Collecting Trash in NYC

Back in 2014 Chris Whong created an impressive interactive map, NYC Taxis: A Day in the Life. This seminal interactive map followed the journey of one New York taxi over the course of 24 hours. You can now follow the journey of one New York garbage truck over the course of one night-shift on a new interactive map.

ProPublica has created an animated map which draws the route taken by a garbage truck as it drives around New York collecting garbage at night. One Night on a Private Garbage Truck in New York City draws the 60 mile route taken by one garbage truck over an eight hour period (which is only one half of its shift). As the truck's route is drawn on a map of New York the current time is shown alongside the total miles covered so far. Small nuggets of information about the route, the job and the type of rubbish collected are also added to the map as the route appears on the map.

The animated map was created as part of a ProPublica investigation into the dangerous world of private garbage collection. The investigation reveals that overworked and underpaid private garbage truck drivers often have to break the law in order to complete their routes on time. A situation which is dangerous both for the truck workers and the general public. For example last year in New York City "private sanitation trucks killed seven people... .By contrast, city municipal sanitation trucks haven’t caused a fatality since 2014".