Why can’t waste be attractive? 

Each year, a disproportionate share of NYCHA’s workforce is drained managing the 200,000 tons of waste produced. In partnership with NYCHA residents and staff, we are investigating the anatomy of NYCHA’s waste yards, studying their efficiency, relationships to public streetscapes and their impact on community experience. Together we are forging a path to replace the obstructive eye sores and pest attracting container yards of today with welcoming enclosures that activate the campus edge, add visual identity to surrounding public space and go beyond NYC standards in handling waste. The new yard designs, with better equipment and systems, are compact and efficient. They give waste yard space back to residents, expanding the boundary of the problem to achieve a bigger solution with community value.

Our Vision: Why can’t waste be attractive? Across NYC public agencies the arts play an integral role in activating public spaces and enhancing quality of life for all New Yorkers. Waste yard modernization has the power to change the way NYCHA residents, and their neighbors, feel about their homes. At their core, waste yards need to be functional. A clean, organized bridge that streamlines the hand-off between tenants, the Housing Authority, and the Department of Sanitation. But this bridge can stitch together more than operations between agencies. Waste yard modernization is an opportunity for an information, art and services campaign that builds community stewardship of public spaces and strengthens ties to the surrounding neighborhood.