While the Daily News apparently got the scoop on Ruth Madoff's move to Greenwich, Connecticut, the Post is making an attempt to put itself back at the front of the Mrs. Madoff pack by publishing this amazing photograph of her dragging her garbage can with the headline: "Ruth Madoff’s trashy new life." more ›

In yet another installment of pick-a-public-servant's brain on Reddit, a Sanitation Department worker is asked the question that has plagued many a wrinkled nose: "Why is Chinatown always twice as dirty as the rest of Manhattan?" After a gentle attempt at parrying ("Do I really need to explain that?") the worker responds, "Just a lot of filthy people down there. That's the best explanation I can give. I don't think it matters how hard they work to try and keep it clean." more ›

Remember last year when the MTA decided to try an experiment and remove the platform trash cans from the Eighth Street on the N/R lines and Main Street on the 7 line stations? At the time we were all kind of skeptical that it might actually lead to a reduction in station trash. Well, aren't we pleasantly surprised: It apparently has been working! more ›

Fun fact that most renters don't realize? Property owners can (and frequently are) ticketed for the litter outside their buildings. And what offends a ticketing sanitation cop can include furniture and sometimes, as in the case of Queensman Raymond Janson, trash cans out for pick ups. Hey, people gotta make their (totally not real) quotas somehow! more ›

Since the Department of Sanitation began hiring women in 1986, there have been about 300 to hold the title of New York's Strongest—around 12 per year. 36-year-old Mary Ellen Connolly, who will be sworn in as a new Sanitation worker by Mayor Bloomberg on Wednesday, doesn't understand why. "I wish some of my girlfriends would do it. It's a great job." more ›

Sitting at home staring at the menu screen of your Matrix Revolutions DVD and ordering another chimichanga isn't just hurting your sex life, it's hurting the environment. The Times takes aim at the take out containers that comprise some of the city's 14 million tons of waste each year, and finds New Yorkers torn between convenience and guilt. "There's nothing I can do," a 25-year-old accountant tells the paper while eating from one of those ubiquitious plastic containers. "It annoys me. It's plastic in a landfill." But not as annoying as packing your lunch in a reusable container. more ›

Once upon a time, the Project for Public Spaces lauded Seventh Avenue in Park Slope for many reasons, including, "For a busy New York City street, 7th Ave is fairly clean. There are trash cans on every corner, and members of the neighborhood care enough about it to avoid littering." But lately, it's been a lot stinkier. That's because no one is picking up the trash: more ›

Yesterday, the NY Post reported that the FAA redrew the boundaries of Laguardia Airport's "safety zone" to allow for a huge trash facility. And since birds love trash, there are concerns that it'll become bird strike central, a la Flight 1549 (more fodder for the Post's war on birds). Which is why Flight 1549 hero Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger has waded into the debate. And he thinks this is "terrible." more ›

New York City-based artist and self-proclaimed “recovering advertising art director” Justin Gignac made a bet with a co-worker back in 2001 that he could sell people garbage if the packaging was right. (He talks about this around the 8:30 mark in the video below.) He picked up authentic trash from the "fertile" streets of New York City, encased it, and signed and numbered each little package—all “limited editions." The cubes are still selling 10 years later. more ›

Today's lesson: Sanitation Department workers aren't all as lovable as Roc. When they have bad days, they will make sure someone feels their wrath. Darbe Pitofsky, an 83-year-old Upper East Sider, learned this lesson the hard way. She says that she was recently chased down and screamed at by a sanitation agent; then given a $100 fine, all for dumping her trash in a corner trash receptacle. more ›

Earlier this month, we learned which subway you're most likely to roast in, and today, another of the city's eternal questions gets (sort of) answered by New York Magazine, which deems Broome Street between Allen and Eldridge Streets "the smelliest block in New York." more ›

The baby found in a Brooklyn garbage chute on Saturday night may have been there for as long as twelve hours, according to a Brooklyn Hospital doctor who examined him. That depressing news comes as the infant's mother, 18-year-old Laquasia Wright, was ordered held on $100,000 bail on attempted murder charges for allegedly dropping the newborn eight-stories down a trash chute. more ›

Police have taken an 18-year-old woman into custody after she allegedly put her newborn baby in a plastic bag and dropped it eight stories down a trash chute in her Brooklyn building. Laquasia Wright, who lives on the eighth floor of the building in the Walt Whitman housing project, reportedly threw her newborn out with the trash after delivering him in her apartment. Thankfully, the baby is reportedly in stable condition in Brooklyn Hospital. more ›

A newborn baby was recovered unharmed yesterday after being thrown down a trash chute in a Brooklyn housing project. The baby boy was discovered yesterday morning after a super heard him crying from inside the compactor chute. The baby was quickly fished out and taken to a nearby hospital where he appears to be ok. more ›

[Update Below} Yesterday, Bucky Turco of AnimalNY posted a document on the city's counter-terrorism plans...which he had found sitting in the garbage can in front of the NYPD’s Manhattan South Task Force stationhouse on 42nd Street. The documents, which are labeled "law enforcement sensitive," detailed specific locations and deployment instructions for the NYPD’s Chemical Ordnance, Biological, Radiological Awareness (COBRA) taskforce. But NYPD spokesman Paul Brown isn't that worried: "Granted, we would have preferred it was disposed of more discreetly, but its discovery by a dumpster-diver posed no threat to the public or anyone else." more ›

For over two years, the city has wanted to build a sanitation garage in SoHo on Spring Street. And at every step of the way, those plans have been blocked by a ragtag cadre of downtown celebrities, a renegade group of disparate actors, musicians and personalities who were willing to fight to the last breath to prevent the common man's garbage from clogging their block. They were the Ocean's Eleven of...trash. But a court has now rejected the appeals to the project, and given the go ahead for the garage to be built. more ›

With the weather starting to get warmer outside, it seems that black bears are coming out of hibernation early in New Jersey, freaking out residents and defenseless trash cans all over the state. And the bears have serious munchies for pizza, dude. more ›

First catpacks, and now solar garbage cans... what can't Park Slope deliver? According to FIPS, some "Big Belly solar powered garbage cans are going to be installed in various spots along Fifth Avenue. They are apparently each outfitted with a solar powered trash compactor, which reduces the need to empty them as much." more ›

Forget those mint-scented garbage bags that keep away rats, those aren't going to let your neighbors know how ridiculously wealthy you are—what will, are these Louis Vuitton garbage bags. They're not new to the market (Kanye was all over this ish back in February), but they did land on Curbed today in a designer-branded product post—meaning they're still around, meaning there's a market for these things (and yes, they've been spotted in NYC). more ›

A library in Queens is the latest to trash perfectly good items. According to the Daily News, Central Library in Jamaica (part of the Queens Library system, which has the largest circulation in the city) tosses books in their dumpster every week, weeding out their selection. more ›