Decades of studies have found that waste services are not distributed equally across different communities in the United States. Robert Bullard’s book “Dumping in Dixie” first revealed how landfills and waste facilities were often located near Black communities due to discriminatory zoning and political neglect. More recent research has shown these patterns continue. For example, a 2019 study by Banzhaf and Timmins found that race and poverty remain closely linked to higher exposure to pollution (https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.33.1.185). Another study by Chien and Knoble in 2024 reported that New Jersey’s brownfields—properties left unused because of environmental contamination—are mostly found in low-income, predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods (https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2023.0032).
Basic sanitation services, such as access to public trash bins, play a major role in keeping communities clean. Research from Rossi et al. (2023) found that low-income areas with fewer public trash bins experienced more street litter (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2023.01.004). Similarly, Sprague et al. (2022) showed that richer, whiter neighborhoods in New York City received more trash bins than poorer neighborhoods, which got fewer (https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095107). This unequal distribution increases health risks and economic stigma for affected communities.
This trend is not limited to the U.S.; it also appears globally. Kubanza and Simatele documented long periods of uncollected trash in poorer districts of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2015.1038985), while Baabereyir et al.’s work found similar issues in low-income areas of Accra, Ghana (https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2012.678318).
Addressing these problems requires changes to policies, budgets, and priorities so all residents have equal access to sanitation infrastructure and fair enforcement of pollution laws.
“Because clean streets shouldn’t be a luxury,” the article states, “They should be the baseline, no matter your zip code.”
The article was written by Avianna Peterson, a former NJSPL summer intern and graduate student at Rutgers University.
