NYCHA shows off new state-of-the-art vacuum-powered trash system in Harlem
NEW YORK — A new state-of-the-art trash system in NYCHA's Polo Grounds Towers in Harlem promises to tackle energy, rodent and recycling issues.
It is the first public housing building in the country to use the pneumatic technology.
First pneumatic system to collect recycling in U.S.
For residents, throwing the trash away still feels the same. The doors do not yet look any different, but what happens on the other side of them definitely is.
A new vacuum-powered system uses suction to shoot trash from 115 chutes, serving 3,800 people who live across the complex's four buildings.
"They've been holding lobby meetings every month, talking to residents face-to-face, answering questions," said Keith Grossman, NYCHA's executive vice president of Operation Support Services. "We're actually changing the way that they do something as really we take for granted, how menial just throwing garbage out is."
The system is the result of a 2016 Sustainability Agenda, made possible through a Housing and Urban Development deal that brought the city $500 million to bolster waste infrastructure. The project preserves current connections, retrofitting old receptacle areas and adding recycling rooms in each lobby.
"We will be able to collect metal, plastic and glass in this system, and it will be the first pneumatic system to be able to collect recycling in the United States ever," explained Katy Burgio, NYCHA's Sustainability Programs director.
New system frees up crews to focus on compost program
The process automatically detects entry points to deliver bags to their proper dumpster. Once the project is complete, it will handle 5.5 tons of trash daily in completely contained compartments.
"We'll increase our recycling ability at this property and reduce rats because now our staff is focusing on grounds," Grossman explained.
Currently, staff spend eight hours a day moving garbage between buildings by foot. Now those crews will be better used, contributing to NYCHA's partnership with Compost Power on the property, raking and repurposing fallen leaves, grinding them up into ground cover, as residents drop off food scraps for the community garden.
The next phase of the plan will install pipes to tie-in the nearby Rangel Houses to the same collection bins.
"It's all connected," Burgio said. "You can't do just trash and make it super sustainable. But getting to see the holistic vision is really part of what makes it sustainable."
All buildings at Polo Grounds Towers are expected to be online with the new system by next spring.
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