As the one-year anniversary of closing Fresh Kills landfill nears, the long-term waste export plan created by the Giuliani administration has almost completely unraveled.Instead, what is emerging is the realization – as feared by the Tri-State Campaign and others – that the “temporary” plan to dramatically increase truck hauling has become a permanent feature of NYC’s waste system.

When Fresh Kills closed last March, the Campaign estimated that the truck-based interim plan had added 264,000 outbound truck trips annually to already clogged city streets.In addition to increasing congestion, increased truck use affects air quality all over the region.Because trucks use so much fuel – three times more than trains to haul the same cargo, according to the EPA – the interim plan adds nearly 12,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions in New York and New Jersey daily.Add to these figures the additional cost of hauling garbage by truck – 50% more than dumping at Fresh Kills, according to the city’s Independent Budget Office – and truck hauling is the worst of all worlds. 

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is trying to reduce some of these costs, in part by trucking some Queens trash to railyards in the Bronx.But New Yorkers may be waiting some time for workable plans to containerize garbage for trains or long-distance barges. In the meantime, NYC continues to groan under its nation-beating levels of truck traffic.

Fresh Kills Closure Spews Trucks 
(March 26, 2001)

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