amny.com54%
Safe disposal, safe streets? Why NYC is spending $3 million to buy used syringes 17%
By Sadie Brown0%
7/20/2026, 9:15:13 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 10 faulty reasoning types, including False Dilemma, Fundamental Attribution Error, and Hasty Generalization, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 11.6% saturation with 80 hits. Analysis detected 460 faulty-reasoning hits from 689 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 33.3% and a BS Rank of 17% (15,825 of 19,035 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 83.10% of the article peer group.
The city’s program to incentivize the safe disposal of used syringes with small cash payments will continue with $3 million in funding in the 2027 adopted budget, according to budget documents.
The Community Syringe Redemption Program (CSRP) began in 2025 under former Mayor Eric Adams after the City Council, in 2022, approved legislation mandating that the city create a pilot program to provide financial rewards for returning hazardous needles, syringes and sharp instruments.
At the time, the bill’s sponsor, former City Council member Diana Ayala (D-Manhattan/Bronx), said that the problem of syringes in public spaces had left the council without other good options.
“It is better than the alternative that I have, which is allowing syringe litter to coexist in public spaces where someone can come in contact with that syringe litter,” she said during a hearing over the bill.
Dirty, used syringes strewn about public places have remained a stubborn problem, especially in several hot spots across the city.
Last year, Adams launched a large, multiagency cleanup effort of Roberto Clemente Plaza at “The Hub” in the South Bronx following months of public complaints and campaigning from local elected officials and small business leaders.
The city’s Sanitation Department has a special crew dedicated to syringe cleanup, but efforts like nonprofit syringe service programs, dedicated sharps collection locations in public parks and the syringe redemption program now give people who use drugs or concerned community members more ways of safely disposing of syringes.
White mobile vans operated by Addiction Response Resources rotate through eight locations in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, five days a week, targeting areas with high community need.
The initiative combines safe syringe disposal with harm reduction education; participants who are 18 years or older receive training on safe syringe collection before joining the program.
Participants are paid 20 cents per syringe, up to 50 syringes, meaning a person can make up to $10 a day collecting and returning the hazardous waste.
As part of enrollment, participants also learn about reporting injuries and how to use Naloxone to reverse an opioid overdose.
The current pilot contract, funded with more than $11 million, will run through the end of 2027.
City Hall has not yet responded to a request for comment.
In more than one year of operating in New York City, Addiction Response Resources has reported collecting more than 2 million syringes; by comparison, city officials reported that NYC Sanitation collected nearly 200,000 syringes in 2024.
Still, the program rubs some people the wrong way, with critics commonly expressing distaste for giving money to participants who may be drug users, although that is not a requirement of the program.
“All this is doing is putting money in the pockets of addicts, so they can continue to fuel their habits, rather than helping them break free of their disease," Queens City Council Member Joann Ariola told the New York Post, which reported about the program this weekend.
Addiction Response Resources has characterized the program and its impacts in a more positive light, sharing responses from program participants.
"This is a good thing for us," Addiction Response Resources quoted one person as saying. "Even if people don’t realize it, I’m taking care of my community by doing this.
The streets are safer and we’re cleaning things up.”
Syringe Redemption Sites
Rufus King Park, Queens
Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Borinquen Place, Brooklyn
Near Borinquen Overpass, under the BQE
8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Highbridge Park, Manhattan
West 180th Street and Amsterdam Avenue
Near the SHOW van on weekdays
Monday: 5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.
Thursday and Saturday: 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
St.
Mary's Park, Bronx
Trinity Avenue and East 147th Street
8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Monday, Saturday, Sunday
321 East Tremont Avenue
Front of shelter by hydrant
517 Courtlandt Avenue
Near hydrant on East 148th Street
Walter Gladwin Park, Bronx
Along the Cross Bronx Expressway
Near the Dunkin' Donuts
12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Thursday, Saturday, Monday
Kingsbridge Underpass, Bronx
2510 Valentine Avenue
Near the closed El Mundo Discount Department Store
Analysis
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