#sanitation

#sanitation

Dozens of the city's new space-age garbage containers crash-landed in Brooklyn over the last week, marking the latest move by the sanitation department to eradicate mountains of trash bags from sidewalks. The large, gray bins made by the Spanish company Contenur are a common sight in parts of Upper Manhattan, where the sanitation department has rolled them out over the last year as part of a pilot program.

The new automated public toilets have already opened in Newington Green, City Road and Highbury Fields and will open on Holloway Road, Seven Sisters Road and Highbury Crescent on September 1. Each WC is self cleaning, with the toilet bowl, seat, floor and walls automatically disinfected after every use. At night, they'll be blitz with ozone-based night cleaning to keep them fresh. Like any good public toilet, there'll also be plenty of bins of general and menstrual waste.

"Having worked in hotels, the first thing I fling off to a far corner of the room are decorative pillows and any decorative runner that goes along the foot of the bed. These never get washed."

The overwhelming condition of public litter baskets in various neighborhoods is raising concerns about cleanliness as overflowing trash spills onto streets and sidewalks.

Councilmember Joann Ariola states, "Our Sanitation Department is critically underfunded with only 10 workers to manage over 1,700 vacant lots. This situation is unacceptable."

Councilmember Gale Brewer pointed out during a hearing the sanitation department as far back as the 1980s would slap the stickers on cars that failed to move for street sweepers.