The environmental impact of the pandemic: why New York is mired in trash

While New York continues to fight the pandemic COVID-19, and townspeople are forced to stay at home, the sanitation department's budget has been cut more than $ 100 million. As a result, the streets of the metropolis are mired in debris that attracts rats and raccoons. The details are shared by the publication PIX11.

New York City is facing the environmental impact of the coronavirus pandemic - trash is lying on the streets and trash cans are overflowing. Tacia Maxwell from Queens said she needs to walk past mountains of garbage on the way home. “This is disgusting,” she said, adding that in her area, most of the trash has accumulated along 95th Avenue, behind the Alvista Towers.

“Among the discarded items you can see everything from trash bags to used medical masks and gloves. In some places there is a lot of rubbish, and no one takes it away, ”Anselm Dickson complains.

The trash cans are also filled to the top, because most of the residents stay at home due to the pandemic. Complicating matters is the recent cut in the Department of Sanitation's budget by more than $ 100 million, said Kathryn Garcia, Commissioner for the New York City Department of Sanitation. “We produce more waste and recycle more than before the pandemic,” she said. The department's primary focus for the immediate future is to provide New Yorkers with the services they are accustomed to receiving.

Of the 6300 sanitary workers across the city, 641 have tested positive for COVID-19 and seven have died from the virus, according to the Department of Sanitation. “There was a time when I thought I would have enough sanitary workers to get the job done every day,” Garcia said.

Now the infection rate in New York continues to decline, but the pandemic has not yet receded. Therefore, used surgical masks on city streets have already become a trend. And here we are talking not only about the fact that such garbage is harmful to the environment, it also poses a danger to the health of ordinary citizens and sanitary workers. “You should never throw used masks on the ground or in the trash can, we encourage you to put them in bags and throw them away to keep the orderlies safe,” Garcia said.

Also, the Sanitation Department was reminded: property owners are obliged to keep the sidewalks (the area protruding 45 centimeters into the street) near their houses clean.

On the subject: Moskvich shared his impressions of New York: dirty, noisy, crowded

Edition Daily Mail in turn writes about another problem associated with garbage on city streets. Garbage bags filled with food leftovers, cans and bottles often do not fit in bins, so the townspeople simply put them on the sidewalks. This attracts rats and raccoons: dead rats were found among the debris, and raccoons were seen crawling out of the tanks.

It was after the Sanitation Department's budget cuts that garbage collection was cut by 60%, according to CBS 2 New York. The publication has published many photographs, which eloquently indicate that the metropolis is mired in mud and needs attention.

For example, residents of Manhattan (the situation is especially unfavorable in Soho, in the very center of the borough), Brooklyn (especially in Gravesend), Brooklyn (the situation is worst in Flatbush), the source notes.

The city is facing huge shortages and needs significant cost cuts, according to the health commissioner. “We have far fewer resources than in the previous fiscal year,” she said.

There is a lot more trash in the city today than there was before the pandemic, she says. “Our trucks fill up very quickly as we drive the route in some areas because people are at home,” she said.

As sanitary workers continue to keep New York City clean, the City is asking New Yorkers to do their part too - stop littering and help keep the city clean.

Recall that earlier, after the opening of summer terraces, restaurants in New York also complained about the invasion of rats and asked the authorities for help.