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NYC's Trash-Sucking Tubes May Be Upgraded, Expanded

Posted by Soulskill on from the it's-the-mega-maid-sir dept.

derekmead writes "When urban planners were trying to turn New York's Roosevelt Island from a haven for the disabled and the mentally ill into a liveable city, they got utopian. Lying beneath their plans was an unusual technology: a series of tubes that literally suck garbage from buildings at speeds up to 60 miles per hour to a central collection point, where the trash is taken off the island by truck or barge. Theoretically, that eliminates the emissions and traffic caused by giant garbage trucks, and makes trash sorting easier. Now, more than thirty years after the 'AVAC,' or Automated Vacuum Collection System, was installed, Envac, the Swedish company that built it, is exploring how to upgrade it and even extend the system to other parts of the city. Under a new feasibility study conducted by City University and funded by two city agencies, the easiest option would be to stretch the current system south, to cover the new technology campuses being built on Roosevelt Island by Cornell University and the Technion. "

28 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. A series of tubes? by Bodhammer · · Score: 5, Funny

    You mean like the internet? I don't think we need more tubes that move garbage...

    --
    "I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
    1. Re:A series of tubes? by plopez · · Score: 2, Funny

      "a series of tubes rapidly carrying trash" yep, that's as good of a description of the internet as there is..... :)

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    2. Re:A series of tubes? by ls671 · · Score: 2

      And don't forget to ask Tony's permission before changing anything garbage related in NYC just to prevent any kind of misunderstanding.

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    3. Re:A series of tubes? by Arancaytar · · Score: 3, Funny

      They wanted a series of tubes to replace the big-truck system they currently have in place.

  2. Homicide Enabler by Baby+Duck · · Score: 2

    Now there's the most efficient way to discard a dismembered body.

    --

    "Love heals scars love left." -- Henry Rollins

  3. As the article says by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It works, you just have to be mindful of what you put in it.
    Stereos? Rebar? I guess people will be idiots.

    1. Re:As the article says by instarx · · Score: 4, Informative

      I lived on Roosevelt Island for many years. Individuals don't put anything into the system. The building maintenance staffs do that. Residents just drop their bagged garbage down a shut and it is put into the collection system from there.

  4. Big enough to suck in a small child or pet. by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But what could go wrong?

    --
    Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
    1. Re:Big enough to suck in a small child or pet. by Krater76 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Or what could go right?

      If we end up with the (New) New York City from Futurama with transport tubes, I for one will welcome our new Omicron Persei overlords.

      --
      "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
    2. Re:Big enough to suck in a small child or pet. by PPH · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So we'll still have to hack the adult bodies into smaller pieces?

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    3. Re:Big enough to suck in a small child or pet. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I know, aren't the NYC subways great?

  5. I knew it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I always knew that NY sucked, just not that it did it literally.

  6. Some things don't smell right-- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Theoretically, that eliminates the emissions and traffic caused by giant garbage trucks, and makes trash sorting easier.

    How does the so-called "carbon footprint" of this 24x7x365 sucker compare with once or twice a week garbage trucks?

    And how is "sorting easier" when it's flying into a "central collection point" (read: steadily growing pile) at 60 mph?

    1. Re:Some things don't smell right-- by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 2

      And how is "sorting easier" when it's flying into a "central collection point" (read: steadily growing pile) at 60 mph?

      All those people wandering trough your neighborhood picking through you trash cans now have a single, conveniently located place to go to work. It seems to work well in India and Brazil.

      --
      Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
    2. Re:Some things don't smell right-- by instarx · · Score: 5, Informative

      And how is "sorting easier" when it's flying into a "central collection point" (read: steadily growing pile) at 60 mph?

      I lived on Roosevelt Island for many years. The trash is sorted in the building by residents (as in all NYC apartment buildings). Recyclables are run through the vacuum system at one time of day, and garbage during another time of day. It does help with the sorting at the collection station.

    3. Re:Some things don't smell right-- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      > I would imagine that large buildings in NYC would require daily pickup

      Obviously it's a bit of a special case, but I think the World Trade Center's garbage transfer facility actually kept some engineers busy for a few months planning it back in the late 60s or early 70s. Without getting into the obvious implications of Force = mass x acceleration, where acceleration = 9.8 meters/second per second and the potential energy from a thousand-foot drop, a single tower of the old WTC generated trash during the day faster than trucks could physically back into the loading dock, fill up, and haul it away. Apparently, they were mostly able to keep up until around 10:30am, then the first wave of trash hit from the morning coffee breaks, lunch pushed them into the realm of "hopeless", and they didn't finally catch up and get the system "emptied" again until sometime around 4am (the trash continued well past midnight, because the cleaning crews themselves generated wave after wave of trash).

      From what I read, an entire category of trash management came into existence with the World Trade Center, from compaction all the way to heavy-duty trucks capable of dealing with a huge load of densely-packed trash. I believe that some new skyscrapers in China actually have on-site incinerators.

  7. New New York by ajlitt · · Score: 2

    Or they could use it to transport people.

  8. Re:Sound stupid by geekoid · · Score: 2

    Because not all needs are the same?
    City planning isn't easy.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  9. Warning by Megahard · · Score: 5, Informative

    Do not put your dick in the trash sucking tube.

    --
    I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
    1. Re:Warning by Megahard · · Score: 5, Funny

      +5 Informative????!? Ok, here's some more tips for lonely slashdotters:
      Do not put your dick in the light socket
      Do not put your dick in the milking machine
      Do not put your dick in the salami slicing machine
      Do not put your dick in the toaster
      Do not put your dick in anything that's been dead for more than 5 hours

      There must have been countless horrific injuries before we had the internet to dispense this essential information.

      --
      I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
  10. Pneumatic tubes for mail, Paris, Germany, Italy... by gary_7vn · · Score: 2

    Paris was famous for its system of pneumatic tubes used for mail delivery. The system was automated, with colour coded bands used for routing, some systems used electromagnet propulsion. If this garbage system works half so well,it will be great. I don't see anything about recycling or composting though. That's bad. There is a great article on it here: http://www.cix.co.uk/~mhayhurst/jdhayhurst/pneumatic/book1.html

  11. Re:disappointing FA by Luckyo · · Score: 2

    http://www.envacgroup.com/

    This is the site of the guys who make these systems.

  12. How to clean them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I believe it can be done properly, but all I've seen from trash tubes are disgustingly dirty chutes that could not be properly cleaned and tended to attract cockroaches and the like. Either by accident (like a trash bag ripping inside the tube) or by improper use, they tend to become dirty and are impracticable to clean. Water pipes work because, well, there's water running on them. And trash cans, if they eventually become dirty, can be moved to be cleaned or at least replaced.

    Here in France, most (if not all) buildings that have some sort of garbage chute are forbidden to use them, precisely for the lack of hygiene they represent when improperly used. You really need some obligatory hard casing to prevent the trash from spilling into the tube itself. Vaccum can help, but some nasty liquids are quite sticky once they touch the walls...

    1. Re:How to clean them? by Jeremi · · Score: 2

      I believe it can be done properly, but all I've seen from trash tubes are disgustingly dirty chutes that could not be properly cleaned and tended to attract cockroaches and the like.

      The beauty of this system reveals itself when you see a cloud of cockroaches whizzing down the tunnel at 60MPH...

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  13. Re:Sound stupid by jesseck · · Score: 4, Funny

    UDP... I like to live in the moment.

  14. Presentation on the system itself by Luckyo · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.envacgroup.com/MediaBinaryLoader.axd?MediaArchive_FileID=06b88c4f-5764-43f7-8f14-e86e31483755&FileName=FAQ+Stationary+vacuum+systems+March+2012.pdf&MediaArchive_ForceDownload=True&Time_Stamp=634757542565749136

    If you're interested in the system itself, the company that makes the system offers this neat PDF presentation on its website.

  15. Re:bad idea because of... by SurfaceMount · · Score: 2

    Methane would build up in the tubes, causing the potential for an explosion and whatever system "deals" with it can break down.

    Certain animals would easily take refuge in the tubes and catch ridiculous amounts of diseases. With thousands of entrances and exits, that's a bad idea not to mention that it'd be a route directly into a building or house (potentially).

    Then someone could break into the system anywhere and drop in poisonous gas that can get past methane and disease focusing blocking techniques and spread it to every building. .

    Are those things a major problem for the sewer system?
    There is more risk the water supply will be poisoned than the "garbage sewer". The garbage tubes also suck air, so unless someone rewires the system to reverse there is no threat of gas to come out of the residential tubes.

  16. Re:bad idea because of... by Jeremi · · Score: 4, Informative

    It'd have to be piston driven from behind because no velocity of air can dislodge certain viscosity materials and no reasonable air pressure can move heavy metals.

    Your speculations are rendered moot by the fact that this system has been operating successfully for 35 years now.

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.