MTA Expands Effort to Remove Trash Bins from Stations

The MTA’s plan to remove trash bins from subway stations is an attempt at a cleaner subway system, but riders aren’t so sure what to do with their trash anymore, says the New York Times.

The Eighth Street and Broadway station in Greenwich Village and the Flushing-Main Street station in Queens have been without trash cans since last fall, and the number of trash bags hauled out by workers has decreased by 50 percent and 67 percent, according to the MTA.

The authority says that the programs have made the stations cleaner, too. Therefore, the pilot program is expanding, and the MTA recently removed trash bins from eight more subway stations, like 57th Street in Manhattan, Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, and East 143rd Street in the Bronx.

“I’m actually very intrigued by this,” Joseph Lhota, the transportation authority’s chairman told the Times. 

The logic of the program is that if riders have nowhere to discard their trash, that they will take it with them outside of the station. 

But, says the paper, that doesn’t always work out.

“I don’t know what to do with this,” Christopher DiScipio, 22, said while clutching an apple core at the Eighth Street station.

And nearby, riders have shoved their trash – energy drinks cans, bottles, wrappers and a t-shirt – behind a payphone.

“If you have a big, drippy ice cream cone, what are you going to do?” asked Gene Russianoff, spokesman for the Straphangers Campaign. “Stuff it in your purse?” 

In October, , calling the plan “misguided.”

“It is not clear to me how removing bins will lead to less trash because riders will continue to eat, read newspapers and otherwise go about their normal routines, only now they would have nowhere to properly deposit the material,” James said.

Earlier this year, state Senator Bill Perkins, D-Manhattan, proposed a bill aimed at keeping the mess – and the rats – out of the transit system. The proposal was to , with a fine of $250 for those who don't comply.

“If this goes through I won’t have a job, there will be no trash,” and MTA worker, who wished to remain anonymous, told Patch in January.