New Gowanus Trash Facility Opens To Ease Burden On North Brooklyn

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — A new trash facility that officials hope will ease the burden on North Brooklyn neighborhoods has opened near the mouth of the Gowanus Canal, the city's department of sanitation said Tuesday.

The "Hamilton Avenue Marine Transfer Station," located near the Gowanus Expressway, will process about 1,600 tons of trash per day from across Brooklyn, according to the city.

Anyone worried about that much trash piled up stinking up the surrounding area shouldn't be, according to the city. The facility is equipped with "advanced ventilation and odor controls, negative air pressure system, sealed leak-proof containers, and rapid roll-up doors" to keep the smell to a minimum, DSNY says.

The garbage will arrive at the station from trucks picking up from curbsides throughout the borough. From there, the trash will be loaded into shipping containers, carried by crane to a barge and then shipped off to Elizabeth, New Jersey. Then, the trash will be loaded onto train cars and sent to Virginia or upstate New York.

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The $173 million facility should be a relief to some North Brooklynites who said their neighborhoods were unfairly overburdened by trash stations.

At those sites, trash arrived from trucks and would sit until more trucks could come to take it to landfills outside of the city. About half of that 1,600 tons of trash per day were sent to centers in Williamsburg, Bushwick and Greenpoint.

READ MORE: Soon, North Brooklyn's Mountains Of Trash Will Be South Brooklyn's Problem

The Gowanus station is the third in a network of new transportation centers to open, joining locations in Staten Island and College Point, Queens. Two more stations are set to open in Bensohurst, Brooklyn, and Manhattan.

Lead photo via DSNY/Flickr