North Shore Towers Courier n March 2016 3 Trashed! NST’s 40-year-old garbage chutes get much-needed overhaul Photos by NST Management North Shore Towers Art Show Returns! After a hiatus of several years, the celebrated North Shore Towers Art Show will return in late summer. Date to be announced. This event will allow our multi-talented residents to display their art in a variety of media. Look for more information (and application) in future issues of The Courier. Thank you, Art Show Committee By Fred cHernow Getting rid of kitchen waste and trash is so simple at NST. Former homeowners no longer have to drag heavy cans to the curb or retrieve them in inclement weather. But where does your garbage go after you deposit it? It starts in our compactor rooms. Guess how many we have? Do the math! There are three buildings. Each has three wings and 33 floors, with a single compactor room per wing on every floor. Give up? You should be aware, we have 297 compactor rooms, which require daily attention by our staff. That comes to nearly 300 compactor rooms that need to be kept clean and maintained. The items you deposit drop down the chute and land in the main compactor room in the basement. There it enters the actual compactor, which crushes (compacts) the garbage. It then enters a dumpster which is removed and replaced when full. Next, the dumpster is moved by our staff using an electric pallet jack to a location in the truck tunnel. From there it is picked up by the NYC Sanitation Department. For our protection the rooms containing the actual compactors are refrigerated! This is to suppress odors and vermin. Sadly, there are many instances when residents accidentally drop their mail, keys, medications and other items down the compactor chute. Often, some staff members have valiantly attempted to retrieve the items before they are compacted. In addition to refrigeration in the basement, our compactor chutes have fire sprinklers. These are frequently broken because heavy items are discarded down the chute, sometimes flooding apartments adjacent to them. We’ve had small fires, when careless residents have discarded smoldering cigarette butts down the chutes. Through the years many of the compactor chute walls have deteriorated and are in need of repair. The old material lining the wall has been damaged over time and needs to be rebuilt. Uncaring people have actually thrown frozen turkeys and bowling balls down the chute. Many of these walls are currently being rebuilt with concrete blocks (see photo) over a three-year period at a cost of $300,000. Your health and the stability of our compactor system depend on some simple steps to be taken on your part. Separate your trash: newspapers and magazines go in the square bin. The tall bin is for clean glass, plastic bottles, cans and aluminum foil. Rinse these at your sink before putting them in the bin. Nothing containing even the slightest amount of food should be left on the floor. Place used batteries in the collection tube located in your lobby mail room. Securely bag household trash and make sure you push it down the chute. If you close the door behind you no dust or paper bits will fly out the chute when you open the hopper door. Close the chute before opening the door to exit. Make sure your family members and household employees conform to these guidelines. We are a co-op and your cooperation is essential.
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