Trash cans on Bedford?

A reader tells us:

I have been living in PLG for about 2 years now and walk my dog up and down Bedford from Lincoln to Winthrop and there are absolutely no trash cans to dispose of his potty bags. There is one that sometimes appears on the corner of Winthrop and Bedford but sometimes it's nowhere to be found. I would walk him on Flatbush if it weren't for all the broken glass on the ground... There is also a growing amount of people who don't pick up after their dog's and I'm wondering if the lack of trash cans has an influence on the matter.

Ah, the disappearing municipal trash can... I wish we had an answer for why the trash cans on city corners go missing. The trash can on the corner of Hawthorne & Flatbush similarly disappeared a couple of weeks ago—not that that stopped people from dumping their junk in its place. One genius even left a couple of boxes of apartment trash that had his name and address on them. I snapped this photo last week.

If a trash can on a corner goes missing, call 311 and request that the Department of Sanitation replace it. I did last week and the trash can on Flatbush & Hawthorne is back. You could request trash cans on Bedford as well.

Comments

[babs]

Often the trash cans are expressly removed -- they were taken away from the corner of Lefferts and Rogers about a year ago by the DoS due to "overuse."

[LM]

The wire trash cans are often stolen for use as containers to burn trash in. Also, the cost of metal being what it is, these are valuable "recyclables" for thieves.

[Bob M]

The Dept. of Sanitation removed all the litter baskets on Bedford Ave. in Lefferts Manor [and probably the rest of PLG] almost a year ago. Shortly after this was done, I asked a Sanitation spokesperson the reason and was told it was because we had "abused" them. Abusing a litter basket sounds like some sort of terrible un-natural act to me, but I think he meant that people had been throwing household trash into them. Removing the baskets was IMO a typically inept bureaucratic response.

[carrie]

I don't know that I'd blame the Dept of Sanitation for removing the trash cans, at least as a short-term solution. I forget how much it costs to maintain a public trash can, but it's a LOT more than you'd think. That money doesn't fall from the sky. And if there is an unusual number of people dumping personal trash in them, there's no easy way to stop them.

When this subject came up on the Lefferts list last year, I suggested that neighbors on affected blocks place their private trash cans close to the sidewalk so that, when public cans go missing, pedestrians can throw trash in them... no one seemed willing or interested in doing that, however.

[Bob M]

In a perfect world Carrie, your idea would be a good public-pirited one; in the City of New York, the homeowners would be fined when passers-by put recyclables in their trash cans--more proof that no good deed goes unpunished.

Also,I find it strange that the dept.of Sanitation thinks it makes sense to remove litter baskets because people USE them, or, in bureaucratic doublespeak, "overuses' them.

[carrie]

We've kept our trash cans close to the sidewalk for the two years since we've lived here. Sure, people throw empty cans and bottles in there but probably no more than 1 or 2 a week, so removing them and placing them in our recycling bag isn't terribly complicated or time consuming. (And I'd much rather have people toss stuff in our trash than leave it in the street.)

But let's not get caught up in the details. My larger point is that people who aren't willing to take on minor inconveniences for the common good deserve the kind of "inept" government they end up with.

[jessica]

Personally, I would like to know WHY people put their household trash in the public trash cans.

There is a trash can outside the deli on my corner (Rutland & Rogers) and it frequently gets bags of household trash piled up next to it.

I don't get it. Residential trash pick-up happens three times a week around here, and it's free. Sanitation picks up residential trash one building down from the deli. I can understand large items (which are only picked up once a week) but what is the story with the smaller bags of kitchen trash?

What's up with that?

[Art Tatum]

I can't speak for everybody but when i was renting a unit in a PLG "Roach Motel", in order not to be overrun with bugs, i had to remove any and all trash from my unit immediately after producing it. When the building's designated trash area became clogged from people careless throwing their bags all over the floor (the door leading to the trash cans would no longer open), I had to seek out other options.