Trash Cans finally removed from 18th Avenue corners

Now you see it….now you don’t!

Trash cans have finally been removed from the corners along 18thAvenue between 65th Street and Bay Ridge Parkway. – the final stageof a three-pronged pilot project whose goal is to stop residentsfrom throwing out their household waste in the public trashreceptacles.

The program kicked off on June 13, with the Department ofSanitation (DOS) providing outreach to residents and educating themon how to dispose of their household waste properly. The cans wereremoved on June 23.

Marnee Elias-Pavia, district manager of CB 11,said she was gladthat the cans were gone. I am happy that they are going throughwith the plan and finally coming to the point of removing themafter two weeks of waiting, she said. It’s also great that theneighborhood got 10 days of enforcement and education.

Some Bensonhurst residents like John DiMaio were also glad tosee the empty corners. I really hope the streets don’t get filledwith trash – with these windy weather conditions, things will justblow garbage from side to side, he said. But the program probablywill work – people just have to catch on.

James Trescelli was not quite as optimistic. They should havekept the trash cans, I am afraid people will just throw trash inthe street, he said. But I guess we will have to wait and see ifthe program will work.

This is not the first time that removing trash cans to solvegarbage problems on commercial strips has been tried. A successfulpilot project was previously implemented along Bath Avenue near theCB 11 office. In addition, trash cans were recently removed fromseveral locations along Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge; that projectwas declared to be largely successful by DOS, which is returningonly two of the 14 cans it removed.

DOS had not returned requests for comment as of press time.