Polo Grounds Towers New Trash System

1. For trash: Continue to throw your trash in your building’s trash chute. Once the storage at the bottom of the chute is full, the pneumatic system is turned on and the discharge valve opens.
2. For recyclables: You will be able to bring recyclables to a new recycling room, located on the ground floor of your building.
3. When the fans at the New Central Facility- also known as the Terminal Building turn on, they generate a powerful vacuum. Trash from building chutes and recyclables from the recycling room are carried at up to 60 mph to the Terminal building which will be located in the South parking lot.
4. At the Terminal building, trash and recycling are compacted directly into sealed containers and the exhaust air is filtered and released.
5. The Department of Sanitation will pick up the full containers of waste and bring them off site.

This project has a planned completion date of winter 2025.

See construction updates below. You can also fill out our feedback form to receive occasional project updates via email.

Quarter 1 2023 Construction Updates (January 1, 2023 to March 31, 2023):

Terminal Building excavation begins. Terminal Building foundation is tested for strength, including helical pile testing

Quarter 2 2023 Construction Updates (April 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023): 

Terminal Building foundation work begins, including pouring the concrete for the foundation and building the walls.

Quarter 3 2023 Construction Updates (July 1, 2023 to September 30, 2023): 

Terminal Building concrete work for walls and roof completed. Trenching begins for pneumatic pipe. 

Quarter 4 2023 Construction Updates (October 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023):  

Terminal Building structure is complete; mechanical, electrical, and plumbing for the building are currently under construction, and trenching for the underground pipes are underway. 

Underground pipe installation from Terminal Building structure to Building 3 & 4 is complete and is underway to Buildings 1 & 2. Mechanical equipment installation at the Terminal Building is underway.

Last updated: 3/31/2024

Construction will start in spring 2023 and will be completed by winter 2025.

The containers will be picked up from the collection facility at Polo Grounds about three times a week.

Yes. Hopper doors on each floor and in the new recycling rooms will be self-closing, made of fire-rated steel, and designed to prevent material from catching inside or outside the door. The existing trash chute is fire-rated masonry construction. If burning material goes into the chute or a fire starts at the bottom, heat sensors at the base of the chute will activate a sprinkler system and put out the fire. The transport pipe section, made of heavy steel pipe, will be downstream of waste valves in each of the four Polo Grounds buildings. It will be covered in a two hour-rated, fire-resistant covering. The vacuum inside the pipe will extinguish most fires, but if burning material enters the pneumatic transport pipe, the equipment will shut off valves to contain the fire so it is not able to spread.

In addition to fire safety measures, new hopper doors will also have an interconnected locking mechanism so that, as needed, staff can lock hopper doors on all 30 floors from a touch screen at the base of the chute. The recycling rooms will be secured as discussed in the following response.

The recycling room door will be lockable. The room will also be covered by two CCTV cameras and will have bright LED lighting and a window so that the interior of the room is visible from the lobby. The plan calls for a key fob lock so that residents can use the same key that they use to enter the building to access the recycling room. The recycling room can be secured so that it is only accessed during certain hours. The final design for securing the room will be determined with property management and resident input.

Inside the new ground-floor recycling rooms, hopper doors will be ADA and wheelchair accessible. New hopper doors installed on each floor will be ADA accessible to the extent possible based on existing site conditions. Signage for people with blindness or vision impairment can be added.

The exact dimensions of the new hopper doors are still being determined. The goal is to increase the opening of the hopper doors so that 13-gallon kitchen trash bags will fit but include features to prevent bulky objects such as broom handles or rolls of carpeting from clogging the chute.

The gravity chute will be cleaned as needed. If the pneumatic transport pipes need to be cleaned, a procedure similar to cleaning sewer lines can be administered.

For safety reasons, NYCHA staff are not permitted to sort through material that falls down the existing trash chutes. Anything that is dropped down the chute would be lost. The same would be true after the pneumatic system is installed.

No. Chutes will be emptied automatically, multiple times a day, so trash will be continuously removed from the building. In addition, the system is completely sealed. The trash chute will connect directly to the transport pipe, which will connect directly to the container at the collection facility.