They barely make a dent in the amount of garbage here.
"The amount of garbage they have to keep in the basement, that brings mice," he said.
As the amount of garbage transported away has increased, so have the costs.
The amount of garbage in the refuse of an individual home can be reduced by garbage grinders, or garbage disposals.
Instead of residents paying for garbage collection through their property taxes, town leaders proposed the idea of each person being charged for the amount of garbage they produced.
The Bloomberg administration has set a goal of doubling the amount of garbage it diverts from landfills over the next five years.
The program has reduced the amount of garbage the two boroughs' schools send to landfills by 38 percent.
A few months ago, as he was driving around the city, Bloomberg was struck, unfavorably, by the amount of garbage he saw on the streets.
On a per capita basis, this is far lower than most developed countries, but the amount of garbage generated is growing fast.
The practice reduces the amount of garbage that goes to landfills or gets burned, while helping farmers lower their production costs.
