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Abandoned couch awaits pick up by sanitation in the Soho neighborhood of New York in December 1998. RICHARD B. LEVINE/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: lrphotos068735

By Frances Roberts and Richard Levine

I hate to say it but we love garbage. Not necessarily to take home (YUCK!) but at least to photograph. There’s something about seeing the detritus of human existence out on the street. What makes someone throw away something perfectly good or how did something get that bad that it took them that long to throw it out?

A discarded analog television set awaiting pick up by the sanitation department in New York on Friday,July 24, 2009. Because of the switch from analog to digital television some consumers are replacing their older sets rather than using a converter box. RICHARD B. LEVINE/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: lrphotos046473

Remember when we all switched over to digital television from analog? All of a sudden there were television sets sprouting on the street everywhere you looked. To this day old analog sets still appear every so often in the trash. We’re surprised that no one is running around collecting them for their own personal museum of obsolete technology (or maybe there is).

Pink polka-dot plastic trash bags are collected by the NYC Department of Sanitation in the trendy Meatpacking District in New York on Wednesday, September 10, 2008. A public art project of Adrian Kondratowicz, normal black plastic rubbish bags are exchanged for colorful, scented, polka-dot versions in the "Trash: Anycoloryoulike" project. Instead of being filled with black plastic, streets and neighborhoods become urban sculpture on collection day. FRANCES M. ROBERTS/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: lrphotos038970

This was actually part of a conceptual art piece, or maybe it was a performance piece, or maybe it was just sculpture. It was, however, mighty cute, and it’s a shame that someone hasn’t come out with this idea commercially (hear that Hefty!).

The uni-sex bathroom of the "alt.coffee cybercafe" in the East Village on February 8, 2001. The decorations show one use of outdated technology and match the ambience of the cafe's clientele which ranges from cyber geeks to East Village anarchists and everyone in between. FRANCES M. ROBERTS/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: lrphotos052205

This is something you really don’t want to do. In 2001 we suppose this was an appropriate use of old computer equipment but better to do this:

Unwanted electronics, including computers, monitors, televisions and other technology related gadgets, are collected at the Lower East Side Ecology Center's new Brooklyn e-waste warehouse, seen on Saturday, February 4, 2012. The group, which hosts recycling events throughout the city, has just opened its first permanent location in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn. RICHARD B. LEVINE/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: lrphotos067471

Recycle your obsolete or broken technology through a number of different places including this one, Lower East Side Ecology Center (which is now actually located in Brooklyn). Ooooh, look at all those MacPros’s. In the interest of full disclosure we have to admit that we once found an iMac in the trash, brought it home, and used it for several years until the power supply exploded (and yes we were fully backed up).

A dumpster filled with the detritus of Christmas sits in the utility area of an apartment building in NYC on the night of December 25, 2007. RICHARD B. LEVINE/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: lrphotos034804

Looks like someone had a very Merry Christmas. This was before the economy imploded and in the last four years there hasn’t been a collection of discarded boxes and wrapping paper like this since.

Litter collects on the subway tracks in New York on Saturday, April 7, 2012. FRANCES M. ROBERTS/Newscom. Find it on Newscom.com: lrphotos068661

We really couldn’t end this posting without at least one dig at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The people that bring you seemingly bizarre and random service disruptions. Littering is the biggest cause of track fires and you really shouldn’t throw your trash onto the track. But nonetheless it does get there and the MTA is actually supposed to pick it up. With all the service cuts I hope they are collecting these bottles and cans for the deposits.

Richard Levine and Frances Roberts, of Levine Roberts Photography, are a husband and wife team of photographers covering politics, environmental issues, the economy, business, and social and cultural issues in the Big Apple. See more photos from their collection on Newscom.

You may be interested in these other posts from Levine Roberts photography on FocalPoint:

What will become of rain?

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

The Symbolic Wedding Dress

Salute to the USPS