New “Garbage Grabbers” for Newtown Creek
We continue to work to improve the health of the city’s waterways, which are the cleanest they’ve been in more than 100 years. This work not only covers water quality in terms of chemicals and bacteria, but also the trash that makes its way into our waterways. Much of the trash and debris found in New York Harbor, and its connected waterways, originates as litter discarded on city streets that subsequently gets washed into catch basins and eventually makes its way into the sewer system.
To address this problem, we recently completed a $42 million project to build four subsurface litter capture devices (lovingly known as “garbage grabbers”) designed to improve the health and aesthetics of Newtown Creek. We’ve installed similar devices along the Bronx River and the Gowanus Canal over the last several years, and they have captured more than 500 tons of litter and debris.
The new litter capture devices were constructed at:
- 47th Avenue between 28th and 29th Streets
- Rust Street and 56th Drive
- Troutman Street and Saint Nicholas Avenue
- 455 Johnson Avenue
In addition, the fight against litter is aided by our 144,000 catch basins, which trap litter before it can make its way into the sewer lines, and our skimmer boats, which patrol New York harbor capturing floating debris, including wood, plastic, metal, rubber, and glass.
