State lawmakers reached an agreement yesterday allowing the city to move forward with plans for a recycling transfer station on Manhattan’s Gansevoort peninsula near 14th Street. The step may do more to reduce traffic than any other measure passed during the latest legislative session, which wrapped up this morning.

The Gansevoort station is part of the city’s Solid Waste Management Plan. By requiring each borough to handle its own trash, the plan is projected to reduce truck traffic within the city by about 3.5 million miles per year, in total. Areas that handle a disproportionate amount of the city’s waste and the attendant truck traffic — and suffer higher asthma rates as a result — stand to see the greatest relief. As Mobilizing the Region noted last month, the opening of a Manhattan recycling station will mean fewer trucks fanning out to the Bronx, Brooklyn, and New Jersey.

Because the Gansevoort station is slated for a site on the Hudson River Park, state approval was required. Speaker Sheldon Silver had blocked the station last October at the behest of three Manhattan Assembly members. This time around, provisions were included to set aside future park funding and assure public access to the Hudson River Greenway during construction.

Photo: anazzarophotography/Flickr