How NYC could save on garbage collection

On my street, the recycling truck passes two times. On one pass, they collect the recycling from the south side of the street; on the second pass they get the north side.

The truck has one driver and one "thrower" who collects the bags and throws them into the appropriate bin.

The city could save money by having one driver and two throwers.

On narrow streets like mine, there would not be any additional danger to the throwers, since cars can't pass the garbage truck.  So the truck could drive down the street, with one thrower working each side of the street.

There would be a 25% labor savings. Instead of 2 personnel times two passes, you would have 3 personnel times one pass.

Plus, you would get some savings on fuel and truck wear, since the truck would only have to drive the length of the street once.

As an added bonus, you would have less noise pollution, and only have to hold up traffic once per week instead of twice.

This would only work for narrow streets, where cars can't pass the garbage truck. So they would need to re-jigger the routes, and have trucks with a one plus one labor model handle the wider streets.

From Innovation Bootcamp post Nov 1 2011