North Brooklyn’s new waste transfer station
When Fresh Kills Landfill closed, the Department of Sanitation began exporting the city’s garbage to private landfills. The long-haul trucking required for that export has been costly: waste disposal rose from 40 to 100 dollars per ton and has contributed to congestion and air pollution. The city’s 2006 Solid Waste Management Plan has tried to lessen these burdens through a gradual shift to barge/rail garbage export.
Mayor Bloomberg at the opening of the Varick Avenue Waste Transfer Station on Tuesday.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports that Northern Brooklyn has opened its new rail-based waste transfer station last week. The Varick Avenue I station, whose passenger service was discontinued in the 1920’s, was retrofitted to process the trash, packing tons of solid waste into shipping containers. The Bushwick freight line will carry the load as far as Fresh Pond Yard in Queens, where the cars will be relayed to CSX trains heading out over the Hell’s Gate Bridge and down south to a Waste Management-owned and operated landfill in Virginia.
The Bronx and Staten Island currently export all of their solid waste via barge or rail.
On a related note: Want to design your own solid waste management plan? Check out the Gotham Gazette’s Garbage Game!
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