Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Quinn urged the State Assembly to pass a bill authorizing the marine transfer station at the Gansevoort Pier. The MTS, part of the city's Solid Waste Management Plan, would handle recyclable paper, metal, glass and plastic and would help to ease garbage truck traffic. Bloomberg said there would be "a disaster" if the plan doesn't pass. more ›

Residential groups on the Upper East Side had filed a lawsuit to stop the building of a garbage transfer station at East 91st Street and the FDR Drive, but a judge dismissed the suit, noting that the plan would "further the city's announced, rational goals of promoting equity among the boroughs for responsibility over waste disposal, and reducing truck traffic." Indeed, Mayor Bloomberg proposed the controversial plan almost two years ago and tried to get it passed last year but the City Council foiled it. He managed to get enough votes this year from the City Council, but the lawsuit was still pending. more ›

The City Council passed the controversial trash plan that will create a new transfer station on the Upper East Side and a recycling center in the Meatpacking District as well as shift garbage disposal from trucks to barges. The plan, which was approved 44 to 5, was a hotbed of emotions and terms like "environmental racism." The outer boroughs (finally, Manhattan would have to deal with its own trash!) and environmentalists (garbage trucks have shorter routes, taking trash to four new transfer stations that will have barges taking the trash out) hailed the proposal while Upper East Siders hate the idea of a garbage transfer station being built near a park. Though there are environmental benefits to the plan, the Department of Sanitation commissioner said that the cost of removing trash will increase from $77 to $107 per town. Here's how the Mayor's press release describes the plan:

The Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) will fundamentally change the way the City transports waste. Currently, DSNY trucks and private tractor trailers export about 84 percent of the City’s residential garbage – which totals 12,000 tons a day. Under the new plan, Sanitation trucks will be used to export only 13 percent, while the use of long-haul tractor-trailer trucks will be eliminated entirely. Instead, the City will export almost 90 percent of the City’s residential waste by barge or rail. more ›