UES Is Full Of Trash After 3 Weeks Without Recycling Collection

East 84th Street today, courtesy of A Fine Blog, and Park Avenue in 1981, courtesy of twistr.in

A perfect storm of holidays and, well, winter storms means that certain parts of the Upper East Side haven't had a recycling pickup in nearly three weeks, according to broker-blogger Andrew Fine. "Alright, it's not the 17 day garbage strike of 1981, or of 1975, or 1968, but the mountains of garbage on the Upper East Side today may give you flashbacks!" he wrote. He hopes the mounds of trash will be hauled away by the end of the week, but there's a chance it will snow Thursday night and Friday, so anything could happen. At least it gives Upper East Side residents a reason to be thankful for the frigid temperatures, which ought to be keeping the stench from getting too out of hand.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Ben Muessig in News on January 6, 2010 3:30 PM

Comments [rss]

justthinkin

Damn, I can't begin to fathom the amount of empty Chardonnay bottles that have accumulated by now.

NannyState

Chardonnay? In this weather? How gauche! The mountain of bottles are definitely Cabernet.

Tower18

I've never watched the private collections from larger buildings, but when I lived in Brooklyn, I would see the Sanitation trucks go around and do their collection. While all the trucks looked the same, there were definitely 3 separate trucks that picked up garbage, recyclables, and then paper. Never all in the same truck, and it might take a couple hours for EVERYTHING to get picked up.

Again, not sure how the private collectors operate.

nicemarmot

Wait, is this supposed to imply that they actually recycle the recycling stuff here? Because every week I watch the trash guys on my block throw all the recycling in with the regular trash in their truck.

grizzzly

Nothing opens your eyes like watching the rate at which your empties accumulate when not removed

sadpanda

If you removed the last six words from this headline, it would still be just as accurate.

jaycjay

"for the frigid temperatures, which ought to be keeping the stench from getting too out of hand."

It's ugly, granted, but it's the recycling pickup and not regular trash (which is and should be the priority). There shouldn't be much stench regardless of the temperature.