Letter of Recommendation:

Improving NYC Sanitation

Yustina Shenouda, Michael Gershengorin, Mohammad Mazhar

 

Abstract 

In highly populated states like New York there seems to be a problem dealing with dirty streets. People do not think twice before littering, and no one seems to be cleaning their mess up either. So what is an effective way of keeping our streets clean? This is where the street cleaning robot comes into play; this mid sized robot will vacuum all the plastic and other debris that is left stranded on the street. This robot will charge at stations made specifically for these robots. This paper reviews all aspects of this robot along with the cost, effectiveness, functionality, and limitations of this robot.

Introduction

Cleanliness in New York City has always been a major problem. For years New York City has been deemed one of the dirtiest cities across the United States. A state audit which resulted in the inspection of 271 “blockfaces” was conducted by representatives from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office (NYTimes). The results displayed that 189 streets and 159 sidewalks were dirty based on the Department of Sanitation’s Operations Scorecard criteria. With the large amount of streets being dirty throughout the city, major concerns arise. A densely populated city such as New York, means germs and bacteria spread very quickly. Having streets filled with garbage, litter, and other harmful toxins the spread of germs from said garbage to people is almost inevitable. Not only is the spread of germs and bacteria a concern but pollution is another problem the city faces as a result of how dirty it is. Chinatown faces some of the highest pollution rates in New York City as a result of the amount of trash and litter found throughout the streets (Grownyc). Large amounts of waste found in the streets has also been related to serious health issues such as asthma. With the amount of litter and garbage that is produced by the city’s population, having garbage picked up twice a week is not enough. In addition the sanitation departments’ attempt to keep streets clean with their street sweepers has been proven to be quite inefficient. “The city spends $16 million annually to sweep approximately 47,400 scheduled routes, which cover more than 6,000 miles of roads…It’s also a maintenance nightmare. Mechanical sweepers are expensive, prone to breakdowns and costly to repair. And the 450 mechanical brooms in our fleet must rotate out of their five-year service before we can move fully to state-of-the-art machines”(Nelson). Aside from the expensive costs to keep the sweepers running they don’t efficiently perform their jobs either. The sweepers always leave debris and litter behind after sweeping the street.

Mission

New York City needs a viable solution that is efficient and eco-friendly for cleaning streets. We are looking to introduce a robot which picks up garbage rather than blowing debris from one spot to another. We need something that can clean the place people walk, the dog poop stains, the spit all over some neighborhoods, or the starbucks cups and takeout boxes littering the streets. The sanitation sweeper isn’t solving any of these issues, and there isn’t enough access to garbage cans on every street that would accommodate some peoples’ inconcern to throw garbage onto the street. We need a solution to both the amount of waste and the stains it leaves, generating higher possibility for disease, crime, and an overall lower quality of life (Coghlan).

Options

Cleaning the streets of New York City shouldn’t be a discussion, the process needs to take place. Having streets that are filled with garbage, debris, and litter while you’re walking is unacceptable. Using the sanitation methods we have now is not a viable option and we can’t sit around while the amount of garbage in the streets increases. Not only is having dirty streets bad for the population’s health, it’s bad for the city’s communities as well. Research has proven that having streets filled with litter and graffiti increases crime rates (Coghlan). Solutions have to be implemented and major steps in the right direction need to take place. An option would be implementing eco-friendly robots that pick up garbage and clean litter. The idea is an improvement to the sweepers that New York City uses as the robots will target garbage and pick it up rather than sweeping the debris from one place to another. Not to mention that the robots will use solar energy in comparison to the gasoline that is burned by the sweepers. The city of Helsinki in Finland has implemented the world’s first fully electric street sweeper which also vacuums, disinfects, and cleans streets (Kaupunki). The electric sweeper “consumes only 15% of the energy required by conventional brushing vacuum cleaning machines. Neither does it generate emissions in the cleaning situation”(Colston). This could become a revolutionary start to city cleaning methods. Japan is also starting to make these inventions a realistic possibility instead of hiring people to do the job (in efforts to fix their declining birth rates). If smaller countries are implementing these ideas, surely bigger ones need them just as much, if not more due to a higher population (and in turn, higher sanitation concerns). Not in a competitive way should I mention this, with many other countries seeking ways to decrease their environmental pursuits, why should some linger behind? In other words, why shouldn’t this be the great universal goal of all countries? With all these environmental and advancing technological pursuits globally, it is important that we continue to shift our concerns to protecting natural life and striving to better the living conditions and health of everyone.

Machine Options & Limitations

Like with all new structural inventions, this idea generates a few concerns also that we hope to tackle. For a first, how will it take into account the crowded streets of Lexington Ave, or in Midtown? It would be of concern if the robot bumped into an elederly person that was walking too slow to get out of its way, or if it hit the side of a car. 

How about Chinatown, bustling with outdoor markets, that most likely needs the more benefits of cleaning up? How can we account for the garbage, and where will it be placed once it’s picked up? Will the machine just blow it away again, barely having an effect?

Can the robot be entrusted with a job that requires judgement? And if it is, it seems as though the AI technology, as well as it’s design would be quite an investment.

Proposition

These robots seem like a science fiction idea if there aren’t the right accommodations. But ironically, so did cars. And so, with the mindset of accomplishing a new system to accommodate this invention, it can seem much more likely. 

The robot we would design will be reasonably sized, a bit wider than the average person and more boxy. It will have a strong vacuum at its bottom toward the front. At the bottom, behind the vacuum it will have a rotating brush and disinfectant dispenser. This size will account for city life as well as the hassle-free design (nothing poking out). As well as that, multiple sensors will be placed on it, and it will move reasonably slow, as to avoid bumping into anyone or anything. It will have a decent amount of AI to account for going around things in its path or stopping at stop lights. And as a little pizzazz, the robot can be colourful or play some tunes as its sweeping, just to be more friendly. 

Inside the machine, there will be a battery as well as the garbage bin (that compresses garbage with great pressure) for what it picks up along its route. It indeed seems more unproductive that the robot should clean everyday, so to account for this, there can be a weekly schedule. Only about 20-25 robots would be needed in total (depending on city size of course) so it’s not too much.

Along with the robots, a few stations can be set at a distance of 2 to 3 blocks from each other. These stations will hold a solar powered charging port and a spot for the robot to insert garbage into a garbage can, which sanitation workers will then unlock and dump into their truck on garbage collection days. In this way, the charging port will serve as an eco-friendly manner in both its energy usage and its purpose. The robots will in turn, pick up garbage early in the morning (which would avoid crowds as a bonus). 

The fact that these robots wouldn’t need to be handled by workers, already means that salary cuts would be cut. The cost to maintain the less effective sanitation sweeper trucks would also be saved. The robots would run on renewable energy, and infrequently need to be maintained, so there would be almost no investment after they’re built. Though it seems to cost a lot of money at first, it would eventually pay for itself and save lots of money, as well as provide an incredible clean energy solution to cleaning the streets of nyc. Crime rate would in turn go down, which would save even more money on top of that, as well as a better working environment for people. 

Cost

According to servicesmag.org, “95 percent of cleaning the floor is labor.” Since our robot and charging stations do not need workers, our labor cost should be very minimal. However, robots with high level ai technology will cost thousands of dollars. On estimate each robot will cost about $15,000 to make, this will include all materials along with all the technology that is implemented within this robot. Since the charging stations run mostly on solar power, the cost of electricity should decrease. Each charging station will cost about $5,000 to make. The price of each charger itself is $1,000 and all the equipment including robotic arms, solar panels, and the trash chute the cost will be around $2,000. Since the stations are not very big, they will not take too much money to build, so the remaining $2,000 will go towards building costs. 

Depending on the budget of the project, placing around 50 to 100 robots in one city will definitely make the city a cleaner place. This project will be costly but it will pay off when the streets are nice and clean. This is also a step in the right direction to keep the world clean.

Interpretation & Conclusion

It’s evident that a higher population increases chances for disease spread and unkept streets and spaces. Cities are a prime spot for infection at any point if sanitation is bad, and although the sanitation we have today has worked for years (in managing some streets), it seems as though it has untouched countless others, especially in very dirty neighborhoods. But, statistics tells us that unclean streets increase crime rates and lower people’s outlooks (again, it deepens the stretch of crime, and even the performance people have in daily life at work or at home). The demand for a better sanitation system comes back. The idea of an AI robot to clean more efficiently is something innovative, something for future generations and for the sake of the environment we all seek to care for. If we can continue to tweak the small yet big details of daily life like increasing the health of people, animals and the environment as a whole through cleanliness, then we will have achieved something great. After all, if we aren’t working towards quality of life, then what are we working towards?

Bibliography

 

1. Coghlan, Andy. “Graffiti and Litter Lead to More Street Crime.” New Scientist, 21 Nov. 2008, www.newscientist.com/article/dn16096-graffiti-and-litter-lead-to-more-street-crime/.
2. Colston, Submitted by Paul. “Clean Sweep for Robot in Smart City Helsinki.” Exhibition World, 20 Apr. 2021, www.exhibitionworld.co.uk/clean-sweep-for-robot-in-smart-city-helsinki. 
3. Hogan, Bernadette, and Carl Campanile. “NYC Streets and Sidewalks Are Filthy, New State Audit Finds.” New York Post, New York Post, 25 Sept. 2020, nypost.com/2020/09/25/nyc-streets-and-sidewalks-are-filthy-new-state-audit-finds.
4. Nelson, Pat. “The City That Never Sweeps.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 July 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/opinion/13nelson.html.
5. “Pollution in Chinatown: Impact of Intercity Buses and Businesses on Air Contamination and Littering.” GrowNYC 2030, eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/morazanfinal2013/environmental-concerns-of-chinatown/pollution-in-chinatown-impact-of-intercity-buses-and-businesses-on-air-contamination-and-littering/.
6. “Robot to Sweep Street Dust in Jätkäsaari Quietly and without Emissions at Night.” Helsingin Kaupunki, 19 Apr. 2021, www.hel.fi/uutiset/en/kaupunginkanslia/robot-to-sweep-street-dust-in-jatkasaar
7. Writer, Staff. “At Your Service: Japanese Robots Move out of the Factory.” Nikkei Asia, Nikkei Asia, 8 Feb. 2019, asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-trends/At-your-service-Japanese-robots-move-out-of-the-factory.