WEBVTT 00:00:00.315 --> 00:00:02.572 I was about 10 years old 00:00:02.572 --> 00:00:04.395 on a camping trip with my dad 00:00:04.395 --> 00:00:07.054 in the Adirondack Mountains, a wilderness area 00:00:07.054 --> 00:00:09.966 in the northern part of New York State. 00:00:09.966 --> 00:00:11.683 It was a beautiful day. 00:00:11.683 --> 00:00:13.469 The forest was sparkling. 00:00:13.469 --> 00:00:17.044 The sun made the leaves glow like stained glass, 00:00:17.044 --> 00:00:20.214 and if it weren't for the path we were following, 00:00:20.214 --> 00:00:21.927 we could almost pretend we were 00:00:21.927 --> 00:00:24.796 the first human beings to ever walk that land. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:24.796 --> 00:00:26.862 We got to our campsite. 00:00:26.862 --> 00:00:28.844 It was a lean-to on a bluff 00:00:28.844 --> 00:00:31.309 looking over a crystal, beautiful lake, 00:00:31.309 --> 00:00:33.974 when I discovered a horror. 00:00:33.974 --> 00:00:37.272 Behind the lean-to was a dump, 00:00:37.272 --> 00:00:39.047 maybe 40 feet square 00:00:39.047 --> 00:00:41.069 with rotting apple cores 00:00:41.069 --> 00:00:43.047 and balled-up aluminum foil, 00:00:43.047 --> 00:00:44.863 and a dead sneaker. 00:00:44.863 --> 00:00:47.172 And I was astonished, 00:00:47.172 --> 00:00:50.666 I was very angry, and I was deeply confused. 00:00:50.666 --> 00:00:52.479 The campers who were too lazy 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:54.283 to take out what they had brought in, 00:00:54.283 --> 00:00:57.851 who did they think would clean up after them? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:57.851 --> 00:00:59.960 That question stayed with me, 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:01.880 and it simplified a little. 00:01:01.880 --> 00:01:04.319 Who cleans up after us? 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:05.910 However you configure 00:01:05.910 --> 00:01:07.648 or wherever you place the us, 00:01:07.648 --> 00:01:10.093 who cleans up after us in Istanbul? 00:01:10.093 --> 00:01:12.309 Who cleans up after us in Rio 00:01:12.309 --> 00:01:14.779 or in Paris or in London? 00:01:14.779 --> 00:01:16.517 Here in New York, 00:01:16.517 --> 00:01:19.051 the Department of Sanitation cleans up after us, 00:01:19.051 --> 00:01:21.517 to the tune of 11,000 tons of garbage 00:01:21.517 --> 00:01:26.085 and 2,000 tons of recyclables every day. 00:01:26.085 --> 00:01:28.851 I wanted to get to know them as individuals. 00:01:28.851 --> 00:01:31.528 I wanted to understand who takes the job, 00:01:31.528 --> 00:01:33.939 what's it like to wear the uniform 00:01:33.939 --> 00:01:35.763 and bear that burden. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:35.763 --> 00:01:38.123 So I started a research project with them. 00:01:38.123 --> 00:01:40.723 I rode in the trucks and walked the routes 00:01:40.723 --> 00:01:43.163 and interviewed people in offices and facilities 00:01:43.163 --> 00:01:44.979 all over the city, 00:01:44.979 --> 00:01:46.671 and I learned a lot, 00:01:46.671 --> 00:01:48.651 but I was still an outsider. 00:01:48.651 --> 00:01:50.636 I needed to go deeper. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:50.636 --> 00:01:53.737 So I took the job as a sanitation worker. 00:01:53.737 --> 00:01:56.415 I didn't just ride in the trucks now. I drove the trucks. 00:01:56.415 --> 00:01:59.606 And I operated the mechanical brooms and I plowed the snow. 00:01:59.606 --> 00:02:01.459 It was a remarkable privilege 00:02:01.459 --> 00:02:04.019 and an amazing education. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:04.019 --> 00:02:06.142 Everyone asks about the smell. 00:02:06.142 --> 00:02:09.231 It's there, but it's not as prevalent as you think, 00:02:09.231 --> 00:02:11.030 and on days when it is really bad, 00:02:11.030 --> 00:02:13.191 you get used to it rather quickly. 00:02:13.191 --> 00:02:16.758 The weight takes a long time to get used to. 00:02:16.758 --> 00:02:18.998 I knew people who were several years on the job 00:02:18.998 --> 00:02:21.614 whose bodies were still adjusting to the burden 00:02:21.614 --> 00:02:23.618 of bearing on your body 00:02:23.618 --> 00:02:26.550 tons of trash every week. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:26.550 --> 00:02:28.781 Then there's the danger. 00:02:28.781 --> 00:02:31.206 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 00:02:31.206 --> 00:02:33.485 sanitation work is one of the 10 most dangerous 00:02:33.485 --> 00:02:35.454 occupations in the country, 00:02:35.454 --> 00:02:37.190 and I learned why. 00:02:37.190 --> 00:02:38.811 You're in and out of traffic all day, 00:02:38.811 --> 00:02:39.510 and it's zooming around you. 00:02:39.510 --> 00:02:41.657 It just wants to get past you, so it's often 00:02:41.657 --> 00:02:43.552 the motorist is not paying attention. 00:02:43.552 --> 00:02:45.609 That's really bad for the worker. 00:02:45.609 --> 00:02:47.630 And then the garbage itself is full of hazards 00:02:47.630 --> 00:02:49.572 that often fly back out of the truck 00:02:49.572 --> 00:02:51.484 and do terrible harm. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:51.484 --> 00:02:54.407 I also learned about the relentlessness of trash. 00:02:54.407 --> 00:02:56.052 When you step off the curb 00:02:56.052 --> 00:02:58.428 and you see a city from behind a truck, 00:02:58.428 --> 00:03:00.307 you come to understand that trash 00:03:00.307 --> 00:03:02.924 is like a force of nature unto itself. 00:03:02.924 --> 00:03:05.703 It never stops coming. 00:03:05.703 --> 00:03:08.813 It's also like a form of respiration or circulation. 00:03:08.813 --> 00:03:11.858 It must always be in motion. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:11.858 --> 00:03:14.043 And then there's the stigma. 00:03:14.043 --> 00:03:16.652 You put on the uniform, and you become invisible 00:03:16.652 --> 00:03:19.296 until someone is upset with you for whatever reason 00:03:19.296 --> 00:03:21.595 like you've blocked traffic with your truck, 00:03:21.595 --> 00:03:24.262 or you're taking a break too close to their home, 00:03:24.262 --> 00:03:27.191 or you're drinking coffee in their diner, 00:03:27.191 --> 00:03:29.739 and they will come and scorn you, 00:03:29.739 --> 00:03:32.955 and tell you that they don't want you anywhere near them. 00:03:32.955 --> 00:03:35.387 I find the stigma especially ironic, 00:03:35.387 --> 00:03:38.099 because I strongly believe that sanitation workers 00:03:38.099 --> 00:03:40.254 are the most important labor force 00:03:40.254 --> 00:03:43.355 on the streets of the city, for three reasons. 00:03:43.355 --> 00:03:46.184 They are the first guardians of public health. 00:03:46.184 --> 00:03:48.269 If they're not taking away trash 00:03:48.269 --> 00:03:50.787 efficiently and effectively every day, 00:03:50.787 --> 00:03:53.451 it starts to spill out of its containments, 00:03:53.451 --> 00:03:57.301 and the dangers inherent to it threaten us 00:03:57.301 --> 00:03:58.875 in very real ways. 00:03:58.875 --> 00:04:01.353 Diseases we've had in check for decades and centuries 00:04:01.353 --> 00:04:04.382 burst forth again and start to harm us. 00:04:04.382 --> 00:04:06.255 The economy needs them. 00:04:06.255 --> 00:04:08.350 If we can't throw out the old stuff, 00:04:08.350 --> 00:04:10.670 we have no room for the new stuff, 00:04:10.670 --> 00:04:12.785 so then the engines of the economy 00:04:12.785 --> 00:04:15.854 start to sputter when consumption is compromised. 00:04:15.854 --> 00:04:19.902 I'm not advocating capitalism, I'm just pointing out their relationship. 00:04:19.902 --> 00:04:21.878 And then there's what I call 00:04:21.878 --> 00:04:26.018 our average, necessary quotidian velocity. 00:04:26.018 --> 00:04:27.462 By that I simply mean 00:04:27.462 --> 00:04:29.404 how fast we're used to moving 00:04:29.404 --> 00:04:31.411 in the contemporary day and age. 00:04:31.411 --> 00:04:36.755 We usually don't care for repair, clean, carry around 00:04:36.755 --> 00:04:39.454 our coffee cup, our shopping bag, 00:04:39.454 --> 00:04:41.187 our bottle of water. 00:04:41.187 --> 00:04:43.649 We use them, we throw them out, we forget about them, 00:04:43.649 --> 00:04:45.491 because we know there's a work force 00:04:45.491 --> 00:04:48.449 on the other side that's going to take it all away. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:48.449 --> 00:04:50.803 So I want to suggest today a couple of ways 00:04:50.803 --> 00:04:55.780 to think about sanitation that will perhaps help 00:04:55.780 --> 00:04:57.870 ameliorate the stigma 00:04:57.870 --> 00:05:00.239 and bring them into this conversation 00:05:00.239 --> 00:05:05.706 of how to craft a city that is sustainable and humane. 00:05:05.706 --> 00:05:09.790 Their work, I think, is kind of liturgical. 00:05:09.790 --> 00:05:12.342 They're on the streets every day, rhythmically. 00:05:12.342 --> 00:05:14.542 They wear a uniform in many cities. 00:05:14.542 --> 00:05:16.505 You know when to expect them. 00:05:16.505 --> 00:05:20.134 And their work lets us do our work. 00:05:20.134 --> 00:05:22.878 They are almost a form of reassurance. 00:05:22.878 --> 00:05:24.862 The flow that they maintain 00:05:24.862 --> 00:05:26.915 keeps us safe from ourselves, 00:05:26.915 --> 00:05:29.366 from our own dross, our cast-offs, 00:05:29.366 --> 00:05:32.470 and that flow must be maintained always 00:05:32.470 --> 00:05:34.366 no matter what. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:34.366 --> 00:05:37.857 On the day after September 11 in 2001, 00:05:37.857 --> 00:05:41.144 I heard the growl of a sanitation truck on the street, 00:05:41.144 --> 00:05:43.488 and I grabbed my infant son and I ran downstairs 00:05:43.488 --> 00:05:46.298 and there was a man doing his paper recycling route 00:05:46.298 --> 00:05:48.542 like he did every Wednesday. 00:05:48.542 --> 00:05:50.808 And I tried to thank him for doing his work 00:05:50.808 --> 00:05:53.226 on that day of all days, 00:05:53.226 --> 00:05:55.411 but I started to cry. 00:05:55.411 --> 00:05:57.418 And he looked at me, 00:05:57.418 --> 00:06:00.705 and he just nodded, and he said, 00:06:00.705 --> 00:06:03.674 "We're going to be okay. 00:06:03.674 --> 00:06:06.330 We're going to be okay." 00:06:06.330 --> 00:06:08.098 It was a little while later that I started 00:06:08.098 --> 00:06:09.402 my research with sanitation, 00:06:09.402 --> 00:06:10.679 and I met that many again. 00:06:10.679 --> 00:06:13.273 His name is Paulie, and we worked together many times, 00:06:13.273 --> 00:06:15.202 and we became good friends. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:15.202 --> 00:06:18.275 I want to believe that Paulie was right. 00:06:18.275 --> 00:06:20.169 We are going to be okay. 00:06:20.169 --> 00:06:22.193 But in our effort to reconfigure 00:06:22.193 --> 00:06:25.526 how we as a species exist on this planet, 00:06:25.526 --> 00:06:28.513 we must include and take account of 00:06:28.513 --> 00:06:32.417 all the costs, including the very real human cost 00:06:32.417 --> 00:06:34.081 of the labor. 00:06:34.081 --> 00:06:36.659 And we also would be well informed 00:06:36.659 --> 00:06:38.891 to reach out to the people who do that work 00:06:38.891 --> 00:06:40.797 and get their expertise 00:06:40.797 --> 00:06:42.659 on how do we think about, 00:06:42.659 --> 00:06:45.831 how do we create systems around sustainability 00:06:45.831 --> 00:06:49.187 that perhaps takes us from curbside recycling, 00:06:49.187 --> 00:06:51.849 which is a remarkable success across 40 years, 00:06:51.849 --> 00:06:54.995 across the United States and countries around the world, 00:06:54.995 --> 00:06:57.643 and lift us up to a broader horizon 00:06:57.643 --> 00:07:00.115 where we're looking at other forms of waste 00:07:00.115 --> 00:07:02.355 that could be lessened 00:07:02.355 --> 00:07:04.963 from manufacturing and industrial sources. 00:07:04.963 --> 00:07:08.875 Municipal waste, what we think of when we talk about garbage, 00:07:08.875 --> 00:07:13.075 accounts for three percent of the nation's waste stream. 00:07:13.075 --> 00:07:15.275 It's a remarkable statistic. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:15.275 --> 00:07:17.892 So in the flow of your days, 00:07:17.892 --> 00:07:19.619 in the flow of your lives, 00:07:19.619 --> 00:07:22.200 next time you see someone whose job is 00:07:22.200 --> 00:07:25.435 to clean up after you, 00:07:25.435 --> 00:07:27.939 take a moment to acknowledge them. 00:07:27.939 --> 00:07:32.500 Take a moment to say thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:32.500 --> 00:07:35.854 (Applause)