QUESTION
What measures are in place to limit contamination in the NYC Department of Sanitation's programs?
0:22:34
·
64 sec
Efforts to reduce contamination in the NYC Department of Sanitation's programs include the introduction of smart bins and specialized equipment at the Staten Island compost facility.
- Smart bins increase user awareness at the point of use, resulting in cleaner materials due to less contamination.
- The success of the smartphone app in reducing contamination impresses, showcasing the high quality of materials collected.
- At the Staten Island compost facility, new equipment screens out contaminants, allowing for the ease of program use.
- These innovations lead to fewer restrictions on bag types for compostable material, enhancing program accessibility.
Shaun Abreu
0:22:34
How much contamination is screened out and disposed of?
Joshua Goodman
0:22:38
You know, I don't have tonnage information.
0:22:40
I can speak a little bit about what we've done to limit contamination.
Ryan Merola
0:22:44
Okay.
Joshua Goodman
0:22:44
There's a couple of things that we're really proud of.
0:22:47
In our program that have limited contamination and made it easier for New Yorkers to use so that New Yorkers don't have to worry quite as much about am I putting in the right stuff, you know, whatever.
0:22:58
We can deal with the contamination on our end in this program.
0:23:01
One is the smart bins, which require sort of awareness of the program at point of use.
0:23:07
The smartphone app, you would not believe or maybe you would, but I was certainly impressed by how beautiful The material coming out of those bins is in terms of the lack of contamination.
0:23:19
That's one piece, and then another piece is at the Staten Island compost facility.
0:23:23
We've got equipment that screens out contaminants on our end.
0:23:27
So this is how, for example, we were able to lessen restrictions about what kind of bag you put your compostable material in thereby making the program much easier.
0:23:35
We now have the capacity on our end to remove that contaminant.
