We re going to be talking with some of my best friends.
6
SPEAKER_04
I didn t know we were going to go there on this.
6
SPEAKER_04
People that I admire.
6
SPEAKER_04
When we say listen to your body, really tune into what s going on.
6
SPEAKER_04
Authors of books that have changed my life.
6
SPEAKER_04
Now you re talking about sympathy, which is different than empathy.
6
SPEAKER_04
Never forget, it s OK to cry as long as you make it a really good one.
6
SPEAKER_04
Listen to A Really Good Cry with Radhi Devlukia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
6
SPEAKER_04
I m Diosa.
6
SPEAKER_03
And I m Mala.
6
SPEAKER_03
We are the creators of Locatora Radio, a radiophonic novela, which is a fancy way of saying a podcast.
6
SPEAKER_03
Welcome to Locatora Radio season nine.
6
SPEAKER_01
Love at first listen.
6
SPEAKER_03
This season, we re falling in love with podcasting all over again.
6
SPEAKER_03
With new segments, correspondence, and a new sound.
6
SPEAKER_03
Listen to Locatora Radio as part of the Michael Dura Podcast Network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.