The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) is responsible for the mass transit needs of the greater New York City area. As part of its services, the MTA operates more than 6,000 train cars over 800 miles of track. Those 6,500-plus vehicles have a lifespan of thirty to forty years before they wear out and are no longer viable for use.
Then they go to sleep with the fishes.
Really.
For decades, the MTA has been running a program to turn disused subway cars into artificial reefs, situated off the Mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The MTA pays to remove the doors, wheels, and windows from each train car, as well as clean off any hazardous materials (such as some petroleum-based lubricants), which federal law prohibits from being dumped into the ocean. Then the cars—more than 1,500 of them—are shipped off to New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia. Once there, the cars are loaded onto barges equipped with specialized cranes and dumped into the ocean just a few miles off shore.
In doing so, the MTA and its partners have not only managed to find an environmentally sound way of disposing of these hulking transports but also revitalized the Atlantic fishing industry. Before the subway cars landed in the Atlantic, the relatively barren waterways weren’t a good place for fish to hang out, as natural predators could easily hunt them down in the open water. That changed when the trains arrived. As one Delaware official told Reuters, “a 600-car reef in that state’s waters had increased the local fish population by 400 times, and boosted the number of angling trips to 13,000 a year from 300 before the reef was created.” As an added benefit, crab, mussels, and shrimp also have begun to colonize on many of the reefs.
Many of those concerned about the environment and the ecology of the oceans are fans of these artificial reefs. While there have been some problems, most notably in New Jersey where some cars deteriorated faster than expected, these projects are generally seen as a resounding success. In 2007, according to a report by transit blog Second Avenue Sagas, train cars that had been submerged for nearly a decade and a half were still 67 percent intact.
In part because of these successes, other man-made items have been tossed to the bottom of the sea in hopes of creating a similar home for fish and their friends. Perhaps the most notable example: in May 2006, the U.S. Navy intentionally sank the long-decommissioned USS Oriskany, a 900-foot-long aircraft carrier. It now sits on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola. Not only is it a great place for marine life, but if you’re a recreational diver, it’s close enough to shore that you can go pay it a visit.
In a previous bonus fact we discussed the odd correlation between the price of a pizza slice in New York City and the price of a Big Apple subway ride. However, the fate of a pizza box and a subway car couldn’t be more different. While subway cars are recycled, as noted previously, pizza boxes often can’t be. According to the city’s sanitation department, cardboard (and for that matter, paper) that is contaminated with food should go into the trash, as “the food particles, greases, and oils leave residues that are contaminants and aren’t recyclable.”