Food waste is the part of garbage that makes it disgusting. When sealed in plastic bags with other trash, food waste putrefies, releasing foul odors and garbage juice, attracting rodents and roaches. When it winds up in landfills, food waste creates leachate and methane that pollute the land, waterways and air. But when food waste […]
Vital City commissioned an article by Clare Miflin and Benjamin Miller on how to best integrate waste containerization into New York City’s streetscapes so it can bring many more benefits than just hiding the trash.
We helped the NYT journalists to understand and visualize DSNY’s proposals for containerizing waste, and were quoted in their article: Clare Miflin, an architect and the executive director of the Center for Zero Waste Design, argues that a different scheme would better address these harder cases. In denser parts of the city, she suggests all small and midsize […]
NYC Department of Sanitation is moving forward on containerization, a strategy we brought to the attention of city agencies in the collaborative development of the Zero Waste Design Guidelines in 2017 and pushed to the forefront with our Put Waste to Work campaign and coalition building for the incoming Adams administration. But DSNY’s approach misses […]
The Center for Zero Waste Design and WXY have released an advocacy campaign calling on the incoming administration to deal with NYC’s trash issues. Put Waste to Work: For Vibrant Streetscapes, Green Jobs and Healthy Neighborhoods outlines a plan to get trash bags off NYC sidewalks and compost into soils. The plan lists strategies the […]
We participated in the AIA New York event this week, alongside DSNY, DOT, Union Square Partnership, Recycle Track Systems, Openbox and Marvel Architects. See write up in Waste Dive, and if you’re interested in learning more, sign up here.
New York City’s Mayor de Blasio just committed to a green recovery that prioritizes equity, fairness, and the climate crisis. Composting, which creates green jobs, supports local food production, and increases environmental equity, should fit squarely within this mission. Yet, in this year’s crisis budget, the city cut all funding for organic waste collection. Organic waste costs the Department […]
SideWalkTalk article on Medium While vacuum waste collection is still rare compared to curbside pickup, its adoption may be on the rise. Norway’s second-largest city, Bergen, is installing one of the world’s largest vacuum waste systems, with nearly 5 miles of underground pipe. In 2018, Singapore changed its development requirements so any project of 500 apartments or more must […]
Streetsblog March 11 post “City pedestrians navigate around piles of trash and recycling that take up significant sidewalk space,” Garcia said. “It is time to make smarter, more efficient choices when it comes to the way New Yorkers set out refuse and recycling for collection in the public right of way. Thursday’s announcement is the […]
Clare Miflin’s article in the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment Newsletter is inspired by Michael Pollan’s seven word maxim for healthy eating: Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants. Build less: reuse and repurpose existing buildings; right-size the building; consider sharing spaces within a district. For more people: design and program a building so that most […]