Dahlgren Place residents say holidays and snowstorms have cancelled their recycling pick-ups for over a month, and now the “green” garbage is blowing all around the neighborhood.
Mary Nilsen told the Courier that the city hasn’t picked up recycling on the stretch of the street between 86th and 92nd streets since Jan. 22, leaving behind piles of trash that are becoming completely unmanageable.
“It’s getting bigger and bigger and bigger,” said Nilsen. “We’ve got broken bags. We’ve got broken boxes. It’s a mess and it just accumulates because there’s no place to put it.”
Because of the lack of pick-ups, Nilsen said she’s begun playing a game of musical chairs with her recycling — having to haul it from behind her fence to the curb and back again when it isn’t picked up. She claims some of her neighbors are not doing the same, and the resulting mess is becoming an eyesore.
“Last week, when we had wind, it was all over the place, everywhere in the street,” Nilsen said.
And it’s not as if the city doesn’t have recycling trucks on the street, said one resident who claims he’d seen them drive by — but not pick up a thing.
“If I saw one recycling truck come by, I saw 15,” said a man who refused to give his name because doing so could affect him adversely at work. “But none of them stopped. It might not have been our day, but it’s like walking down the street and seeing a load of garbage and a garbage can right there, and not putting it in.”
But, a spokeswoman for the city’s Sanitation Department denied that recycling pickups had been delayed so long.
Kathy Dawkins said that recycling pickups were skipped on Feb. 12, because of the Lincoln’s Birthday holiday the day before.
“Prior to the above, Saturday recycling collections were normal,” Dawkins said.
