WEBVTT 00:00:00.315 --> 00:00:02.572 I was about 10 years old 00:00:02.572 --> 00:00:04.271 on a camping trip with my dad 00:00:04.271 --> 00:00:07.031 in the Adirondack Mountains, a wilderness area 00:00:07.031 --> 00:00:10.026 in the northern part of New York State. 00:00:10.026 --> 00:00:11.467 It was a beautiful day. 00:00:11.467 --> 00:00:13.469 The forest was sparkling. 00:00:13.469 --> 00:00:16.993 The sun made the leaves glow like stained glass, 00:00:16.993 --> 00:00:20.198 and if it weren't for the path we were following, 00:00:20.198 --> 00:00:21.602 we could almost pretend we were 00:00:21.602 --> 00:00:25.164 the first human beings to ever walk that land. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:25.164 --> 00:00:26.815 We got to our campsite. 00:00:26.815 --> 00:00:28.782 It was a lean-to on a bluff 00:00:28.782 --> 00:00:31.478 looking over a crystal, beautiful lake, 00:00:31.478 --> 00:00:34.174 when I discovered a horror. 00:00:34.174 --> 00:00:37.272 Behind the lean-to was a dump, 00:00:37.272 --> 00:00:38.730 maybe 40 feet square 00:00:38.730 --> 00:00:41.043 with rotting apple cores 00:00:41.043 --> 00:00:42.790 and balled-up aluminum foil, 00:00:42.790 --> 00:00:44.539 and a dead sneaker. 00:00:44.539 --> 00:00:47.110 And I was astonished, 00:00:47.110 --> 00:00:50.542 I was very angry, and I was deeply confused. 00:00:50.542 --> 00:00:52.124 The campers who were too lazy 00:00:52.124 --> 00:00:54.082 to take out what they had brought in, 00:00:54.082 --> 00:00:57.927 who did they think would clean up after them? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:57.927 --> 00:00:59.836 That question stayed with me, 00:00:59.836 --> 00:01:01.803 and it simplified a little. 00:01:01.803 --> 00:01:04.179 Who cleans up after us? 00:01:04.179 --> 00:01:05.601 However you configure 00:01:05.601 --> 00:01:07.308 or wherever you place the us, 00:01:07.308 --> 00:01:09.898 who cleans up after us in Istanbul? 00:01:09.898 --> 00:01:12.154 Who cleans up after us in Rio 00:01:12.154 --> 00:01:14.683 or in Paris or in London? 00:01:14.683 --> 00:01:16.255 Here in New York, 00:01:16.255 --> 00:01:18.847 the Department of Sanitation cleans up after us, 00:01:18.847 --> 00:01:21.517 to the tune of 11,000 tons of garbage 00:01:21.517 --> 00:01:25.879 and 2,000 tons of recyclables every day. 00:01:25.879 --> 00:01:28.512 I wanted to get to know them as individuals. 00:01:28.512 --> 00:01:31.358 I wanted to understand who takes the job. 00:01:31.358 --> 00:01:33.877 What's it like to wear the uniform 00:01:33.877 --> 00:01:35.531 and bear that burden? NOTE Paragraph 00:01:35.531 --> 00:01:38.184 So I started a research project with them. 00:01:38.184 --> 00:01:40.723 I rode in the trucks and walked the routes 00:01:40.723 --> 00:01:43.132 and interviewed people in offices and facilities 00:01:43.132 --> 00:01:44.639 all over the city, 00:01:44.639 --> 00:01:46.378 and I learned a lot, 00:01:46.378 --> 00:01:48.727 but I was still an outsider. 00:01:48.727 --> 00:01:50.605 I needed to go deeper. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:50.605 --> 00:01:53.721 So I took the job as a sanitation worker. 00:01:53.721 --> 00:01:56.368 I didn't just ride in the trucks now. I drove the trucks. 00:01:56.368 --> 00:01:59.513 And I operated the mechanical brooms and I plowed the snow. 00:01:59.513 --> 00:02:01.412 It was a remarkable privilege 00:02:01.412 --> 00:02:04.019 and an amazing education. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:04.019 --> 00:02:06.171 Everyone asks about the smell. 00:02:06.171 --> 00:02:09.231 It's there, but it's not as prevalent as you think, 00:02:09.231 --> 00:02:10.745 and on days when it is really bad, 00:02:10.745 --> 00:02:13.421 you get used to it rather quickly. 00:02:13.421 --> 00:02:16.618 The weight takes a long time to get used to. 00:02:16.618 --> 00:02:18.905 I knew people who were several years on the job 00:02:18.905 --> 00:02:21.490 whose bodies were still adjusting to the burden 00:02:21.490 --> 00:02:23.571 of bearing on your body 00:02:23.571 --> 00:02:26.550 tons of trash every week. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:26.550 --> 00:02:28.734 Then there's the danger. 00:02:28.734 --> 00:02:31.206 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 00:02:31.206 --> 00:02:33.408 sanitation work is one of the 10 most dangerous 00:02:33.408 --> 00:02:35.300 occupations in the country, 00:02:35.300 --> 00:02:37.051 and I learned why. 00:02:37.051 --> 00:02:38.472 You're in and out of traffic all day, 00:02:38.472 --> 00:02:39.433 and it's zooming around you. 00:02:39.433 --> 00:02:41.317 It just wants to get past you, so it's often 00:02:41.317 --> 00:02:43.367 the motorist is not paying attention. 00:02:43.367 --> 00:02:45.193 That's really bad for the worker. 00:02:45.193 --> 00:02:47.353 And then the garbage itself is full of hazards 00:02:47.353 --> 00:02:49.372 that often fly back out of the truck 00:02:49.372 --> 00:02:51.453 and do terrible harm. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:51.453 --> 00:02:54.268 I also learned about the relentlessness of trash. 00:02:54.268 --> 00:02:55.579 When you step off the curb 00:02:55.579 --> 00:02:58.428 and you see a city from behind a truck, 00:02:58.428 --> 00:03:00.214 you come to understand that trash 00:03:00.214 --> 00:03:02.831 is like a force of nature unto itself. 00:03:02.831 --> 00:03:05.287 It never stops coming. 00:03:05.287 --> 00:03:08.766 It's also like a form of respiration or circulation. 00:03:08.766 --> 00:03:11.811 It must always be in motion. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:11.811 --> 00:03:13.859 And then there's the stigma. 00:03:13.859 --> 00:03:16.775 You put on the uniform, and you become invisible 00:03:16.775 --> 00:03:19.079 until someone is upset with you for whatever reason 00:03:19.079 --> 00:03:21.394 like you've blocked traffic with your truck, 00:03:21.394 --> 00:03:24.045 or you're taking a break too close to their home, 00:03:24.045 --> 00:03:27.159 or you're drinking coffee in their diner, 00:03:27.159 --> 00:03:29.569 and they will come and scorn you, 00:03:29.569 --> 00:03:32.831 and tell you that they don't want you anywhere near them. 00:03:32.831 --> 00:03:35.263 I find the stigma especially ironic, 00:03:35.263 --> 00:03:38.574 because I strongly believe that sanitation workers 00:03:38.574 --> 00:03:40.254 are the most important labor force 00:03:40.254 --> 00:03:43.278 on the streets of the city, for three reasons. 00:03:43.278 --> 00:03:46.060 They are the first guardians of public health. 00:03:46.060 --> 00:03:48.466 If they're not taking away trash 00:03:48.466 --> 00:03:50.740 efficiently and effectively every day, 00:03:50.740 --> 00:03:53.451 it starts to spill out of its containments, 00:03:53.451 --> 00:03:57.177 and the dangers inherent to it threaten us 00:03:57.177 --> 00:03:58.351 in very real ways. 00:03:58.351 --> 00:04:01.322 Diseases we've had in check for decades and centuries 00:04:01.322 --> 00:04:04.228 burst forth again and start to harm us. 00:04:04.228 --> 00:04:05.900 The economy needs them. 00:04:05.900 --> 00:04:08.826 If we can't throw out the old stuff, 00:04:08.826 --> 00:04:10.716 we have no room for the new stuff, 00:04:10.716 --> 00:04:12.785 so then the engines of the economy 00:04:12.785 --> 00:04:15.714 start to sputter when consumption is compromised. 00:04:15.714 --> 00:04:19.778 I'm not advocating capitalism, I'm just pointing out their relationship. 00:04:19.778 --> 00:04:21.766 And then there's what I call 00:04:21.766 --> 00:04:25.978 our average, necessary quotidian velocity. 00:04:25.978 --> 00:04:27.027 By that I simply mean 00:04:27.027 --> 00:04:29.279 how fast we're used to moving 00:04:29.279 --> 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 --> 00:04:39.392 our coffee cup, our shopping bag, 00:04:39.392 --> 00:04:40.877 our bottle of water. 00:04:40.877 --> 00:04:43.556 We use them, we throw them out, we forget about them, 00:04:43.556 --> 00:04:45.336 because we know there's a work force 00:04:45.336 --> 00:04:48.356 on the other side that's going to take it all away. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:48.356 --> 00:04:50.803 So I want to suggest today a couple of ways 00:04:50.803 --> 00:04:55.687 to think about sanitation that will perhaps help 00:04:55.687 --> 00:04:57.791 ameliorate the stigma 00:04:57.791 --> 00:05:00.022 and bring them into this conversation 00:05:00.022 --> 00:05:05.612 of how to craft a city that is sustainable and humane. 00:05:05.612 --> 00:05:09.773 Their work, I think, is kind of liturgical. 00:05:09.773 --> 00:05:12.234 They're on the streets every day, rhythmically. 00:05:12.234 --> 00:05:14.295 They wear a uniform in many cities. 00:05:14.295 --> 00:05:16.164 You know when to expect them. 00:05:16.164 --> 00:05:20.087 And their work lets us do our work. 00:05:20.087 --> 00:05:22.878 They are almost a form of reassurance. 00:05:22.878 --> 00:05:24.615 The flow that they maintain 00:05:24.615 --> 00:05:26.605 keeps us safe from ourselves, 00:05:26.605 --> 00:05:29.242 from our own dross, our cast-offs, 00:05:29.242 --> 00:05:32.500 and that flow must be maintained always 00:05:32.500 --> 00:05:34.133 no matter what. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:34.133 --> 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 --> 00:05:43.456 and I grabbed my infant son and I ran downstairs 00:05:43.456 --> 00:05:46.298 and there was a man doing his paper recycling route 00:05:46.298 --> 00:05:48.480 like he did every Wednesday. 00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:50.900 And I tried to thank him for doing his work 00:05:50.900 --> 00:05:53.025 on that day of all days, 00:05:53.025 --> 00:05:55.626 but I started to cry. 00:05:55.626 --> 00:05:57.310 And he looked at me, 00:05:57.310 --> 00:06:00.734 and he just nodded, and he said, 00:06:00.734 --> 00:06:03.612 "We're going to be okay. 00:06:03.612 --> 00:06:06.253 We're going to be okay." 00:06:06.253 --> 00:06:07.606 It was a little while later that I started 00:06:07.606 --> 00:06:08.986 my research with sanitation, 00:06:08.986 --> 00:06:10.400 and I met that man again. 00:06:10.400 --> 00:06:13.317 His name is Paulie, and we worked together many times, 00:06:13.317 --> 00:06:15.140 and we became good friends. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:15.140 --> 00:06:17.967 I want to believe that Paulie was right. 00:06:17.967 --> 00:06:20.169 We are going to be okay. 00:06:20.169 --> 00:06:22.146 But in our effort to reconfigure 00:06:22.146 --> 00:06:25.187 how we as a species exist on this planet, 00:06:25.187 --> 00:06:28.482 we must include and take account of 00:06:28.482 --> 00:06:32.275 all the costs, including the very real human cost 00:06:32.275 --> 00:06:33.779 of the labor. 00:06:33.779 --> 00:06:36.580 And we also would be well informed 00:06:36.580 --> 00:06:38.798 to reach out to the people who do that work 00:06:38.798 --> 00:06:40.643 and get their expertise 00:06:40.643 --> 00:06:42.396 on how do we think about, 00:06:42.396 --> 00:06:45.646 how do we create systems around sustainability 00:06:45.646 --> 00:06:49.125 that perhaps takes us from curbside recycling, 00:06:49.125 --> 00:06:51.710 which is a remarkable success across 40 years, 00:06:51.710 --> 00:06:54.948 across the United States and countries around the world, 00:06:54.948 --> 00:06:57.750 and lift us up to a broader horizon 00:06:57.750 --> 00:07:00.636 where we're looking at other forms of waste 00:07:00.636 --> 00:07:02.121 that could be lessened 00:07:02.121 --> 00:07:04.854 from manufacturing and industrial sources. 00:07:04.854 --> 00:07:08.859 Municipal waste, what we think of when we talk about garbage, 00:07:08.859 --> 00:07:12.857 accounts for three percent of the nation's waste stream. 00:07:12.857 --> 00:07:15.244 It's a remarkable statistic. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:15.244 --> 00:07:17.722 So in the flow of your days, 00:07:17.722 --> 00:07:19.248 in the flow of your lives, 00:07:19.248 --> 00:07:22.276 next time you see someone whose job is 00:07:22.276 --> 00:07:25.419 to clean up after you, 00:07:25.419 --> 00:07:27.908 take a moment to acknowledge them. 00:07:27.908 --> 00:07:32.500 Take a moment to say thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:32.500 --> 00:07:35.854 (Applause)