The MTA’s claim that city subway stations are actually cleaner after it removed some trash cans is just garbage, the state comptroller said Tuesday.
The transit agency had crowed back in August that while “counterintuitive,” its pilot program showed a 36 to 66 percent reduction in refuse after it tossed some of its trash cans.
But Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said his office conducted an investigation and found the MTA’s math fishy, suggesting among other things that the real reason those stations had less refuse is because the agency sent trash trains through them more often.
“There’s no doubt that removing garbage cans from subway stations saved work and possibly some money for the MTA,” DiNapoli said in a statement.
“It’s not clear that it met MTA’s goals of improving straphangers’ experience and making stations cleaner.
“And there’s no evidence it reduced the number of rats in subway stations,” he added. “After four years, the best one can say about this experiment is that it’s inconclusive, except for the fact that riders have a harder time finding a trash can.”
The MTA has been removing trash cans from select stations for the past four years to study how it affects garbage left in the station. It claims that it creates less trash and reduced rat populations.
There are now no garbage cans at 39 stations, including the Eighth Street station on the R line, the Flushing-Main Street on the No. 7 line and all of the J/M stations that are above ground in Brooklyn and Queens.
The MTA claims that many riders in those stations see that there aren’t trash cans and take their refuse with them.
But that of course means that when riders do toss their food wrappers, coffee cups and old newspapers at those stations, they are throwing them directly onto the platforms, tracks, stairs, or mezzanine.
The MTA didn’t even alert riders about their plan to remove trash cans, DiNapoli griped.
The MTA said it “wholeheartedly” disagrees with the comptroller’s assessment.
“The less trash generated in the stations, the fewer the bags to be stored, collected and potentially exposed to customers,” said MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz.
“This also decreased the rodent population providing a better customer experience.
“Additionally, the significant reduction in trash reduced the need for trash pickups in the pilot stations, which also freed up personnel for deployment at other stations.”
