By Alexander Dworkowitz
In an attempt to combat overflowing trash in downtown Flushing City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) has secured new, larger garbage cans for the commercial hub’s bustling streets.
But while the new cans will provide more space for trash, the threat of fewer garbage pickups for Flushing still remains.
At a Friday meeting of city Department of Sanitation officials and Flushing community leaders, Liu announced that his office had appropriated $10,000 for the replacement of 14 standard issue garbage cans with larger Stanley cans.
“The key to making Flushing a destination of choice is making this place cleaner,” said Liu. “I think we can squeeze more out of the limited resources that we are faced with.”
The Stanley cans hold roughly twice as much trash as standard issue cans. They also weigh 230 pounds, making them more difficult to move or steal, and have a small opening in the top to prevent residents from throwing in full bags of trash. The cans open from the side for quick and neat trash removal.
There are currently 58 garbage cans between Northern Boulevard, Sanford Avenue, Prince and Union streets, the area Liu’s office studied. In March, the Sanitation Department added 10 additional cans in the area. The Stanley cans will simply replace existing smaller cans and will not increase the overall number of trash receptacles.
The cans are currently serviced 15 times a week, although that frequency could soon decline. The fate of the supplemental basket pickup service, which occurs everyday except Sunday in select city areas, is currently undetermined in the city budget.
Nevertheless, Liu, who had toured Flushing with City Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan) in March in an attempt to preserve the funding, was confident the funds would stay in the budget.
“I’m not that worried about the supplemental basket service,” he said.
Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty said some neighborhoods could use more than 15 pickups a week.
“Could we service them five times a day in some areas? Absolutely,” he said. “But it’s a matter of economics.”
At the meeting, Flushing business and community leaders also discussed a perennial problem in Flushing: the dumping of grease into the storm sewers by restaurants.
“You never see it,” Myra Herce, director of business affairs of the Flushing Chamber of Commerce, at the Friday meeting. “You don’t actually see the dumping going on.”
Doherty acknowledged the problem, and said the Sanitation Department would consider setting up a sting operation to catch people in the act.
Flushing community leaders also urged Doherty to make sure that businesses were familiar with regulations such as the 18-inch rule, which requires store owners to keep the sidewalks and 18-inch section in front of their business litter free.
“Many times you’ll come a year later and find new businesses that don’t know the rules,” said Herce.
Doherty acknowledged that there is room for improvement in dealing with Flushing’s trash.
“We’ve got a ways to go,” he said.
Reach reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 141.
