On June 21, Open House New York will take to the city’s waterways for a special boat tour highlighting the oft-overlooked role of our rivers and harbor in supporting the vast and complex infrastructural systems created to keep the city clean.

Speakers include:
Marty Bellew, retired Director of the Bureau of Waste Disposal, NYC Department of Sanitation
Alyssa Loorya, president and principal investigator, Chrysalis Archaeological Consultants
Robin Nagle, professor, NYU, and anthropologist-in-residence, NYC Department of Sanitation
Tom Outerbridge, general manager, Sims Municipal Recycling

The tour will traverse New York Harbor and the Hudson and East Rivers to illuminate the ways in which the waterways that have defined the city’s culture and economy have also played an outsized role in shaping the ways in which New Yorkers dispose of the things that they no longer want or need. From early landfilling practices that reshaped Lower Manhattan to the environmental battles that raged across the city in the last quarter of the 20th century, the stories told on this tour will transform the way that participants think about and understand the city’s waterfront.

This program is part of Getting to Zero: New York + Waste, a year-long series of tours and talks exploring New York City’s waste system organized by Open House New York.