NJ Communities Spotlight: The Trouble with Neighborhood Trash
Decades of research show a clear pattern that waste services are not always distributed equally amongst states, municipalities, townships, and even residents. Robert Bullard’s Dumping in Dixie first exposed the history of how landfills and waste facilities were often placed near Black communities in the U.S., not by accident, but through discriminatory zoning and political neglect. More recent studies confirm that this is still an ongoing phenomenon. For example, Banzhaf and Timmins (2019) show how race and poverty remain tied to increased pollution exposure, while Chien and Knoble (2024) found New Jersey’s brownfields (abandoned or unused properties due to the presence of environmental contaminations) are concentrated in low-income, predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods.
In the U.S., basic sanitation services play just as big a role in community cleanliness as where waste is ultimately disposed. Rossi et al. (2023) found low-income areas with fewer public trash bins were likely to have more instances of street litter, while Sprague et al. (2022) found the same pattern in New York City, where richer, whiter neighborhoods received more trash bins, and poorer neighborhoods received fewer. This infrastructure inequity in turn increases health risks, reinforces economic stigma, and signals to residents that the state of their neighborhoods matter less.
This same pattern of marginalized communities bearing the brunt of waste management can be seen globally as well. Kubanza and Simatele (2015) documented weeks-long trash buildup in poorer districts in Kinshasa, the capital and largest city within Democratic Republic of the Congo, while Baabereyir et al. (2012) found low-income communities in Accra, Ghana, were used as dumping grounds. Addressing these issues is not a simple matter and cannot be solved in a single day.
Communities must be willing to address disparities in their policies, budgets, and priorities in order to address equal access to sanitation infrastructure, fair enforcement of polluting laws, and other waste-related decisions. Because clean streets shouldn’t be a luxury. They should be the baseline, no matter your zip code.
Read on New Jersey State Policy Lab
References:
Baabereyir, A., Jewitt, S., & O’Hara, S. (2012). Dumping on the poor: The ecological distribution of waste, unequal exposure and environmental injustice in Accra, Ghana. Local Environment, 17(5), 437–454. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2012.678318
Banzhaf, H. S., & Timmins, C. (2019). Environmental justice: The economics of race, place, and pollution. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 33(1), 185–208. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.33.1.185
Bullard, R. D. (1990). Dumping in Dixie: Race, class, and environmental quality. Westview Press.
Chien, Y., & Knoble, J. (2024). Uneven burdens: Brownfields, pollution, and socioeconomic disparities in New Jersey. Environmental Justice, 17(2), 145–158. https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2023.0032
Kubanza, N. S., & Simatele, D. (2015). Social and environmental injustices in solid waste management in sub-Saharan Africa: A study of Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Local Environment, 21(7), 866–882. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2015.1038985
Rossi, M. S., Johnson, L. E., & Chen, P. (2023). Understanding the factors affecting the quantity and composition of street litter. Waste Management, 165, 45–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2023.01.004
Sprague, N. L., Gobaud, A. N., Mehranbod, C. A., Morrison, C. N., Branas, C. C., & Jacobowitz, A. L. (2022). Overflowing Disparities: Examining the Availability of Litter Bins in New York City. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(9), 5107. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095107