Dennis Huang interned with the NYC Department of Sanitation in the summer of 2016. He was assigned to various supervisors and projects in different bureaus including Field Operations, Fleet Focus data entry, and analyzing vendor reports. Huang also attended intern speaker series that provided an overview of DSNY's divisions and operations from various chiefs. Overall, Huang explored many opportunities at DSNY and played an important role on projects that were sent to the NYC Mayor's office for approval.

1. Internship Reflection
Dennis Huang
Summer 2016

2. Reflection of DSNY Summer Internship 2016
Introduction: Job Title and Description
I began my internship with NYC Department of Sanitation on June 6, 2016 at Woodside, NY. There were
around 9 students in my orientation group; we were shown a brief slideshow on departmental guidelines, safety
hazards, and types of equipments and vehicles that Sanitation uses on a daily basis. We were led by a director
to tour the facility; along the tour I had been fascinated by all the equipment that were being used to repair
Sanitation vehicles, and other NYC government vehicles. I also saw a Dyno Laboratory that tested a vehicle’s
power which is called dynamometer. There was a Garbage truck that the lab technicians were measuring the
force of the vehicle by calculating the rotational speed on the “treadmill like” machinery. After the tour, we
were all directed to fill out a “contract” that we abide by the rules of the Sanitation Department. I was then led
to my supervisor Doug Luback, whom was the Director of Field Operations. The skills that were needed for the
duration of my internship were mostly computer based and administrative duties. The most important trait
throughout the internship was having good social skills. It is very important to be able to talk to different
people and to show myself being competent and confident at the Department of Sanitation. The most important
concept throughout the internship was gaining leadership ability.
My Supervisors
Yolanda Lujan, John Winnitzki, and Evadny Stuart
Internship duties and projects
In the duration of my internship, I had been assigned to Field Operations, the first two weeks started out
as a lethargic day. I helped out Yolanda with clerical tasks, such as photocopying papers and in-putting daily
employee timekeeping records. After two weeks, John Winnitzki from the Office of Support Services needed
me to work with him on a project. I was mostly assigned to enter data on NYC Sanitation vehicles that are in
violations of EZPASS tollbooth. I inputted the data into Fleet Focus, which is a system that tracks vehicles
license plates. I also arranged vehicle logs by checking for discrepancies in the hours of vehicle’s departure and
arrival. After a few weeks working with John, I have learned that Fleet Focus is an essential system which

3. allows departmental supervisors to track time logs of vehicles arriving and departing, and finds out if a vehicle
is in violations of EZPASS tollbooths, or traffic violations.
I was assigned to Fiscal Services- Bureau of Material Management; in the duration of my internship
Evadny was my supervisor. I was given the tasks of entering invoices, preparing vendor reports and analyzing
the reports for the Fiscal Year of 2016. I was later given a project of analyzing data from vendor reports from
2015-2016, known as a “crystal report”. I have found many discrepancies which I bought to my supervisor’s
attention. My supervisors and co-workers have to investigate the discrepancies in the reports. The discrepancies
are important because it allows for an accurate amount of purchasing from the Department of Sanitation.
DSNY Intern Field Trip
All the interns were given a chance to tour Syms Municipal Recycling Center and Red Hook Community
Farm. Sims Municipal Recycling Center is a facility in Brooklyn, NY that processes all of New York City
residential metal, glass and plastics. These materials are then sorted out into bails; which are then sold to other
manufacturers to produce new items such as juices, soda, windows, etc. Eadaoin Quinn, who guided us on a
tour of the recycling facility educated us about the process of how metal, glass and plastics are brought to the
facility. The garbage first goes to a transfer station in either Bronx or Queens to discard the recyclable materials
into a barge which is then brought to Sims Municipal Recycling Center. Inside the facility there is an array of
machinery that sorts out the materials by using an optical scanner. These machineries are used to double check
on which materials belong where, along with a few workers to triple check the materials. Eadaoin stated that
“ferrous metals cost more than non-ferrous metals.” Outside, the facility uses renewable energy sources such as
wind turbines and solar panels to produce electricity and allows the waterway to produce a cleaner atmosphere.
Eadaoin told us that Brooklyn has polluted waterways such as the Gowanus Canal. Brooklyn’s residential
wastes are being dumped into the Gowanus Canal which provides a mephitic smell throughout the whole
surrounding communities. Some of the contaminations in the Canal are washed up to shore which provides a
safety hazard in humans and animals.

4. Our next stop was to the Red Hook Community Farm, this farm grows it’s own crops using compost
materials such as food scraps. They use worms to help the compost, because it helps increase the amount of air
and water which gets in the soil. They leave things behind such as worm castings which is useful to the
fertilizer.
DSNY Intern Speaker Series Part 1
On July 15th, 2016, I went to the first Speaker Series Event hosted by DSNY Intern program coordinator.
The first speaker was Commissioner Garcia whom, she welcomed us into the agency and spoke about an
overview of the agency and the divisions. After the overview from the commissioner, Chief Michael Arney was
the next speaker that spoke about the Collection Bureau. He showed us a PowerPoint slide which gave us a
grasp of what the Collection Bureau does on a daily basis. Recycling began during the 1970’s. There were 10
collection services the bureau maintain daily; the New Collection Service allows garbage trucks to travel to new
housing/ non for profit organizations that requests collection/recycling services. Profee Collection Service
requires a permit and fee to pay for picking up refuse at professional offices such as NY State Physicians,
dentists, accountants and lawyers.
The Tire Disposal Program collects abandoned tires, during the fiscal year of 2015 the Sanitation
department collected 49,035 tires. The Household Waste program allows families to attend disposal events
throughout the city, certain materials have to be discarded at the yearly disposal events. CFC Removal Program
allows Sanitation workers to collect refrigerators that have a label provided by a technician. CFC stands for
chloro-fluoro carbons. CFC can be harmful to humans and the environment. The program collected roughly
37,343 CFC materials, some of the CFC materials include: freezers, air conditioners and dehumidifiers. The
next service is Public Space Recycling, which implements more litter baskets around the city, in total the city
has placed 36,000 baskets. During the winter season, Sanitation has a Christmas Tree Collection program;
during fiscal year 2015, 214899 Christmas Trees were collected and then delivered to NYC Parks for
composting. Derelict Bicycle Removal program provides abandoned bikes to be removed. The NYC
Department of Transportation along with the NYC Department of Sanitation tags bicycles and recycle them.

5. Around 1,169 bicycles were picked up during the fiscal year of 2015. ERD Collection Program (Emergency
Response Division) provides assistance during emergency events such as Hurricane Sandy and Irene. The ERD
Collection team goes to devastated areas and remove and clean up debris. After Hurricane Sandy’s destruction
the Department of Sanitation provided support to devastated areas such as the Rockaway. The last service is the
Special Passover Collection which is similar to snow removal, people that celebrate Passover usually throws out
tons of refuse. Chief Arney stated that the highest peak of collections is during the month of June. During each
work shift, Sanitation workers have to fill out a DS 350 form for garbage truck inspections before heading for
collection routes. This provides a safe environment for the whole community.
The next speaker was Chief Michael Siracusano and Anthony Pompeo of Operations Management
Division. The Operations Management Division is basically an analytical division within Sanitation. Their role
is to provide safety and efficiency during the Snow season. The office uses GPS to map out different areas; each
garbage trucks, plow trucks, and salt spreaders are equipped with GPS allowing members of the Operations
Management Division to track every movement and see whether streets are plowed. I have spoken with Chief
Siracusano on and one on one interview about the overview of the division. In the past Sanitation categorizes
roads into Primary, Secondary and Tertiary roads. However this method was really slow and caused mayhem
after the snow fall. The department now categorizes roads into Critical, Sector and Haulsters. With the new
method, every road is plowed at the same time without any drivers having to overlap other vehicle routes. Each
route is concentrated into one district, instead of having a truck move into another district. However some
trucks have to pass other streets in order to plow on the next streets, this is called “dead-headed”. Critical streets
are main roads, such as highways, bridges, tunnels, and bus routes. Sector streets are roads with schools,
hospitals, and side streets that most vehicles have to pass in order to move on to a critical street. Haulsters are
narrow streets which are used by smaller plows instead of regular plows on trucks. The division also has
programs which allows color coding on streets that are plowed or not plowed. Red, and yellow colors on the
screen tells the supervisors and members of the division that it is bad and need to be addressed. Blue and Green
on the screen tells that the streets are good. Approximately the trucks travels 30 min to an hour on critical and
sector streets. Trucks travels on more time when they plow haulster streets due to less and tight spaces.

6. The next speaker was Chief Edward Grayson, of Snow Operations Division. He states that during a snow
storm it is a critical process to plow all streets so emergency and police vehicles can pass through. The process
of snow removal is extremely easy. Plows are equipped with calcium chloride and water because it will dissolve
the snow if you add water. If Sanitation didn’t plow the streets of New York City, there will be a $700,000,000
cost of losing money. I have watched a documentary that Chief Grayson introduced us to, called “The Anatomy
of Snow Days”. The final speaker was Chief Todd Kuznitz from the Bureau of Waste Disposal. He states that
10,000 ton of wastes are disposed each day. Overall the speaker series event was informative and I have learned
about the department that I’ve never thought of or imagine the complexity of the different bureaus.
DSNY Intern Speaker Series Part 2
On July 29th, 2016, I went to the second speaker series event. The first speaker was Vito Turso, Public
Affairs Deputy Director. He talked about the division, which deals constantly with news outlet, community
board and update social media websites with the latest news and events that goes on throughout the department.
The Public Affairs bureau would like to remind the public to keep the city safe and clean.
The next speaker was Dr. Robin Nagle, an visiting anthropologist talked about the history of the
Department of Sanitation and how it grew. In 1654 Peter Stuyvesant implemented the solid waste plan which
allowed New Amsterdammers to dump solid waste at specific points along Manhattan shore. Many settlers
discarded waste on Pearl and Wall Street. The Dutch settlers built the Heere Gracht (Gentleman’s Canal) which
was the largest canal in lower Manhattan. During 1880’s, New York City was the “filthiest city” due to
discarded waste on streets and the Manhattan shoreline. The mortality rate in New York City was the same as
the Medieval Period. During 1855, the Harper Weekly titled their front pages New York City’s Unhealthiest.
The first Commissioner of the Department of Sanitation was Colonel George E. Waring who was also a
Civil War General. Before the Department of Sanitation was named Department of Street Cleaning. George E.
Waring was an advocate of the sewer system that keeps domestic sewage separate from storm runoff. His
notable implementation was the Memphis Sewer system. During the earlier time periods, sanitation workers
were dressed in all white which symbolizes the medical/public health profession. Another reason that the

7. sanitation workers dressed in all white was to prevent them to go to the pub while on work. Throughout the
years during the appointment of Colonel Waring, he created a clean city within 1-2 months. In order to clean up
the city, Waring proposed to citizens to dump wastes into scalls (barges). Italian workers were working on the
scalls which was racial because the job was designed for Italians. As time passed, the city was in an economic
crisis during the early 1900’s. During 1907-1911 the strike of Collections were caused by the economic crisis
and the Stock Market Crash. In conclusion, Robin Nagle ended the speech with women hired as sanitation
workers during 1986 and her first career started out as a Sanitation worker.
The next speaker was Chief of Cleaning Operations Paul Visconti. Chief Visconti talked about the
different vehicles used for cleaning. Mechanical brooms are the main vehicles used in cleaning; on average 200
mechanical brooms are used daily. The Bureau of Cleaning Operations had 96% scores on yearly inspections to
see how clean New York City streets are. The bureau also conducts homeless cleanups, where homeless are
moved into shelters. The next speaker was Bob Elliot, Support Services Supervisor, he showed us different
types of vehicles from the early 1910 to present day. The vehicles throughout the time dramatically changed to
more efficient and advanced vehicles.
The final speaker was Spiro Kattan, Fleet Director, Spiro talked about the current efficient vehicles. The
Department of Sanitation vehicles are hybrid vehicles that provides a cleaner environment. Regular vehicles use
up a lot of fuel and emit gas into the environment, however hybrid vehicles use less fuel and doesn’t emit gas
into the environment. Spiro concluded that organic food waste can be processed into fuel and the department is
putting more hybrid vehicles in the Sanitation’s fleet.
Internship Conclusion
Overall, throughout the duration of my internship with DSNY I had explored many opportunities within
the department and networked with co-workers and other departmental employees. I played an important role
during my internship, such as working on multiple projects which in conclusion was sent to the NYC Mayor’s
office for approval I will continue to use my knowledge at DSNY and explore it to other career opportunities.