Keeps Staff Available For Plowing
Preparing for winter’s fury, the Sanitation Department began evening and overnight garbage collection on Monday, Nov. 10, in order to have staff ready to salt and plow city streets if and when winter storms strike.
Through mid-April, the Sanitation Department will have shifts of workers on duty from 4 p.m. to midnight and midnight to 8 a.m. daily. According to Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, this will ensure that the department will have enough drivers on hand to man 2,300 salt spreaders and plows dispatched across the five boroughs during winter weather.
When they’re not battling snow and ice, the workers will be out conducting regular household trash and recyclable pickups; Garcia stated the crews are advised to “work as quietly as possible.” The Sanitation Department continues to have day shift crews that begin their work at 6 a.m.
Garcia indicated the Sanitation Department is ready for whatever Mother Nature may bring to the city in the winter months. The agency has a storage capacity “for more than 267,000 tons of rock salt and 325,000 gallons of calcium chloride solution” at its facilities. The melting agents will be spread across more than 19,000 lane miles in the five boroughs.
Homeowners should continue to place their garbage and recyclables out on the curb as they normally would before scheduled pickups: no earlier than 4 p.m. the day before collection.
As for shoveling sidewalks, property owners must clear a path within four hours after the flakes stop falling-or, if the storm ends after 9 p.m., by 11 a.m. the following morning. Those who fail to do so may receive a $100 fine from the Sanitation Department.
Call 311 or visit www.nyc.gov/sanitation for additional information and questions regarding trash collection and snow removal.
