Dive Brief:

• The possible re-opening of a Manhattan transfer station is causing controversy for Mayor de Blasio.
• Since 2006, New York City has been planning to begin using a marine transfer station that is sitting dormant. It would cut the volume of waste hauled from Manhattan to other boroughs for processing and reduce the amount of traffic to haul the trash into out-of-state landfills. 
• Litigation has slowed down the project, but has not halted it indefinitely. De Blasio supports the re-opening of the transfer station. Opponents in the community cite environmental and quality-of-life issues as reasons to keep the site shuttered.

Dive Insight:

Over time, most of the city's waste was processed at transfer stations in Brooklyn, the South Bronx and southeast Queens. Manhattan does not have a transfer station that is in operation at this time. According to the New York Times, opening this transfer station has become "a protracted issue involving race, class and geographic equity…"