MTA Considering No Trash Bins on Subway Platforms
Riders balk, fear eliminating bins will make platforms dirtier
Tuesday, Oct 25, 2011 | Updated 10:34 AM EST
The MTA says it already picks up more trash than it can handle.
New York City is considering a plan to remove all trash cans from some subway platforms -- a move many straphangers fear will make the stations even dirtier.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been testing the plan at two stations for the last two weeks: The Main Street station on the No. 7 line in Flushing, Queens, and the Eighth Street N and R station in Manhattan.
The MTA says it's an experiment to see how much it can reduce the amount of refuse it picks up in the stations in a given month.
If it is successful, it may expand the program to some other stations.
The MTA says the two-month no-bin experiment is being tried because the agency has more trash than it can handle at its 468 subway stations. Crews remove about 8,500 trash bags daily from stations, according to the Daily News.
The hope is that riders will toss out their trash before they get down to the subway platform.
However, riders at the stations in the pilot program tell the News they've seen garbage piling up on the platforms without garbage cans.
Others fear straphangers will just end up tossing their unwanted trash on the ground rather than lug it around until they find a bin.
Straphanger advocates don't support the pilot program.
"NYC Transit doesn't have the money to keep stations clean. So even a ridiculous idea sounds good to them," Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign told the News.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC New York
Posted Tuesday, Oct 25, 2011 - 8:13 AM EST
