How to Dispose of Special Waste

Because heavy met­als are used to pro­duce elec­tron­ic equip­ment, under New York State law it’s ille­gal to throw away elec­tron­ics with oth­er garbage. Televisions, elec­tron­ic read­ers, scan­ners, print­ers, dig­i­tal music play­ers and oth­er equip­ment must be recy­cled by the man­u­fac­tur­ers. Electronics and oth­er spe­cial waste (see list below) can be dis­posed off safe­ly at spe­cial waste drop-off sites.

Special Waste Drop-Off Sites

The fol­low­ing items are accept­ed at DSNY spe­cial waste drop-off sites:

• • Batteries, includ­ing auto­mo­tive, recharge­able (such as small sealed lead acid bat­ter­ies, Li-Ion, Ni-MH, Ni-ZN, Ni-Cd) and sin­gle-use (such as alka­line and lithi­um pri­ma­ry). Follow instruc­tions below to pre­pare bat­ter­ies before arrival.
  • Motor oil and trans­mis­sion flu­id (up to 10 quarts per visit)
  • Motor oil fil­ters (up to two fil­ters per visit)
  • Fluorescent light bulbs & CFLs
  • Latex paint (up to five gal­lons per visit)
  • Mercury-con­tain­ing devices (up to two per visit)
  • Passenger car tires (up to four per visit)

Locations & Hours

• • Bronx: Hunts Point at Farragut Street and the East River, next to the Fulton Fish Market. Enter on Farragut Street, off Food Center Drive.
  • Brooklyn: Bensonhurst at 25th Avenue and Gravesend Bay, next to DSNY Brooklyn District 11 garage and the Adventurers Amusement Park, for­mer­ly known as Nellie Bly Amusement Park.
  • Manhattan: 74 Pike Slip between Cherry Street and South Street under the Manhattan Bridge
  • Queens: College Point at 30th Avenue, between 120th and 122nd Streets, at the north­west cor­ner of the DSNY Queens District 7 garage.
  • Staten Island: Located at the foot of Muldoon Avenue, off the Muldoon Avenue exit of the south­bound West Shore Expressway (440), adja­cent to the DSNY Staten Island District 3 garage.

The sites are open from 10 am to 5 pm every Saturday and the last Friday of the month. Sites are closed on legal hol­i­days, and may be closed dur­ing severe weather.

Rules & Procedures

DSNY drop-off sites are only for non-com­mer­cial mate­ri­als from NYC res­i­dents. When you arrive at the drop-off site, you’ll be required to show a valid NYS driver’s license and vehi­cle reg­is­tra­tion. If you aren’t arriv­ing by car, you can pro­vide a pic­ture ID and proof of res­i­den­cy, such as a phone or util­i­ty bill.

The drop-off loca­tion may not be imme­di­ate­ly vis­i­ble. If you have trou­ble find­ing the loca­tion, ask a DSNY garage fore­man or super­vi­sor at the site. DSNY offi­cials will be there to instruct you, but the sites are do-it-your­self style. Wearing casu­al clothes and work gloves is strong­ly recommended.

Special Instructions for Batteries:

To pre­vent the risk of fire, indi­vid­u­al­ly bag each non-alka­line bat­tery or use CLEAR tape to cov­er the ter­mi­nals. Do not use opaque tape and do not bag or tape alka­line batteries.

At the drop-off site, place each bat­tery into its des­ig­nat­ed col­lec­tion con­tain­er: alka­line, small sealed lead acid, auto, and “oth­er”.

Other Disposal Options

Retailers and man­u­fac­tur­ers accept cer­tain items in take-back pro­grams, includ­ing elec­tron­ics. In addi­tion, DSNY SAFE Disposal Events are held sev­er­al times a year in all five boroughs.