DSNY Premieres 'Beyond the Rubble,' The Story of Sanitation and Recovery After 9/11

September 29, 2026

To honor the work of Sanitation employees who served at Ground Zero and Fresh Kills after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the New York City Department of Sanitation premiered a new documentary at The Cooper Union. "Beyond the Rubble," shares extensive, on-the-ground archival footage and first-hand interviews of DSNY employees from the weeks and months following the attacks. The documentary is now available online.

"Over the last 25 years, and especially in recent weeks, many 9/11 stories have been told, stories of grief, of heroism and of sacrifice," said Sanitation Commissioner Gregory Anderson. "With this documentary, we present an important part of the 9/11 story, that of the men and women of DSNY who stepped up immediately. They worked 12-hour shifts, many for seven days a week, for weeks without a single day off, hauling debris from Ground Zero, unloading barges at Fresh Kills and working to bring whatever sense of normalcy they could to New Yorkers who felt anything but. To date, more than 150 members of the DSNY family who worked selflessly in those months after 9/11 have died of illnesses related to their work, and countless more have battled illness. I invite all New Yorkers to watch this documentary so that we can all understand, remember and honor the work and sacrifices of New York's Strongest."

Immediately following the premiere, DSNY Anthropologist-in-Residence Robin Nagle, Ph.D, clinical professor of anthropology and environmental studies in New York University's School of Liberal Studies, led a panel discussion with retired Solid Waste Management Director Martin (Marty) Bellew, retired Chief of Bureau Operations Bernard (Buddy) Sullivan, and retired Supervisors Andrew Rezin and John Labarbera as they discussed their personal experiences during the cleanup efforts.

In addition to removing 3.2 billion pounds of debris from the World Trade Center site in the months following the attacks, Sanitation also provided fuel for all vehicles working at Ground Zero, cleaned the streets and washed away dust throughout Lower Manhattan, and even removed rotting food from abandoned buildings, office cafeterias, and restaurants in the days following the attacks – all while continuing to pick up the trash every single day from every neighborhood across the five boroughs. The Department's work at Ground Zero continued until June 7, 2002.
 
Much of the material removed from the site was carefully placed onto barges and sent across the harbor to Fresh Kills. There, a forensic team that included NYPD and the FBI sifted material down to a quarter-inch mesh sieve. Working together, this team helped to identify and recover more than 54,000 personal items and the remains of more than 300 victims of the attacks. DSNY's work assisting in the largest crime scene investigation in history continued until July 26, 2002.

Five years ago, DSNY dedicated its first memorial to the employees who had died of 9/11-related illnesses, with a plaque bearing their names in the lobby of the Department's headquarters at 125 Worth Street. But tragically, that initial memorial quickly became too small to list the growing number of men and women who have died of 9/11-related illnesses. On this year's Sept. 11 anniversary, the Department unveiled a new memorial on the façade of DSNY's Spring Street garage in lower Manhattan where it can be viewed by the public.

View the full documentary and related panel discussion.

Press Release #26-41