A study of the feasibility of pneumatic transport of municipal solid waste and recyclables in Manhattan using existing transportation infrastructure.

Details

• Creators:
  Kamga, Camille ; Miller, Benjamin ; Spertus, Juliette ; Douglass, Lisa ; Ross, Brian ; Eickemeyer, Penny
• Corporate Creators:
  University Transportation Research Center ; The City College of New York, CUNY
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Infrastructure
  • Pneumatic equipment
  • Solid wastes
  • Waste management
  • Recycling
  • Feasibility analysis
  • Pipelines
  • Urban areas
  • Freight transportation
  • Energy conversion
  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  C-10-21
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  New York Metropolitan Area
• Corporate Publisher:
  New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
• Abstract:
  This study explored possibilities for using existing transportation infrastructure for the cost-effective ; installation of pneumatic waste-collection technology in Manhattan. If shown to be economically and ; operationally feasible, reducing the number of trucks used on the island’s densely encumbered streets could ; offer significant environmental, public-health, and quality-of-life benefits. Two cases were considered: 1) ; installing a pneumatic pipeline under the High Line Park (a retrofitted former elevated railroad) to collect ; waste from the Chelsea Market retail/office/hotel complex along with waste from the Park and adjacent ; buildings; and 2) installing pipelines in the space being excavated below Second Avenue for the ; construction of the Second Avenue Subway, in order to collect waste from residential, commercial, and ; hospital buildings, and from litter bins along a stretch of Second Avenue and in the subway station beneath ; it. Both design concepts were determined to be physically and operationally feasible and to offer ; significant quality-of-life benefits. Relative to conventional manual collection, the pneumatic systems ; would reduce energy use by 60% and greenhouse gas emissions by more than half. Direct operating costs ; for the proposed pneumatic installations, including the container dray from the pneumatic terminal to the ; transfer station, would be 30% less than those for conventional manual/truck collection in the two cases. ; But due to high initial capital costs, overall costs, including debt service, would be 55% higher in the High ; Line case and 30% higher in the Second Avenue Subway case. On a Net Present Value (NPV) basis, the ; cost of the pneumatic systems would be between 3.3 and 6.6 times greater than for conventional collection ; (for the Second Avenue Subway and High Line respectively). NPV costs would be equalized, however, if ; there were externality benefits on the order of $300,000 to $400,000 per year (respectively), ; using conservative assumptions. Given the space savings and other public-health and quality-of-life ; benefits associated with pneumatic systems--and the monetized value of decreased carbon emissions and ; energy use--externality benefits of this order of magnitude would appear to be likely.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  NYSERDA Contract 21147
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/26550/dot_26550_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 14.26 MB]
• Collection(s):
  University Transportation Centers ; US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:a435c6fe32e606503b470166bafa1930947c553ebdddb8c67c99f7d82dce5033