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Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, do you live in Washington, DC? Are you

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Speaker 1: sitting around fretting about this upcoming election? Maybe you're even

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Speaker 1: working on one of these campaigns. Well, we've got a

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Speaker 1: great stress reliever for you, and that's coming out to

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Speaker 1: see us on May thirtieth at the Warner Theater for

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Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know Live.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we guarantee zero political jokes, one percent zero political

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Speaker 2: jokes if you come out and see us. We're gonna

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Speaker 2: be in Medford, mass on May twenty ninth. The next night,

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Speaker 2: we'll be in DC on May thirtieth, and then the

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Speaker 2: night after that we'll be at our old friend, the

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Speaker 2: Town Hall in Manhattan Town, NYC.

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Speaker 1: That's right, So check out tickets. You can go to

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Speaker 1: stuff youshould Know dot com, you can go to the

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Speaker 1: theater websites themselves, avoid those secondary ticket brokers, or check

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Speaker 1: out our link tree, right Josh.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, link tree sysk Lot.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: You and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's

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Speaker 2: Chuck and Jerry's here too, and it's just the three

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Speaker 2: of us, Oscar the Grouch in it here on Stuff

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Speaker 2: you Should Know.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think this I think there may be one

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Speaker 1: more in this sort of semi suite that we've been

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Speaker 1: tackling over the years, which is to say, the the

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Speaker 1: operations of New York City.

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Speaker 2: It's fascinating stuff.

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Speaker 1: I love it because every time I'm there, I'm like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: how do they deal with all this trash and deliver

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Speaker 1: all that mail? So if mail is interesting enough, well,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna do a little research and see if New

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Speaker 1: York City mail is worth its own deal.

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Speaker 2: Okay, we did one on the USPS before.

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Speaker 1: Oh, sure, that was as done stuff on landfills and

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Speaker 1: all kinds of things. But New York City is very

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Speaker 1: specific to its own self.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, as they say, living it up between the Moon

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Speaker 2: and New York City. I can't remember the rest living

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Speaker 2: it up.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and then he says, no, I like, it's if

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Speaker 3: you get caught, But I like, I like.

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Speaker 2: Living it up better too. All Right, so we're talking

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Speaker 2: New York City trash, Chuck. I didn't ever really give

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Speaker 2: much thought to it. I've been in New York plenty

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Speaker 2: of times and have been like, wow, there's a lot

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Speaker 2: of trash everywhere all the time, some of it in bags,

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Speaker 2: some of it on the street, some of it in

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Speaker 2: overflowing trash containers. But it turns out that it is

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Speaker 2: an enormous issue and has been an ongoing and very

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Speaker 2: long standing issue in New York. And they now have

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Speaker 2: a mayor and a sanitation commissioner who's like, enough, it's done.

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Speaker 2: We're cleaning the city up once and for all. And

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Speaker 2: what's yeah, Eric Adams, he's got a whole like, his

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Speaker 2: whole campaign is called get Stuff Done, and the the

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Speaker 2: trash branch of that is get Stuff Clean. And just Katish,

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Speaker 2: the new garbage commissioner is from one of the wealthiest

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Speaker 2: families in America, possibly the world. Oh wow, who's decided

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Speaker 2: to dedicate her career to civil service, specifically in New York.

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Speaker 2: So she's worked in a few agencies and now she's

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Speaker 2: the head of the Sanitation Department the dsn Y and

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Speaker 2: is basically just like steamrolling through with new changes and

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Speaker 2: just being like, oh, I don't care. That's the way

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Speaker 2: you used to do it. Apparently it's wrong because it

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Speaker 2: didn't get it done. We're doing it this way now.

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Speaker 2: So they're actually making huge enormous changes by leaps and

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Speaker 2: bounds that seem like they actually possibly could clean New

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Speaker 2: York up in the next couple of years.

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Speaker 1: Do you know what how the Tish family, what their deal.

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Speaker 2: Is, what the what their deal is like, how they

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Speaker 2: communicate Thanksgiving?

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Speaker 1: Well name, he said, one of the wealthiest families in

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Speaker 1: the world.

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Speaker 2: I was kind of curious, Oh, I get what you mean.

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Speaker 1: So what from or whatever?

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Speaker 2: Her father is the CEO of like the Loew's theaters,

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Speaker 2: the Loewe's hotels. Apparently they own a distilling brand like

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Speaker 2: the parent companies, the CEO of the parent company. But

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Speaker 2: I have a feeling like her family is like legacy wealthy.

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Speaker 2: That's my impression.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, New York NYU has the Tish School of Arts,

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Speaker 1: but I'm sure it's the same family.

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Speaker 2: Yes it is. As a matter of fact, there's a

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Speaker 2: really interesting profile on her and the New York Sanitation

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Speaker 2: Department in the New Yorker of all places, and they

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Speaker 2: rattled off like three different things that are named after

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Speaker 2: her family. So, yes, they've been around for a while.

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Speaker 2: But apparently it's pretty cool. She's like, I'm incredibly wealthy,

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Speaker 2: but I'm going to go, you know, work my way

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Speaker 2: up in New York bureaucracy.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's really pretty incredible. So should we go

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Speaker 1: back in time.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, let's yeah.

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Speaker 1: We've talked before about what old New York was like,

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Speaker 1: and when you see movies about old New York, they

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Speaker 1: you know, they might grunge it up a little bit,

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Speaker 1: like Scorsese's Gangs of New York probably did one of

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Speaker 1: the closest, truest depictions of early New York and just

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Speaker 1: kind of how disgusting it could be. And we've talked

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Speaker 1: about the amounts of manure from horses on the sides

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Speaker 1: of the street, but it was really really gross. New

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Speaker 1: York was a disgusting place back in the day. They

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Speaker 1: did have a law, and this show's kind of got it,

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Speaker 1: has kind of got it all. It's got like amazing

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Speaker 1: facts of the episode. Right off the bat. We have

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Speaker 1: a great album title, which was this law from the

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Speaker 1: sixteen fifties that banned tubs of odor and nastiness. If

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Speaker 1: that's not like a stooge's album title or something, I

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Speaker 1: don't know what is, but it was gross. I think

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Speaker 1: the first fact of the podcast for me is that

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Speaker 1: about twenty percent of Manhattan, or really the whole metro

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Speaker 1: area is built on land that didn't used to be there.

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Speaker 1: It's literally land that came from garbage, bill from construction debris,

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Speaker 1: dirt from the subway project. Like Lower Manhattan in particular,

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Speaker 1: just kept growing and expanding in size. And here's another

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Speaker 1: fun fact on that Ellis Island is twenty eight acres

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Speaker 1: now it started out as three acres. Oh wow, It's

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Speaker 1: was literally built from I guess just waste.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, because I mean, if you think about it, if

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Speaker 2: you just go dump one load off of an island,

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Speaker 2: you you've just littered. But if you keep doing it,

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Speaker 2: you're developing the land.

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Speaker 1: It becomes art.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's got to stick with it, and eventually it

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Speaker 2: becomes an okay thing. Right.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, It's really pretty incredible to think about that when

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Speaker 1: there are overlays that show, like, you know, how Manhattan,

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Speaker 1: Lower Manhattan grew just from dumping stone.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh, but there's pretty cool maps like that.

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Speaker 2: I love that kind of stuff too, Like I love

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Speaker 2: walk looking around and being like, what was this building originally?

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Speaker 2: You know what used to be here? I asked that

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Speaker 2: out loud.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes, right, just the building never answers that.

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Speaker 2: No. So this is not the first time, under Eric

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Speaker 2: Adams and Jessica Tish that a New York administrator has

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Speaker 2: tried to clean the city up. Plenty have tried, but

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Speaker 2: the last truly successful one was in the century before

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Speaker 2: last a Civil War. I think colonel a Union colonel

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Speaker 2: named George Waring who became the head of the Department

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Speaker 2: of Street Cleaning, which is what the sanitation department was

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Speaker 2: called back then, and he cleaned up the city starting

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Speaker 2: around eighteen ninety five. But he was not the first

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Speaker 2: head of the Department of Street Cleaning. That department was

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Speaker 2: almost twenty years old by the time he came along.

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Speaker 2: But it had just basically been a place where Tammany

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Speaker 2: Hall and the political machine gave jobs to supporters, political supporters,

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Speaker 2: and it was like, you don't need to show up

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Speaker 2: to work, You're still going to get a paycheck kind

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Speaker 2: of thing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, they either did that or they outright

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Speaker 1: just stole money that was allocated for those cleaning up

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Speaker 1: projects to begin with. I saw a name back then

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Speaker 1: in the eighteen hundreds that the sledge of just manure

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Speaker 1: and garbage and cess sess a thing.

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Speaker 2: I guess cess is the best.

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Speaker 1: Pol I know it says pools that they is sess

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Speaker 1: the thing in the pool.

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Speaker 2: I would think so, all right, anyway.

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Speaker 1: They called the sledge that lined the streets corporate pudding

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Speaker 1: no gross, because I guess it was just you know,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't getting cleaned up because all that money, like

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Speaker 1: I said, was either stolen or reallocated and to cronies.

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Speaker 1: There's someone named Robin Nagel who's an NYU professor who

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Speaker 1: it's an unpaid position but has basically worked as the

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Speaker 1: unsanctioned unsalary anthropologists from for the Sanitation Department of New

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Speaker 1: York and just has an incredible amount of knowledge about

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Speaker 1: the stuff.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we've talked about Robin Nagel before, and George Waring

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Speaker 2: and the changes he made so supposedly you can look

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Speaker 2: at Harper's Magazine between eighteen ninety three and eighteen ninety five,

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Speaker 2: and it's like it's like George Waring came along and

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Speaker 2: waived a magic wand like the difference is so distinct.

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Speaker 2: Like he created kind of like a military type institution hierarchy.

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Speaker 2: He outfitted as people with white outfits designed by John

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Speaker 2: Paul Gautier and pith helmets, and they went around and

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Speaker 2: they cleaned up New York. And apparently they throw parades

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Speaker 2: for him once in a while because they were just

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Speaker 2: so successful and loved and revered because they did such

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Speaker 2: a good job. But you can see the difference between

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Speaker 2: these photos and Harper's Weekly that Robin Nagel had. And

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Speaker 2: I think we talked about all this in the Typhoid

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Speaker 2: Mary episode. I think it was in the beginning.

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Speaker 1: Of that one, that makes sense.

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Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure that's where it was.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I imagine George Wern came in on day one.

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Speaker 1: It was like, for starters, how about you get that

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Speaker 1: dead hog off the side of the road.

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Speaker 2: Somebody's like, she did it.

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Speaker 1: He was famous, by the way for designing the Memphis

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Speaker 1: sewage system after the Civil War. Before New York. They're like, hey,

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Speaker 1: he did such a good job, you know, working out

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Speaker 1: the or sewage. I guess in Memphis. Come on to

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Speaker 1: New York because we have sewage in the streets.

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Speaker 2: Nice. He worked his way up. Yeah, if you could

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Speaker 2: make it in New York sanitation, you can make it

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Speaker 2: anywhere with sanitation, believe me.

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Speaker 1: So as things were going, they had landfills that came along, obviously,

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Speaker 1: but a lot of the trash was handled by incinerators.

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Speaker 1: Still is just great controversy, as we'll get to later,

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Speaker 1: but a lot of these smaller apartment buildings had their

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Speaker 1: own incinerators. They would just burn their trash. The city

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Speaker 1: was like, this is an air quality nightmare, imagine, So

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Speaker 1: let's ban these things. And I thought it said eighteen

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Speaker 1: eighty nine, but they were banned finally in nineteen eighty nine.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that tracks. I mean, it wasn't until the nineties

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Speaker 2: that New York really started to kind of turn around some.

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Speaker 1: No, that's true.

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Speaker 2: So one of the other things they did, aside from

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Speaker 2: banning individual buildings having incinerators, which just seems like madness

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Speaker 2: in retrospect, you know what I mean, kind of does. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: they also started slowly shutting down the landfills that were

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Speaker 2: within the city limits, and finally the last one, Fresh

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Speaker 2: Kills on Staten Island, was famously shut down in two

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Speaker 2: thousand and one, and the one of the reasons it

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Speaker 2: became famous is it was the landfill that accepted a

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Speaker 2: lot of the waste from the Twin Towers after the

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Speaker 2: World Trade Center attacks, and that was it. It's kind

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Speaker 2: of like kind of fitting, you know what I mean,

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Speaker 2: in a really weird, bittersweet, poetic way.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, like a turning of the page, I guess.

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Speaker 2: So, yeah, but that was it. So the thing is

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Speaker 2: is New York still has tons of trash that they

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Speaker 2: accumulate every day. I mean, just as we'll see a

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Speaker 2: mind boggling amount of trash is generated by New York

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Speaker 2: every day and they have trouble getting it off the street.

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Speaker 2: But then also they're starting to find like we are

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Speaker 2: having problems identifying where to send this trash.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. So getting back to wearing, back then,

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Speaker 1: he was like, all right, we gotta we got to

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Speaker 1: figure out a way to get this trash. Like people

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Speaker 1: just throw it in the street, and Wearing is like

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Speaker 1: that that's not a good system. I don't know if

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Speaker 1: anyone's noticed, but just throwing your trash out of your

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Speaker 1: literally out of your windows sometimes of your apartment isn't

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Speaker 1: the way to go about things if we want to

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Speaker 1: live a healthy life as a city. And so so

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Speaker 1: why don't we get trash cans? You mentioned Oscar the Grouch.

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Speaker 1: They were just sort of the standard metal Oscar the

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Speaker 1: Grouch cans for a long long time until nineteen sixty

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Speaker 1: eight when there was a sanitation strike that was only

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Speaker 1: nine days long. But it doesn't take long for a

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Speaker 1: sanitation strike to really I guess, get a little steam

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Speaker 1: not New York, a little steam going, because there were

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Speaker 1: one hundred thousand tons of garbage on the city streets

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Speaker 1: by the end of that nine days, and it was

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Speaker 1: just a mess. So they said, all right, how about this.

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Speaker 1: These trash cans were working for a long time, but

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Speaker 1: you're just dumping your trash right in these cans. Why

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Speaker 1: don't you put it in trash bags inside the can,

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Speaker 1: And very sweetly, they thought that that might help the

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Speaker 1: rat situation, like contain the smell enough where rats wouldn't

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Speaker 1: get to it, which is kind of cooky to think about. Course, rats,

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Speaker 1: we'll get to trash anywhere. And it was better than

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Speaker 1: you know, lifting up these heavy trash cans, because they

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Speaker 1: could just pick the bags out of the trash cans

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Speaker 1: and throw them in. And then finally, just a few

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Speaker 1: years later in seventy one, they said, let's just get

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Speaker 1: rid of these cans and just put it in bags

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Speaker 1: and put it out on the sidewalk.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one of the greatest, most important cities in

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Speaker 2: the world. Just leave our trash laying around in bags

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Speaker 2: for hours on end, multiple times a week, every week.

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Speaker 2: Let's do that instead, because you can stick them anywhere.

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Speaker 2: They'll fit anywhere. Yeah, and that's one of the challenges

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Speaker 2: that New York has is it lacks a lot of

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Speaker 2: the alleys and a lot of the little side well

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Speaker 2: alleys I think is good enough to where people in

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Speaker 2: other cities store trash cans and trash bins like seeing people.

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Speaker 2: So instead they have to use these trash bags and

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Speaker 2: basically tuck them wherever they can kind of out of

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Speaker 2: the way, and very frequently not out of the way.

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Speaker 2: You have to walk around them on the sidewalk pretty

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Speaker 2: often too. So that is that's the state of New

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Speaker 2: York trash collection.

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Speaker 4: Now.

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Speaker 2: People leave their trash out and bags on the sidewalk.

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Speaker 2: The sanitation department workers come along and pick up the

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Speaker 2: bags and throw them in the trash manually, throw them

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Speaker 2: in the garbage trucks manually. And this is staggeringly behind

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Speaker 2: the times, Like garbage technology has advanced by leaps and

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Speaker 2: bounds since then, in New York just because of some

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Speaker 2: of its unique characteristics and traits, has had a really

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Speaker 2: hard time implementing them like other cities have.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, but like you said, there's good news on

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Speaker 1: the horizon. You want to take a break now, yeah,

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Speaker 1: all right, we'll take a break, good little setup, and

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Speaker 1: we'll come back and talk about just how much trash

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Speaker 1: there is right after this. All right, so we promised

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Speaker 1: talk of just how much trash New Yorkers produce. I

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Speaker 1: don't think, like per person, they're creating an exceptional amount

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Speaker 1: of trash. Not picking on New Yorkers. Sure, there's just

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Speaker 1: a lot of people there, eight hundred thousand, more than

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Speaker 1: eight hundred thousand residential apartment buildings, and they produce about

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Speaker 1: four and a half million tons of just residential trash

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Speaker 1: every year, So twenty four million pounds a day, or

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Speaker 1: about twelve thousand tons per day of just residential people

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Speaker 1: trash from apartments.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so every day they generate an equivalent weight of

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Speaker 2: trash to fifty million, five hundred and twenty six thousand,

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Speaker 2: three hundred and sixteen big macs.

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Speaker 1: I knew something like that was coming.

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Speaker 2: That's a lot of big max. Imagine all of that

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Speaker 2: being produced every day.

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Speaker 1: Is that netweight after cooking?

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Speaker 2: Sorry, that's yes, that's the completed weight. That's what you

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Speaker 2: get when they put it on the tray.

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Speaker 1: Okay, gotcha.

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Speaker 2: And what's interesting is eating either one has about the

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Speaker 2: same impact on your health. Uh, that's good, thank you.

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Speaker 1: It's mourning for us, which is unusual. So I'm a

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Speaker 1: little slower, yeah, and a little little less giving with

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Speaker 1: my laugh count.

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Speaker 2: As long as I'm getting a little bit of it,

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Speaker 2: A little bit goes a long way.

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Speaker 1: You've had plenty. You got me right off the bat

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Speaker 1: there with the what was that first.

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Speaker 2: Joke that really got me the Oscar the grouch one?

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Speaker 1: No, that was okay though, Oh.

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Speaker 2: The mistaken living it up in New York City.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that got me going right off the bat.

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Speaker 1: So you would not be surprised to learn, h dear

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Speaker 1: listener that the ds n Y, which is the New

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Speaker 1: York City's sanitation department, is the largest in the country.

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Speaker 1: One reason is obviously because there are so many people

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Speaker 1: in so much trash, but also New York is a

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Speaker 1: little bit unique among large cities and that they are

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Speaker 1: responsible or more trash than other large cities are.

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Speaker 2: Yeah right, Yeah, a lot of other cities. They still

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Speaker 2: handle some like maybe houses or something on the outskirts

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Speaker 2: of town or in neighborhoods, but you know, the apartment

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Speaker 2: buildings and commercial stuff, all that's handled by private companies.

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Speaker 2: And then in other cities, that's all private companies these

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Speaker 2: days in some cases too, especially suburbs. But yeah, with

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Speaker 2: New York, they're like, nope, we're going to handle it.

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Speaker 2: If you're a resident, we're going to take care of your.

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Speaker 1: Trash, that's right. And as we'll see they on the

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Speaker 1: private side, they handle the commercial trash that's coming up shortly,

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Speaker 1: but as far as the residential stuff goes, they collect

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Speaker 1: from each residential building two or three times a week.

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Speaker 1: There are fifty nine different districts that cover New York,

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Speaker 1: each having its own garage that house more than two

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Speaker 1: thousand collection trucks over those fifty nine districts.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's just the collection trucks. They have other

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Speaker 2: kinds of trucks too.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw that. I was trying to find out

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Speaker 1: about maintenance of these things. But collectively, the just the

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Speaker 1: garbage trucks of New York drive about four and a

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Speaker 1: half million miles a year.

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Speaker 2: That's crazy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a lot of miles.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, they have all sorts of different trucks. This

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Speaker 2: is where the part of me who was once a

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Speaker 2: little boy who loved looking at picture books of like

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Speaker 2: Caterpillar earth movers and those giant Volvo dump trucks really

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Speaker 2: kind of came back to the surface. But they've got

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Speaker 2: some dual bin models and if you look at them,

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Speaker 2: they basically do what it says on the tin. There's

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Speaker 2: half divided into half for trash and the other half

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Speaker 2: for a recycling so you can pick up both on

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Speaker 2: the same day at the same time. Yeah, they have

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Speaker 2: top loaders that you know, go up to like a

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Speaker 2: dumpster and just pick it up and shake it like

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Speaker 2: an enemy you might on the street who weighed much

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Speaker 2: less than you, all right, And then they also have

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Speaker 2: just the regular kind that are called the white elephants,

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Speaker 2: and those are just so incredibly massive. Each of the

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Speaker 2: New York City regular single bin garbage trucks can hold

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Speaker 2: twelve tons of waste.

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Speaker 1: That's incredible.

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Speaker 2: A full size American standard school bus weighs fourteen tons,

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Speaker 2: so they fit almost a school bus weight of trash

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Speaker 2: in just one single truck at a time.

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Speaker 1: How many big backs is it?

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Speaker 2: I didn't do that one.

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Speaker 1: Okay. This is the other fact of the podcast for

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Speaker 1: me is that every garbage truck in New York has

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Speaker 1: two sets of steering wheels and pedals on both sides,

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Speaker 1: So either person can drive and no matter who's driving,

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Speaker 1: each brake pedal is live. So if someone doesn't see

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Speaker 1: somebody and the person that's not driving see someone, you know,

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Speaker 1: dart in front of the garbage truck, they can hit

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Speaker 1: the brakes as well.

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Speaker 2: Yep, it's a good idea. They also have street sweepers

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Speaker 2: aka mechanical brooms, and I should say I've seen those

385
00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:03,359
Speaker 2: are starting to be rolled out in electric versions, but

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Speaker 2: apparently they're trying to slowly electrify their entire fleet. It

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Speaker 2: seems like street sweepers were one of the first to

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Speaker 2: be electrified. Salt spreaders, snowplows, front end loaders, basically everything

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Speaker 2: you could possibly need to clean up and clear trash.

390
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Speaker 2: The New York City Department of Sanitation has.

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Speaker 1: It, yeah, for sure. And if you're like, well, why

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Speaker 1: do they have snowplows and all that kind of stuff,

393
00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:32,920
Speaker 1: is because besides trash and recycling and composting, which there

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00:21:33,080 --> 00:21:36,480
Speaker 1: is sort of a newer program, and it came about

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Speaker 1: because it's a big problem. I think about twenty percent

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Speaker 1: of New York City's garbage's food waste. Man, they can

397
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Speaker 1: really really cut down on that with a good composting system.

398
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Speaker 1: In the city, but they're working on that. We'll get

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Speaker 1: to that later. But they have to clean vacant lots.

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Speaker 1: They're the ones who remove the snow. Here's another fun fact.

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Speaker 1: If there's a car on the street that has the

402
00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:03,040
Speaker 1: license plates torn off of it and someone has just

403
00:22:03,119 --> 00:22:06,560
Speaker 1: dumped it and it's worth under twelve hundred and fifty dollars,

404
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:12,000
Speaker 1: the police say, that's a garbage car. It's not our responsibility,

405
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Speaker 1: so it's the DSNY has to take care of it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So I looked up a little bit on that

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Speaker 2: and I couldn't find how they make that assessment of

408
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Speaker 2: how much the thing is.

409
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Speaker 1: Worth Kelly Bluebook.

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Speaker 2: I guess I would think just by virtue of having

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Speaker 2: the license plate removed and it being abandoned on the

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Speaker 2: street would indicate that it was worth less than twelve

413
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Speaker 2: hundred and fifty dollars.

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Speaker 1: You know, usually the fifty dollars is what kills me,

415
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Speaker 1: like that's where they landed instead of just twelve or

416
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Speaker 1: thirteen hundred. Yeah, hey, I guess it was a formula.

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Speaker 2: Similarly, they also clean up abandoned bikes that are like

418
00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:51,359
Speaker 2: chained to public property if the bike can just no

419
00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:54,159
Speaker 2: longer be ridden because it's so bent or it's missing

420
00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:56,560
Speaker 2: some essential parts, they will take care of it. They'll

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Speaker 2: clip that chain and throw the whole thing away. But

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00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:01,159
Speaker 2: if you have a bike that you want to get

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Speaker 2: rid of, you don't have to abandon it in New

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Speaker 2: York City. You can take the wheels off, put them

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Speaker 2: in with your trash, and then you can put the

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Speaker 2: bike itself out with your recycling.

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Speaker 1: Oh very nice.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought so too.

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Speaker 1: And as if that wasn't enough last year in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty three, Eric Adams, the mayor, said all right, you

431
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Speaker 1: also now have to regulate and enforce street vendors. You

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00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:26,080
Speaker 1: got to clean up the highways and take care of

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Speaker 1: the graffiti in New York. And I'm sure they were like, great,

434
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Speaker 1: it's not like we didn't have enough to do already.

435
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Speaker 2: Well, what's interesting is that's creating a lot of grumbling

436
00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:37,919
Speaker 2: because there's a lot of jobs from other agencies that

437
00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:39,000
Speaker 2: are just being taken.

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Speaker 1: Oh, I'm sure.

439
00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:43,040
Speaker 2: And the justification is like, hey, you're doing other stuff.

440
00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:45,120
Speaker 2: You have other stuff to focus on, so this part

441
00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:48,040
Speaker 2: has become kind of low priority. So it makes sense

442
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:50,879
Speaker 2: the Department of Sanitation would clean up graffiti. We're cleaning

443
00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:53,800
Speaker 2: up the whole city. And apparently there was a backlog

444
00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:57,320
Speaker 2: of one thousand requests for graffiti removal. They cleared eight

445
00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:01,000
Speaker 2: hundred of them in one month. So they're doing work there.

446
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:04,520
Speaker 1: That's awesome. I mean, I like good graffiti, like graffiti art.

447
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:07,679
Speaker 2: Yes, So if you're a resident of New York, you

448
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:11,119
Speaker 2: put in a request for graffiti removal. You can also

449
00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:15,480
Speaker 2: request that graffiti be left alone. And there's like this

450
00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:18,840
Speaker 2: whole procedure and process, but they give you like a

451
00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:21,520
Speaker 2: certain amount of time between the time you say I

452
00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:24,400
Speaker 2: want this graffiti removed and then the time they come out,

453
00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:27,640
Speaker 2: I guess, to give you a chance to really think

454
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:30,120
Speaker 2: about whether you want it removed or not, and then

455
00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:30,840
Speaker 2: they'll remove it.

456
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:35,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like do you want the vulgar tag just spray

457
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:38,359
Speaker 1: painted across the front of a business removed? Or is

458
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:38,760
Speaker 1: it art?

459
00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:41,119
Speaker 2: Exactly depends on who did it.

460
00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:46,919
Speaker 1: I guess. So eight thousand sanitation workers total, two thousand

461
00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:50,960
Speaker 1: other employees well eight yeah, so I guess that's ten

462
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:54,280
Speaker 1: thousands total, but eight thousand actual, you know, sort of.

463
00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:59,040
Speaker 1: You know, bag slingers and cleaner uppers. They're known as

464
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:03,119
Speaker 1: New York's Strong. They are ninety percent mail, right, now,

465
00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:07,159
Speaker 1: so props to that ninety percent, and really props to

466
00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:10,320
Speaker 1: that ten percent of these ladies that are getting in

467
00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:14,040
Speaker 1: there and getting their hands dirty, because it is tough, tough,

468
00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 1: dangerous work.

469
00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:19,639
Speaker 2: Yes. So one of the things, one of the reasons

470
00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:23,920
Speaker 2: that it's particularly dangerous for sanitation workers in New York

471
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:26,960
Speaker 2: is again because they use bags. They're not in cans.

472
00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:29,840
Speaker 2: If you've not been to New York, just imagine bags

473
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:33,800
Speaker 2: of trash just piled everywhere. The problem is when they're

474
00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:37,840
Speaker 2: grabbing them and throwing them in the truck, they're probably

475
00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:41,280
Speaker 2: trying to avoid garbage juice, which is a very distracting thing.

476
00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:44,720
Speaker 2: It's very gross. It's rarely harmful, but you don't want

477
00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:46,600
Speaker 2: it on you, but it can distract you from things

478
00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:50,000
Speaker 2: that can harm you, like some rusty, sharp thing poking

479
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:51,679
Speaker 2: out of the bag that you put your hand on.

480
00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:56,159
Speaker 2: There's a lot of hazards. Sometimes the stuff that's in

481
00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:59,160
Speaker 2: there could pose a hazard to you in other ways,

482
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:02,600
Speaker 2: like garbage juice. There's an article I found from nineteen

483
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:06,840
Speaker 2: ninety six where sanitation worker named Michael Hanley died because

484
00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:11,320
Speaker 2: some jerk threw hydrofluoric acid away in with the regular

485
00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:14,280
Speaker 2: garbage and when it was compressed in the hopper, it

486
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:18,919
Speaker 2: exploded and Hanley inhaled it and died basically on the spot.

487
00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:23,199
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's the thing that happens when that hopper,

488
00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:26,760
Speaker 1: you know, squishes all that stuff down, there's gonna be

489
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:28,800
Speaker 1: stuff that sprays out. They you know, try to get

490
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:32,440
Speaker 1: out of the way, but sometimes they can't. And Olivia

491
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:36,760
Speaker 1: found this another fun little factoid here that apparently enough

492
00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:41,919
Speaker 1: of that garbage juice is coffee related that whatever season

493
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:44,800
Speaker 1: it is, if it's like pumpkin, spiceason and whatever, the

494
00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:48,200
Speaker 1: sanitation workers just like it's like, oh God, here comes

495
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:49,760
Speaker 1: the pumpkin this you know, this fall.

496
00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:53,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can imagine that just gets really old, really fast,

497
00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:58,000
Speaker 2: you imagine, Yeah, because it's the worst version of that coffee.

498
00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:01,720
Speaker 2: It's not hot and fresh and in the it's cold

499
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:03,920
Speaker 2: and runny and mixed with other stuff and leaking out

500
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:05,040
Speaker 2: of a garbage bag.

501
00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:05,960
Speaker 1: Like hydrofluoric acid.

502
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:09,479
Speaker 2: So there's also it's also just hard, Like a lot

503
00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:11,320
Speaker 2: of this stuff is very heavy. You can fit a

504
00:27:11,359 --> 00:27:14,400
Speaker 2: lot of stuff into a trash bag, and apparently residential

505
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:17,640
Speaker 2: places with compactors use what are called sausage bags where

506
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:21,240
Speaker 2: you can fit multiple compacted rounds of trash into one

507
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:24,400
Speaker 2: single bag. You need two people to toss those in,

508
00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:28,040
Speaker 2: and then the cans. They're also in charge of the cans,

509
00:27:28,119 --> 00:27:32,919
Speaker 2: right Like I think those little very famous kind of

510
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:37,639
Speaker 2: mesh wire New York City trash cans that open like

511
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:40,680
Speaker 2: a door, I think at the base. Yeah, am I

512
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:41,480
Speaker 2: making sense here?

513
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:44,600
Speaker 1: Sort of just streak winner trash cans.

514
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:46,560
Speaker 2: Let's just call them that.

515
00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:51,000
Speaker 1: Those weigh thirty pounds empty. So I've never seen a

516
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:54,439
Speaker 1: New York City trash can that wasn't absolutely overflowing. So

517
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:57,040
Speaker 1: that's a lot more weight, and they're doing that by hand.

518
00:27:57,680 --> 00:27:59,399
Speaker 1: Some of these routes can have as many a four

519
00:27:59,520 --> 00:28:00,120
Speaker 1: hundred of yay.

520
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:02,080
Speaker 2: So that's so crazy.

521
00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:05,000
Speaker 1: I just really really really hard strenuous labor.

522
00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:08,159
Speaker 2: You also, so you said that there's never a New

523
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:11,439
Speaker 2: York City corner of trash can that is empty. So

524
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:14,400
Speaker 2: I found a study from nineteen eighty seven that estimated

525
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:16,800
Speaker 2: that a sixty pound can so a trash can with

526
00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:18,960
Speaker 2: about thirty pounds of waste. You can imagine that's probably

527
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:23,639
Speaker 2: pretty average. To lift it the forty inches into the

528
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:26,080
Speaker 2: hopper and dump it requires three and a half horse

529
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:30,680
Speaker 2: power from the sanitation worker, and then, like you said,

530
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:33,000
Speaker 2: there might be four hundred of those on a route.

531
00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:35,679
Speaker 2: I just can't imagine how just tired you would be

532
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:36,199
Speaker 2: at the end of.

533
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 1: This well and all this stuff you're breathing in too,

534
00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:42,720
Speaker 1: especially if you're a street sweeper. All kinds of you know,

535
00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:48,680
Speaker 1: sort of respiratory issues can pop up before COVID, you know,

536
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:50,920
Speaker 1: before people are like, hey, maybe we should wear masks

537
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:55,920
Speaker 1: and sanitize things. Thousands of New York City workers got

538
00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:59,160
Speaker 1: sick during the early COVID days. Nine of them died.

539
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:04,480
Speaker 1: About one hundred sanitation workers died from illnesses cleaning up

540
00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:08,160
Speaker 1: Ground zero. So it is a you know, not only

541
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:11,000
Speaker 1: is it a strenuous job and can be dangerous because

542
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:13,479
Speaker 1: of you know, sharp and rusty things, but it's just

543
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:16,280
Speaker 1: it's just hard on your body period. Right.

544
00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 2: Fortunately they have a really good union. They're are members

545
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:24,840
Speaker 2: of Teamster's Local eight thirty one, the Uniform Sanitation Men's Association,

546
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:29,440
Speaker 2: and thanks to the union, they when you are an

547
00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:32,880
Speaker 2: entry level sanitation worker, you start out making forty three thousand,

548
00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:35,840
Speaker 2: three hundred and five dollars a year, not great, which

549
00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:37,960
Speaker 2: is no especially in New York. It's hard to live

550
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:39,840
Speaker 2: on that but if you stick with it for five

551
00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:43,160
Speaker 2: and a half years, it more than doubles to eighty

552
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:45,040
Speaker 2: eighty nine hundred and seventy nine.

553
00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:45,960
Speaker 1: That's pretty great.

554
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:48,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, And once you reach that point, there are plenty

555
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:51,000
Speaker 2: of New York City sanitation workers that are making one

556
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:54,600
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars or over from all of the extra

557
00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:58,160
Speaker 2: pay that can come from bonus work, like they get

558
00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 2: triple overtime for snow removal and stuff like that. So

559
00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:05,400
Speaker 2: you can make a pretty good middle class income for

560
00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:08,959
Speaker 2: New York City as a sanitation worker just from sticking

561
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:11,120
Speaker 2: with it for a few years. Plus Also, you can

562
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:14,680
Speaker 2: retire in just over twenty years too, with full benefits.

563
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's that's a big deal. You get

564
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:20,200
Speaker 1: about eighteen days of vacation. But if you start in

565
00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:23,480
Speaker 1: your early twenties, you put in your twenty two years.

566
00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:25,680
Speaker 1: They don't have like an age thing where like you

567
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:28,040
Speaker 1: have to work to a certain age. So if you

568
00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:30,560
Speaker 1: start in your early twenties, you could potentially retire with

569
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:35,040
Speaker 1: your full pension in your early to mid forties. And

570
00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:37,640
Speaker 1: you know, you could do a lot worse than.

571
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:41,240
Speaker 2: That for sure, Yeah, because I mean you just you

572
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:43,040
Speaker 2: can be like, well, I want to keep working, but

573
00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:44,720
Speaker 2: I'll go over here and take this other job, but

574
00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:47,240
Speaker 2: I'll still get paid for my old job because I retired.

575
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:52,240
Speaker 1: Exactly. You do have to pass a civil service exam.

576
00:30:52,400 --> 00:30:55,320
Speaker 1: You have to get your CDL, your commercial driver's license.

577
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:58,680
Speaker 1: There's about a month of training and then you have

578
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 1: to you know, once you get that license. They have

579
00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:04,440
Speaker 1: a little practice area where they practice, like a little

580
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:08,120
Speaker 1: obstacle course basically to you practice driving that garbage truck,

581
00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:11,640
Speaker 1: because you know, driving the New York is I find

582
00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:14,760
Speaker 1: it enjoyable and kind of fun and exciting, but driving

583
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:17,920
Speaker 1: a garbage truck, imagine, is tough. There's stuff all over

584
00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:21,160
Speaker 1: the place and you can't just mad max it through there,

585
00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:22,080
Speaker 1: you know, No.

586
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:24,800
Speaker 2: You can't because people get killed like that. Because there's

587
00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:28,840
Speaker 2: a lot of people walking and running and riding bikes

588
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:30,680
Speaker 2: around New York that you have to look out for.

589
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:33,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, increasingly distracted people, we should.

590
00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 4: Add, right.

591
00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:38,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we said that they shut down all of

592
00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:41,080
Speaker 2: the landfills within New York's borders, but that means that

593
00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:43,959
Speaker 2: they have to ship this trash one way or another

594
00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:47,840
Speaker 2: outside of New York. Some of it gets diverted to incinerators.

595
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 2: They're like we don't want incinerators in New York because

596
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,400
Speaker 2: it contributes to poor air quality, but we'll pay you

597
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 2: to burn it for us elsewhere. Fortunately, they've now converted

598
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:02,160
Speaker 2: some of those incinerators to waste to energy plants, so

599
00:32:02,200 --> 00:32:06,160
Speaker 2: you're actually getting something out of burning the trash.

600
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:08,840
Speaker 1: As far as these waste of energy plants go. If

601
00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:11,360
Speaker 1: you're thinking, like, what do you mean they burn trash

602
00:32:11,360 --> 00:32:14,080
Speaker 1: and get something out of it, it's it basically works

603
00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:16,440
Speaker 1: just like coal would like any kind of energy creation

604
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 1: like that is just burning something to create steam to

605
00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:23,320
Speaker 1: spend that, you know, to boil water to create steam

606
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:25,640
Speaker 1: to spin that turbine. And in this case, they just

607
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:28,200
Speaker 1: burn trash instead of coal, right, which you think is like,

608
00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:31,120
Speaker 1: oh that's great. You know, we may maybe this should

609
00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:33,680
Speaker 1: be a whole episode at one point, but there there

610
00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:36,840
Speaker 1: are a lot of people say like, these are an

611
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:40,719
Speaker 1: environmental nightmare. You are creating energy, but you're also creating

612
00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:43,640
Speaker 1: a landfill in the sky by what you're putting into

613
00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 1: the air, So we might want to look into that

614
00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:47,640
Speaker 1: as a full one at some point.

615
00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:50,720
Speaker 2: Remember we did our plasma waste generator episode, and that

616
00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:53,920
Speaker 2: thing was flawless in its design and execution, But I

617
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:55,880
Speaker 2: don't think that's what they're using for these waste to

618
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,280
Speaker 2: energy plants. I don't think so. So some of the

619
00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:02,360
Speaker 2: garbage just be diverted and incinerated, But from what I understand,

620
00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:05,840
Speaker 2: the vast majority is sent outside of New York to

621
00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:10,120
Speaker 2: landfills in places like Virginia or South Carolina or Ohio.

622
00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:13,240
Speaker 2: And the way that they get there predominantly is by

623
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:18,080
Speaker 2: rail and by barge. And so New York set up

624
00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:22,840
Speaker 2: five what are called marine transfer stations that are amazing

625
00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:25,040
Speaker 2: if you look into Did you look into them at all,

626
00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:26,640
Speaker 2: because they're crazy awesome?

627
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:31,720
Speaker 1: I did, and they are crazy awesome. Yeah, those marine stations.

628
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:33,640
Speaker 1: I think they built those that were about a twenty

629
00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:37,560
Speaker 1: year period starting in the early two thousands. There's five

630
00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:41,080
Speaker 1: of them. The neighborhoods you know where these were going

631
00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:44,080
Speaker 1: to be near, were obviously not too excited about them

632
00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:48,000
Speaker 1: when you know when they were first proposed. But apparently

633
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:50,360
Speaker 1: they've done a pretty good job. As far as the

634
00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:53,720
Speaker 1: smell goes, They aren't too stinky. I think it's noise

635
00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:56,959
Speaker 1: more than anything, because you're you constantly just have trucks

636
00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:59,600
Speaker 1: going in and out of there, right, But they've done

637
00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:04,960
Speaker 1: a great job with deodorizing and venting this stuff. Even

638
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:08,400
Speaker 1: have hawk calls being played on loudspeakers to keep seagulls

639
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:11,080
Speaker 1: away because that would be a nightmare. Oh yeah, but

640
00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:13,160
Speaker 1: apparently they're not as bad as everyone thought they were

641
00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:13,480
Speaker 1: gonna be.

642
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:16,000
Speaker 2: No plus, Also, the neighborhoods that they're in are like

643
00:34:16,080 --> 00:34:20,280
Speaker 2: already kind of ports, and there's other industry nearby anyway,

644
00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:23,480
Speaker 2: And they set up essentially access roads so that when

645
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:26,800
Speaker 2: the trucks start backing up, they're not on the street,

646
00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:29,960
Speaker 2: they're off of the street. And then the whole thing

647
00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:33,520
Speaker 2: is enclosed, right, So garbage truck goes into the building,

648
00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:38,320
Speaker 2: sealed shipping container comes out the other side, and inside

649
00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:40,280
Speaker 2: the building. Like you said, they've taken all these measures

650
00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:42,640
Speaker 2: to keep the smell down and just keep it from

651
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:45,640
Speaker 2: being gross. But what happens is a garbage truck comes in,

652
00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:50,440
Speaker 2: backs up to the tipping station, tips its contents all

653
00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:54,440
Speaker 2: the way down to the next story down. Next story

654
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:58,880
Speaker 2: down is just basically like that trash compactor in Star Wars,

655
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:03,239
Speaker 2: the first one. It's essentially like that, but rather than

656
00:35:03,280 --> 00:35:06,600
Speaker 2: having like that pneumatic arm crush everything, they have front

657
00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:10,920
Speaker 2: loaders that basically push all the stuff into shipping containers,

658
00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:14,480
Speaker 2: and a shipping container can hold just over about two

659
00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:18,440
Speaker 2: full trucks worth of waste I think twenty five tons.

660
00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:23,120
Speaker 2: They top that thing off, seal it and say here

661
00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:25,640
Speaker 2: you go, waste management take over from here.

662
00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:27,799
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know you mentioned some of this goes

663
00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:33,080
Speaker 1: to different states. I saw that almost all of Manhattan's

664
00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:39,360
Speaker 1: trash goes to New Jersey. Oh nice, sorry, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania,

665
00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:42,000
Speaker 1: and Ohio is where most of the rest of it goes,

666
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:47,160
Speaker 1: as far as landfills go. And then weirdly, Staten Island

667
00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:48,560
Speaker 1: trash goes to South Carolina.

668
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:50,600
Speaker 2: That is a little weird.

669
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:53,480
Speaker 1: I don't know why, but I guess they just, you know,

670
00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:55,600
Speaker 1: worked out an exchange program or something.

671
00:35:55,880 --> 00:35:59,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I guess it's totally up to private companies.

672
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:02,640
Speaker 2: Like I said, waste management's a good example of taking

673
00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:05,360
Speaker 2: possession of the shipping containers, stacking them up on barges.

674
00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:07,640
Speaker 2: I think you can fit like forty eight full on

675
00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:10,440
Speaker 2: a barge and taking an on a slow boat to

676
00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:14,360
Speaker 2: South Carolina, or taking it upriver to Niagara Falls. I

677
00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:16,719
Speaker 2: think that's where one of the incinerators is. Niagara, New

678
00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:20,600
Speaker 2: York yeah. And then also if it's somewhere like Ohio,

679
00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:23,480
Speaker 2: it's very tough to sail a barge to Ohio, so

680
00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:26,080
Speaker 2: you just take it to a rail station and the

681
00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:30,799
Speaker 2: shipping containers get shipped by rail to Ohio where it

682
00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:31,520
Speaker 2: gets dumped.

683
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:34,680
Speaker 1: All right, maybe all actually right, before we take a break,

684
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:38,160
Speaker 1: let's cover this one more thing I think, which is

685
00:36:38,239 --> 00:36:40,640
Speaker 1: if you've lost something and you want to get it

686
00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:45,680
Speaker 1: back in the trash, it's probably not going to happen,

687
00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:47,360
Speaker 1: but it really depends on how good of a looker

688
00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:49,879
Speaker 1: you are, because what you'll do is is you'll call

689
00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:54,680
Speaker 1: up You'll say I lost a wedding ring in the garbage.

690
00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:57,560
Speaker 1: I'm pretty upset about this, and they say, oh great,

691
00:36:57,560 --> 00:37:00,520
Speaker 1: we have a program called the Lost Valuable Search. Just

692
00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:03,560
Speaker 1: come on down to the Marine transfer station. We'll work

693
00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 1: with you to determine which truck is yours. And then

694
00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:09,920
Speaker 1: there's a huge pile of trash and you have ninety

695
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:13,279
Speaker 1: minutes to go through and find it by yourself, and

696
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:16,360
Speaker 1: or I guess, with whatever friends you are able to

697
00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:17,360
Speaker 1: talk into coming with you.

698
00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:20,040
Speaker 2: And people have they found all sorts of stuff.

699
00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:21,680
Speaker 1: Sure it happens, Yeah.

700
00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:23,879
Speaker 2: It does happen. Apparently, Also there's people who are like, oh,

701
00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:25,560
Speaker 2: that's what I have to do. Just forget about it.

702
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:29,080
Speaker 2: I'm good. Thanks anyway, Yeah, I'll get a new wedding ring.

703
00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:31,239
Speaker 2: So let's take a break and we'll come back and

704
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:34,400
Speaker 2: talk about some of the shady business that goes on

705
00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:35,600
Speaker 2: in the private industry.

706
00:37:35,760 --> 00:38:02,160
Speaker 4: All right, cool, okay, Chuck.

707
00:38:02,239 --> 00:38:05,400
Speaker 2: So we said that the city picks up residential trash,

708
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:08,080
Speaker 2: but for the most part, commercial trash like stores, office

709
00:38:08,080 --> 00:38:14,400
Speaker 2: buildings industry that's handled by private companies. And that's not

710
00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:16,520
Speaker 2: actually new. That goes all the way back to I

711
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:19,600
Speaker 2: think the mid to late fifties, nineteen fifty seven, I

712
00:38:19,640 --> 00:38:23,160
Speaker 2: think when the city was like, hey, we could use

713
00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:27,000
Speaker 2: some help collecting trash. How about private companies get involved?

714
00:38:27,080 --> 00:38:30,560
Speaker 2: And the mafia sat up and said, yes, let's do that.

715
00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:35,720
Speaker 2: And apparently the Gambino and Genovese crime families were really

716
00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:40,000
Speaker 2: big into what's called karting. It's private trash collection. Yeah,

717
00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:45,800
Speaker 2: for decades it was extraordinarily corrupt, and finally in the nineties,

718
00:38:46,719 --> 00:38:50,360
Speaker 2: New York did something about it, got the crime families

719
00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:54,000
Speaker 2: out of the karting business. But the companies are like

720
00:38:54,080 --> 00:38:57,600
Speaker 2: no less shady than they were before, and they're just

721
00:38:57,640 --> 00:39:00,600
Speaker 2: shady in different ways. Whereas before they were screwing over

722
00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:04,080
Speaker 2: the customers, now they're screwing over the workers. Because back then,

723
00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:07,480
Speaker 2: at least they had they were mob run, but they

724
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:11,480
Speaker 2: were in really good unions. And as these private companies

725
00:39:11,520 --> 00:39:14,239
Speaker 2: came along, they don't have very good unions. So I

726
00:39:14,239 --> 00:39:18,160
Speaker 2: saw somewhere that a worker at a private company today

727
00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:22,560
Speaker 2: makes less as a driver for a truck than a

728
00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:27,759
Speaker 2: helper made in nineteen eighty five. Wow, sixteen dollars an hour.

729
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:31,840
Speaker 2: They make less than that nineteen eighty five to twenty sixteen.

730
00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:35,040
Speaker 2: Isn't that crazy? Yeah, that's what happens when you have

731
00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:37,920
Speaker 2: a union that's good, that goes away in favor of

732
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:41,239
Speaker 2: union that's bad and that's in cahoots with the ownership,

733
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:43,640
Speaker 2: or if there is no union at all, which is

734
00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:46,360
Speaker 2: in case some true wouldn't.

735
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:47,240
Speaker 1: Tony Soprano win sanitation?

736
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:49,760
Speaker 2: Or didn't he say he was, yes, he was in karting?

737
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:52,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I remember that. I also remember when I

738
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:56,799
Speaker 1: lived in New Jersey, the Italian. I'm not saying it

739
00:39:56,840 --> 00:39:59,680
Speaker 1: was a mafia truck because that would be wrong to

740
00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:02,480
Speaker 1: as but whoever picked up our trash had a big

741
00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:05,839
Speaker 1: Italian name on the side of the truck. And it

742
00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:08,719
Speaker 1: was during that time of the Sopranos where I was

743
00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:09,959
Speaker 1: kind of like, what's going on here?

744
00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:12,759
Speaker 2: Oh, you know, what's going on there? But supposedly that

745
00:40:12,840 --> 00:40:15,120
Speaker 2: was after they cleaned things up, although that was Jersey huh,

746
00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:19,160
Speaker 2: So yeah, they probably didn't. That was probably mafia run well.

747
00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:21,040
Speaker 1: And it was also mid nineties, so I think they

748
00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:23,480
Speaker 1: were just like, that's when they were cleaning it up.

749
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:24,280
Speaker 2: Gotcha.

750
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:29,520
Speaker 1: So there are about two hundred and fifty private handlers

751
00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:34,200
Speaker 1: that are now overseen by the Business Integrity Commission, which

752
00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:37,320
Speaker 1: may as well be called the Don't let the Mafia

753
00:40:37,360 --> 00:40:43,960
Speaker 1: get Involved Commission And sometimes yeah, except exactly so you mentioned,

754
00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:47,440
Speaker 1: you know, just bad conditions in some of these private companies,

755
00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:51,680
Speaker 1: like very long work hours, maybe safety training maybe not,

756
00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:57,040
Speaker 1: maybe safety gear maybe not there. If you hear of

757
00:40:57,080 --> 00:41:00,399
Speaker 1: a story about a pedestrian that's killed in New York

758
00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:03,920
Speaker 1: by a garbage truck, chances are it's a private company.

759
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:08,080
Speaker 1: Not always, but they're much much higher incidents of I

760
00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:10,239
Speaker 1: didn't say incidences. Somebody called us out on that.

761
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:14,120
Speaker 2: You remember that, Yeah, Yeah, it's what we're really progressing

762
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:15,480
Speaker 2: here in year sixteen.

763
00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:18,680
Speaker 1: Hey, we're trying to, but many more incidents from the

764
00:41:18,719 --> 00:41:23,560
Speaker 1: private companies, you know, running over somebody than the DSNY,

765
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:27,160
Speaker 1: and largely because of training, but also because they're just

766
00:41:27,239 --> 00:41:30,520
Speaker 1: they're working too long, they're too tired, and they have

767
00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:31,880
Speaker 1: too much to do in general.

768
00:41:32,239 --> 00:41:37,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, an investigative journalist named Kiara Feldman wrote an article

769
00:41:37,360 --> 00:41:40,920
Speaker 2: for Pro Public called Trashed, and I don't remember what

770
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:44,800
Speaker 2: came after the colon, but it is. It's really eye opening.

771
00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:47,120
Speaker 2: I mean, even if you don't care about trash collection

772
00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:50,239
Speaker 2: or New York City, just the fact that people are

773
00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:53,879
Speaker 2: being treated this way is just nuts. Man. So it's

774
00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:57,160
Speaker 2: definitely worth a read if this episode piqued your interest

775
00:41:57,200 --> 00:41:57,560
Speaker 2: at all.

776
00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:01,239
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's an African immigrant name uk Diallo. And I

777
00:42:01,239 --> 00:42:03,320
Speaker 1: don't think we mentioned that some of these private companies

778
00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:07,520
Speaker 1: will just like, you know, pick up the dude in

779
00:42:07,560 --> 00:42:10,239
Speaker 1: the parking lot that's looking for day work. So they're

780
00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:13,239
Speaker 1: not covered at all or insured or anything like that.

781
00:42:13,239 --> 00:42:15,319
Speaker 1: They'll just like, we'll pay you under the table to

782
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:18,359
Speaker 1: like run out in front of the truck and get

783
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:20,880
Speaker 1: bags out, you know, to where they can be collected easier.

784
00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:24,160
Speaker 1: And Muktar was one of these guys, and he was

785
00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:29,319
Speaker 1: crushed under a truck. And when it came time to

786
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:32,440
Speaker 1: talk about this, the company said this, we do know

787
00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:34,680
Speaker 1: this guy. He just is a homeless guy that ran

788
00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:37,160
Speaker 1: out in front of the truck. And of course it

789
00:42:37,239 --> 00:42:40,800
Speaker 1: later came out what really happened. So in twenty nineteen,

790
00:42:41,239 --> 00:42:43,160
Speaker 1: a New York passed a law that said, all right,

791
00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:46,319
Speaker 1: we're dividing this into zones. Now there can be no

792
00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:49,799
Speaker 1: more than three companies picking up in each zone, just

793
00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:52,000
Speaker 1: trying to sort of rein in the chaos a little bit.

794
00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:54,239
Speaker 1: And you have to if you want to do this,

795
00:42:54,280 --> 00:42:57,320
Speaker 1: you have to sign a contract that meets certain standards

796
00:42:57,320 --> 00:43:00,839
Speaker 1: of safety and working conditions. And it's you know, it's

797
00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:04,640
Speaker 1: kind of being implemented now, so it is still currently

798
00:43:04,719 --> 00:43:05,560
Speaker 1: changing for the better.

799
00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:09,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you mentioned all the miles that the DSNY

800
00:43:09,400 --> 00:43:13,440
Speaker 2: travels just on their routes every year, these commercial haulers

801
00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:16,759
Speaker 2: might be driving from what you know, one one spot

802
00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:20,000
Speaker 2: to many many blocks over to the next spot. Yeah,

803
00:43:20,040 --> 00:43:23,320
Speaker 2: and just wasting so much time and burning so much gas.

804
00:43:23,719 --> 00:43:26,719
Speaker 2: Whereas if it's like there's only three companies in this

805
00:43:26,840 --> 00:43:30,200
Speaker 2: one quadrant, they're going to be driving a lot around

806
00:43:30,239 --> 00:43:31,960
Speaker 2: a lot less. And they're also going to be burning

807
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:35,080
Speaker 2: a lot more, a lot fewer fossil fuels and releasing

808
00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:38,320
Speaker 2: fewer emissions too, So it's all together a pretty good plan.

809
00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:41,520
Speaker 2: Of course, the companies are like, can't do that, Like

810
00:43:41,640 --> 00:43:45,280
Speaker 2: what about competition? But New York's not really listening apparently,

811
00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:47,960
Speaker 2: And that's what's happening right now. And that's just part

812
00:43:47,960 --> 00:43:52,200
Speaker 2: of another again, this larger push for reforming the whole

813
00:43:52,239 --> 00:43:55,880
Speaker 2: place under Eric Adams and Jessica Tish, and one of

814
00:43:55,880 --> 00:43:58,200
Speaker 2: the big ones is getting rid of the black bags

815
00:43:58,239 --> 00:44:01,640
Speaker 2: in favor of container like the same plastic bins that

816
00:44:01,680 --> 00:44:04,480
Speaker 2: you see in basically every other city in the world

817
00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:07,760
Speaker 2: in one way, shape or form or another. New York's

818
00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:09,480
Speaker 2: finally being like, we're going to get in on that.

819
00:44:10,120 --> 00:44:13,680
Speaker 1: Are they black backs? I think they were blue?

820
00:44:14,080 --> 00:44:16,880
Speaker 2: There's blue too, Okay, yeah, they have all different colors,

821
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:18,399
Speaker 2: but there's definitely blue as well.

822
00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:20,239
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, how was it? Sure? It's been a while,

823
00:44:20,239 --> 00:44:22,080
Speaker 1: but I just have a visual in my head of

824
00:44:22,120 --> 00:44:25,719
Speaker 1: like mountains of blue bags on trash Day. And if

825
00:44:25,760 --> 00:44:28,120
Speaker 1: you've never been to New York at all, or you

826
00:44:28,440 --> 00:44:31,880
Speaker 1: haven't been many times, you would probably be shocked to

827
00:44:32,120 --> 00:44:36,040
Speaker 1: come out on trash Day on a hot summer, rainy

828
00:44:36,120 --> 00:44:39,920
Speaker 1: trash day, because it's quite a sight and quite a smell.

829
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:44,360
Speaker 1: But like you said, they're moving toward bins in just

830
00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:47,600
Speaker 1: a few months ago. In February of this year, they said,

831
00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:50,600
Speaker 1: all right, here's our new plan we're going to get.

832
00:44:50,600 --> 00:44:52,719
Speaker 1: If you've got a smaller apartment building, you're going to

833
00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:55,960
Speaker 1: have those little wheelie bins. Like almost every other city

834
00:44:55,960 --> 00:44:59,080
Speaker 1: in the United States, if you are in a really

835
00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:03,360
Speaker 1: big apartment building, it's basically a dumpster, but it's plastic,

836
00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:06,759
Speaker 1: but it's like a large container. You mentioned the fact

837
00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:09,239
Speaker 1: that there aren't a lot of alleys in New York.

838
00:45:09,960 --> 00:45:12,640
Speaker 1: It's kind of a movie trope when you've seen alley

839
00:45:12,680 --> 00:45:15,560
Speaker 1: scenes set in New York City, probably not being filmed

840
00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:17,520
Speaker 1: in New York because most of the buildings on a

841
00:45:17,520 --> 00:45:20,520
Speaker 1: block are just you know, crammed you right next to

842
00:45:20,560 --> 00:45:23,799
Speaker 1: each other. So these dumpsters have to go somewhere. And

843
00:45:24,400 --> 00:45:27,160
Speaker 1: they said, all right, we'll make them small enough to

844
00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:30,000
Speaker 1: fit in a parking spot. We'll lose one hundred and

845
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:33,480
Speaker 1: fifty thousand parking spots all over the city, but we

846
00:45:33,920 --> 00:45:36,520
Speaker 1: have to do it, and it'll also help us reclaim

847
00:45:36,719 --> 00:45:38,600
Speaker 1: some of this sidewalk space that we're losing.

848
00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:42,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, and apparently parking spots is one of the most

849
00:45:42,040 --> 00:45:45,600
Speaker 2: politically charged issues in all of New York politics.

850
00:45:45,680 --> 00:45:46,240
Speaker 1: I'm sure.

851
00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:48,480
Speaker 2: So that's really gutsy to be like one hundred and

852
00:45:48,480 --> 00:45:51,040
Speaker 2: fifty thousand parking spots are going away so we can

853
00:45:51,040 --> 00:45:55,360
Speaker 2: put these bins there. And it's not even across the board.

854
00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:57,720
Speaker 2: There's some blocks I read that are losing a quarter

855
00:45:57,840 --> 00:45:59,040
Speaker 2: of their parking spots.

856
00:45:59,200 --> 00:45:59,840
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm sure.

857
00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:02,560
Speaker 2: So it's definitely going to take an adjustment, for sure.

858
00:46:02,920 --> 00:46:05,880
Speaker 2: But there won't be bags of trash everywhere. They'll just

859
00:46:05,920 --> 00:46:08,600
Speaker 2: be like different colored bins that are on the street,

860
00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:12,520
Speaker 2: just off the sidewalk that a truck comes along and

861
00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:16,000
Speaker 2: picks up. That it doesn't require human hands to throw

862
00:46:16,080 --> 00:46:18,120
Speaker 2: bag after bag into the truck anymore.

863
00:46:18,719 --> 00:46:20,920
Speaker 1: Boy, in New York City, the residents really have to

864
00:46:20,920 --> 00:46:22,760
Speaker 1: get on board with this to make that work.

865
00:46:23,040 --> 00:46:26,520
Speaker 2: Well, they did a pilot study of it in Harlem

866
00:46:27,120 --> 00:46:30,160
Speaker 2: and this is back in September twenty twenty three, and

867
00:46:30,200 --> 00:46:33,799
Speaker 2: apparently it was extremely successful. Yeah, rat sightings were down

868
00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:34,960
Speaker 2: sixty eight percent.

869
00:46:35,719 --> 00:46:36,399
Speaker 1: Where did they go?

870
00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:39,279
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think they just kind of where

871
00:46:39,360 --> 00:46:42,600
Speaker 2: they disappear. They go poof into nothingness after they don't

872
00:46:42,640 --> 00:46:43,520
Speaker 2: eat for two days.

873
00:46:44,040 --> 00:46:46,719
Speaker 1: Boy, that means they're organizing. This could get really scary.

874
00:46:47,000 --> 00:46:51,200
Speaker 2: But supposedly they the people of Harlem were like, this

875
00:46:51,239 --> 00:46:53,719
Speaker 2: is this is cool. We can definitely deal with this.

876
00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:55,640
Speaker 2: So they're rolling it out to the rest of New York.

877
00:46:56,040 --> 00:46:56,279
Speaker 4: Yeah.

878
00:46:56,320 --> 00:46:58,319
Speaker 1: I think they will see the benefit to where people

879
00:46:58,480 --> 00:47:01,440
Speaker 1: get on board, because what real would really screw up

880
00:47:01,440 --> 00:47:05,120
Speaker 1: that system is that truck is going using the mechanics

881
00:47:05,160 --> 00:47:07,879
Speaker 1: to dump those cans, but then there's four or five

882
00:47:07,960 --> 00:47:10,800
Speaker 1: bags that wouldn't fit in the can just sitting there.

883
00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:13,080
Speaker 1: So you're still going to have to have some people

884
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:14,320
Speaker 1: down there slinging bags.

885
00:47:14,520 --> 00:47:16,640
Speaker 2: Definitely, for sure, but it should.

886
00:47:16,440 --> 00:47:18,839
Speaker 1: Speed up the whole thing and clean it up if

887
00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:20,720
Speaker 1: everyone If everyone chips in.

888
00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:23,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, and isn't that what living in New York is

889
00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:26,319
Speaker 2: all about. Everybody chipping in a little bit.

890
00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:26,880
Speaker 1: For sure.

891
00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:28,080
Speaker 2: You got anything else?

892
00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:33,360
Speaker 1: No, just another mention of composting. They're getting that going

893
00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:38,080
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier, still pretty new program. Since twenty percent

894
00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:41,040
Speaker 1: of that total waste dis food waste. If they really

895
00:47:41,080 --> 00:47:45,080
Speaker 1: got a pretty efficient composting system going, then it would

896
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:48,919
Speaker 1: do a lot to reduce trash and do better things

897
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:49,759
Speaker 1: for Mother Earth.

898
00:47:50,680 --> 00:47:54,880
Speaker 2: So you did have something else I did. Well, if

899
00:47:54,920 --> 00:47:57,200
Speaker 2: you want to know more about New York trash collection,

900
00:47:57,400 --> 00:47:59,760
Speaker 2: go to New York and just walk around and you'll

901
00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:01,920
Speaker 2: find find out everything you need to know about it.

902
00:48:02,320 --> 00:48:05,080
Speaker 2: And while you're booking your flight, how about it's time

903
00:48:05,080 --> 00:48:10,960
Speaker 2: for listener, ma'am.

904
00:48:08,600 --> 00:48:13,080
Speaker 1: I'm going to call this what is this? Oh Arson investigation?

905
00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:16,200
Speaker 1: Hey guys. In twenty nineteen, I moved to Saint Paul

906
00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:18,839
Speaker 1: with some friends from college. It's really fun. I made

907
00:48:18,840 --> 00:48:20,840
Speaker 1: many new friends in back. Two of my roommates I

908
00:48:20,880 --> 00:48:24,000
Speaker 1: had never met. One was a local rapper, the other

909
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:25,120
Speaker 1: was a firefighter.

910
00:48:25,120 --> 00:48:29,080
Speaker 2: EMT Saint Paul is the arson capital of the country.

911
00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:32,319
Speaker 1: Is it really? It wouldn't surprise me. After listening to

912
00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:35,160
Speaker 1: this story, this guy said it was a glorious era

913
00:48:35,800 --> 00:48:38,680
Speaker 1: of my life, filled with healing, fun and young adulting.

914
00:48:39,320 --> 00:48:40,799
Speaker 1: Within a few months, I got a job at a

915
00:48:40,800 --> 00:48:44,879
Speaker 1: discount movie theater and I was working one day when

916
00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:50,200
Speaker 1: the theater got a call from our boss and said, Hey,

917
00:48:50,400 --> 00:48:53,959
Speaker 1: your house is on fire. You should come by. So

918
00:48:54,480 --> 00:48:57,480
Speaker 1: the firefighters walked me through the burning home. I saw

919
00:48:57,520 --> 00:49:01,480
Speaker 1: no flaims, but it was smok. I went up to

920
00:49:01,520 --> 00:49:03,400
Speaker 1: my room. Nothing was burnt there, which is great, but

921
00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:05,919
Speaker 1: it did smell like a bondfire for about a year

922
00:49:06,000 --> 00:49:09,000
Speaker 1: after that. Man, everyone was gone at the time, so

923
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:12,920
Speaker 1: nobody was heard about a month later my landlord slash boss,

924
00:49:13,040 --> 00:49:15,960
Speaker 1: same person, which is why that sounded weird. Earlier I

925
00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:18,719
Speaker 1: mentioned that there was a big break in the fire investigation,

926
00:49:19,840 --> 00:49:21,480
Speaker 1: but made me do a little work to figure out

927
00:49:21,480 --> 00:49:24,600
Speaker 1: who it was. It turns out the firefighter EMT that

928
00:49:24,640 --> 00:49:26,880
Speaker 1: I lived with decided he didn't want to live with

929
00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:29,720
Speaker 1: us anymore, so a week before he moved a couch

930
00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:32,520
Speaker 1: to the basement and set it on fire and walked away.

931
00:49:32,719 --> 00:49:34,880
Speaker 2: Oh my god, with.

932
00:49:36,640 --> 00:49:38,840
Speaker 1: I only found out because he admitted it to me.

933
00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:42,239
Speaker 1: My life went haywire for a while after that, but

934
00:49:42,280 --> 00:49:44,719
Speaker 1: I'm happy to report that I'm settled in full on

935
00:49:44,840 --> 00:49:46,879
Speaker 1: adulting with love.

936
00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:47,480
Speaker 4: That is.

937
00:49:47,680 --> 00:49:52,839
Speaker 2: Teagan Tour is fantastic. Quite a great, great story. Thanks

938
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:55,560
Speaker 2: a lot, Tegan, who saw that coming. I did not

939
00:49:55,719 --> 00:49:58,560
Speaker 2: me that was a twist that you'd find at a

940
00:49:58,600 --> 00:49:59,640
Speaker 2: discount movie theater.

941
00:50:00,120 --> 00:50:00,400
Speaker 1: Right.

942
00:50:01,239 --> 00:50:02,719
Speaker 2: Well, if you want to be like Tea in and

943
00:50:02,760 --> 00:50:05,319
Speaker 2: send us an amazing story about something we talked about,

944
00:50:05,360 --> 00:50:07,440
Speaker 2: we love that kind of thing. You can send it

945
00:50:07,520 --> 00:50:13,560
Speaker 2: via email to stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.

946
00:50:13,680 --> 00:50:16,000
Speaker 4: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio.

947
00:50:16,480 --> 00:50:20,839
Speaker 1: For more podcasts myheart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

948
00:50:20,960 --> 00:50:22,800
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.