Waste Pioneer: Chief Jeff Pitts, Chief of Cleaning Operations, The NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY)
During our NYC Big Spring Clean, here’s your chance to learn about DSNY’s “Trash Revolution" from a 25-year veteran: Chief of Cleaning Operations Jeff Pitts
Cleaning up New York City takes a village: it requires all of us to participate, collaborate, take out the trash and recycling correctly, and stop littering. But more than anything, it also requires the hard work of the nearly 10,000 members of the Sanitation workforce who work day and night behind-the-scenes to pick up after our parties, our parades, and our daily disposables. (The latter amounts to a lot: New York City reportedly produces more than 14 million tons of waste every year.)
Behind this extensive cleaning operation is also the dedicated management of our honorable Sanitation Chiefs, who orchestrate the constant flow of litter pickups, street sweeps, and litter basket emptying. If you’ve ever wanted to know what it takes to manage 10,000 employees and thousands of trucks and street sweepers in order to clean up 24 million pounds of trash a day left behind by 8.5 million residents and nearly 62 million tourists each year, here’s your chance!
As part of our Waste Pioneer Series, The Sanitation Foundation is honored to introduce longtime waste pioneer Chief Jeff Pitts, DSNY’s Chief of Cleaning Operations.
Chief Pitts has committed his career to keeping New York City clean, safe, and healthy. If you don’t already know him, well, he’s kind of a big deal! On January 5th 2024, Mayor Adams commemorated “Chief Pitts Day,” recognizing Chief Pitts as a good Samaritan for his contributions to the city, especially after Chief Pitts helped reunite a lost boy with his family. As Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch puts it, “Chief Pitts is a mensch and a public servant in the truest sense of the phrase. On and off the job, Chief Pitts exemplifies the best of us. He is a blessing to our city.”
Chief Pitts starts the workday at 5 am, but in the midst of his busy schedule managed to give us some time to explain to us what it really takes to clean up after many millions of people, in 339 neighborhoods, across 59 community districts covering all of New York’s five dense and sprawling boroughs.
“Cleaning NYC is a 24/7 operation”
If becoming an expert is said to require 10,000 hours of work and practice, Chief Pitts has certainly clocked in his! He has been with DSNY for 25 years, beginning his career in 1999 as a Sanitation Worker in West Harlem. When he started on the job, he quickly came to realize DSNY does more for New York City than he ever imagined, even though he grew up in New York and knew that the City generated a lot of garbage and litter.
Starting as an entry level Sanitation Worker, Chief Pitts got the firsthand cleaning experience of sweeping the streets with a broom and shovel, emptying litter baskets, and collecting trash. Additionally, he came to know the hustle and grueling work behind servicing heavy bags of trash and recycling — especially in West Harlem, where there is an abundance of large apartment buildings producing an astoundingly high volume of waste.
That’s when he realized just how much trash and litter needed to be removed every day in New York — and how cleaning it up required a ton of work. Chief Pitts points out that a DSNY collection truck can hold 22,000 lbs. of trash. (Can you imagine picking up 22,000 lbs. of trash on a single shift? And, isn’t that almost two tons of work?)
“It gave me a new level of respect for DSNY. I saw that we provided a vital service to the City,” he says.
Chief Pitts loves the job. He has held various titles, having been promoted to Supervisor in 2004, Superintendent in 2007, and Deputy Chief in 2012. He then served as the Assistant Chief to the Director of the Bureau of Cleaning and Collection from 2021 until 2022, when Commissioner Tisch named him Chief of Cleaning Operations. His journey has taken him from sweeping litter on single streets to being responsible for all cleaning resources citywide.
“It gave me a new level of respect for DSNY. I saw that we provided a vital service to the City,” he says.
Trash Revolution, Trash Solutions
As Chief of Cleaning Operations, Chief Pitts is an instrumental member of the team spearheading the Trash Revolution, which he describes as “an approach to get people both inside and outside of our agency more involved in helping make the City a cleaner place.” The aim is to transform New York’s streetscape by removing more trash than ever — making New York the cleanest it has ever been.
“Our goal is to provide on-time service and maximize the use of existing resources. The faster we are able to identify and address a litter condition, we hope it would be less likely to reoccur,” he says.
Chief Pitts’ Cleaning Operations Unit oversees all critical aspects to this goal. He and his team are hard at work devising many new creative innovations in cleaning management. They have implemented a new Targeted Neighborhood Task Force that targets cleaning previously neglected areas which were difficult to service, such as underpasses, dead ends, and service roads. These locations are tracked and monitored to ensure routine service. Additionally, they have acquired and streamlined a designated team to clean up graffiti, and started a first-ever Highway Operations Unit to clean up the City’s 31 highways. Chief Pitts’ unit is also tasked with cleaning up before and after all major weather events like snow and floods.
To track the effect of these new initiatives, Commissioner Tisch forged the development of Trash Dash, a new internal system which allows DSNY to track 311 complaints, identify patterns, and address issues. Weekly meetings are held with the District Superintendents to discuss data generated and how improvements can be made.
DSNY has also implemented an increase in street sweeping. Chief Pitts calls street sweeping, a.k.a. the mechanical brooms, his department’s “first line of defense.” He manages the team that deploys over 1,100 mechanical brooms a week. They service all the curb lines along the streets (with street cleaning rules and regulations) and all open areas including bus stops.
Chief Pitts’ unit services 23,000 litter baskets around the city, with the goal of servicing commercial strips and transit hubs at least twice a day.
Chief Pitts’ unit services 23,000 litter baskets around the city.
The Cleaning Operations Unit is also responsible for cleaning up after special events in the City — including the big ones like the Thanksgiving Parade and New Year’s Eve in Times Square. New Year’s Eve is Chief Pitts’ favorite event to clean up, and he has taken part in cleaning up the confetti for 12 consecutive years.
“New Year’s is an enormous undertaking. Over 200 Sanitation Workers and 150 pieces of equipment are deployed to remove the confetti and trash after the biggest party in the world. It's very fulfilling to see that operation happen.”
Across these events, he reports that every year, DSNY cleans up about 50 tons of trash left behind by 2 million people. He’s very proud of this, but he laments that most people don’t realize the massive cleanup effort that goes on after a big event ends! By daybreak, you would never notice that an event of that magnitude took place just a few hours prior.
Take Notice, and Do Your Part
Chief Pitts hopes that people will begin to recognize the hard work that DSNY does around the clock to remove trash in NYC.
“If you put your waste out for collection, or use the litter baskets, they're gone or empty by the time you leave for work in the morning. You really don't think, ‘How did it get emptied?’ You just expect it to be empty. People see what hasn't been done, not so much what was done.”
Pitts gives a lot of credit to DSNY’s Bureau of Public Affairs for helping raise new and necessary awareness documenting the impacts of the Agency’s ceaseless efforts on social media. He notes how “Before and After” photos help New Yorkers understand how DSNY takes action and makes a difference every day.
Social media also helps engage the public, encouraging them to participate in keeping the City clean.
“We want to get everyone involved. We want the public to know that getting your City clean is a joint effort. Everyone has a role, whether it's picking up the piece of paper you dropped on the sidewalk, not leaving the household garbage at the corner, or placing your waste out in a bin with a secure lid to prevent rats.”
(Speaking of preventing rats, DSNY unveiled a new style of litter basket that is not only better looking, and larger in capacity, but it is also rat-proof.)
Chief Pitts emphasizes the importance of continuing to educate people about the work of DSNY. The Sanitation Foundation offers education programs for adults and youth, and DSNY also participates in Career Days at schools — teaching kids about street cleaning, collection truck operation, and the amount of waste that gets picked up.
Pitts wants New Yorkers to realize that DSNY is a 24-hour, 365 day/year operation. But DSNY needs everyone to do their part, too. That means: no littering! It could also mean getting involved by organizing a Community Cleanup. (The Sanitation Foundation makes this easy to do. Get in touch with us! And be sure to join us for the NYC Big Spring Clean!)
Superheroes of the Curb
Responding to 311 complaints, tracking every single truck, analyzing endless data, implementing and enforcing policies is no small feat, but it’s an exciting one.
“When you love what you do, it’s not a job. I love what I do.”
Sometimes, Chief Pitts still misses his original post as a Sanitation Worker picking up the trash.
“I miss driving a truck. I miss picking up garbage, I miss picking up recycling, I miss fighting snow. It's fun, it's really fun! When you're behind a truck, we've been called the ‘superheroes at the curb.’ It feels like that at times, especially when you enter a block and there's mounds of garbage and then when you leave, it's clean. Or if you come to a location and there's a fence line filled with litter and debris, and then it's gone. You see that you had a direct impact on that situation.”
“The team at DSNY are true superheroes. From the Sanitation Workers and other personnel working in the field, to the executive staff working behind the scenes, we are all part of one team.”
“The team at DSNY are true superheroes. From the Sanitation Workers and other personnel working in the field, to the executive staff working behind the scenes, we are all part of one team.”
As we’ve said, thank your Sanitation Worker. But we’d like to also thank their Chiefs. And thank you, Chief Pitts!