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Q&A
Addressing overflowing litter baskets and DSNY's approach to service adjustments
0:55:48
ยท
144 sec
Council Member Julie Menin raises concerns about overflowing litter baskets in her district and inquires about DSNY's plans to address this issue citywide. Acting Commissioner Lojan explains DSNY's approach to analyzing and addressing litter basket problems.
- Menin reports increased litter basket pickup to four times a day in her district
- DSNY wants to investigate root causes of overflowing baskets, such as illegal dumping
- DSNY uses 'trash dash' meetings to monitor and adjust litter basket services based on 311 stats
Julie Menin
0:55:48
Thank you so much chair, and thank you for your testimony today.
0:55:51
I have two sets of questions, one on litter baskets, one on rat mitigation.
0:55:56
Litter baskets, that is probably one of the number one complaints I'm receiving in the district of overflowing litter baskets.
0:56:03
I'm paying out of my office budget to increase litter basket pickup to four times a day during the week.
0:56:09
So my question is, what can be done to increase the amount of litter basket pickup beyond what we're currently doing?
0:56:16
And this is obviously a citywide question.
Javier Lojan
0:56:19
So I I I think that one of the things I would like to look at is why they're overflowing.
0:56:26
A lot of times, it's misuse, and I think I'd like to look at that before we increase because there's been times we've tried different approaches, increasing the level of service obviously may solve the problem but the root cause is probably illegal drop offs by maybe nearby residents or businesses.
0:56:43
So I'd like to know if that's areas, specific areas in your district, and I'd like to look at that and see what's contributing to that.
0:56:52
Because realistically, litter baskets are meant for paper cups, small things like that.
0:56:57
If they're overflowing after four times of day service, there might be a bigger problem there that I'd like to look at before increasing that.
Julie Menin
0:57:04
Okay.
0:57:04
Absolutely.
0:57:05
No.
0:57:05
I encourage you to come out and do a walk through of the district.
0:57:08
Would be incredibly helpful.
0:57:09
Also on litter baskets, are you planning on any kind of changes in service schedules or deployment of additional baskets in response to ongoing demand across the city?
Javier Lojan
0:57:21
No.
0:57:22
I think what we look at, one of the things that, we started was, and I'm sure we've said it in previous hearings, trash dash where we bring a borough command every week to headquarters, and the borough chief and his or her district superintendents get questioned on three one one stats primarily.
0:57:46
One of those stats are overflowing litter baskets.
0:57:49
So when we see an increase, whether it's the week to date, twenty eight day, or year to date, we question them and ask them what's the cause for it, what do they think the cause for it is, and that's where I think we do adjustments and make adjustments to routes or any kind of service levels within their existing resources.
0:58:09
So I think that's been very effective, and we'll continue to do that.
Julie Menin
0:58:12
Okay.