Sanitation Services

Sanitation services collect and dispose of waste materials. Waste materials can include municipal solid waste, organic waste, discarded car tires or many forms of industrial waste.

The most common method of municipal solid waste disposal is dumping it into a landfill. It is also common for solid waste to be incinerated. The heat released during incineration is often used to generate electricity. The ashes leftover from the incineration take up much less space than the initial amount of garbage and are disposed of in a landfill.

Plastics pose a challenge to the sustainability of modern sanitation. Only 3% of plastic waste is recycled, and the rest accounts for up to a quarter of all landfill space. Learner.org: Plastics New research into "bio-plastics"—plastics based on vegetable matter rather than petroleum—may provide an solution. These new plastics can biodegrade in a matter of weeks or months, as opposed to standard plastics that can take centuries to break down.The Guardian: Old idea of using bioplastics gets a new lease of life (July 10, 2008)

• City of New York: Department of Sanitation
  • Contact: Service Requests
• City of Los Angeles: Bureau of Sanitation
  • Contact: 800-773-2489
• City of Chicago: Streets and Sanitation
  • Contact: 312-744-4611