They wanna trash this dumpster.
Dyker Heights residents are demanding that the city remove a construction dumpster that’s been rotting on 79th Street for nearly a year.
The reviled receptacle has become an illegal dumping site for area businesses and contractors, and the bin is more than an eyesore — it could harbor health threats such as asbestos, neighbors say.
“People drive up and dump all sorts of things in there. No one knows what’s being dumped, it could be anything,” said Maria Vigorito who lives two doors down. “Some of that debris could be asbestos, lead, mold. We don’t know. It’s a health hazard to us breathing all that in.”
The container is there legally, but the people using it are tossing rules in the waste bin, locals said.
The city first issued a dumpster permit to contractors working on a house at 1341 79th St. in October 2015, according to records from the Department of Transportation, which issues such permits.
Residents say area businesses have taken advantage of the can, filling it with junk in violation of the its permit, according to Community Board 10 district manager Josephine Beckmann.
The city renewed permits for the waste bin — which expire every three months — several times despite community complaints. The Department of Transportation rejected the contractor’s latest renewal application because of locals’ uproar. There also is a stop-work order on the building, because contractors were illegally excavating the basement, city records show.
But neither the sanitation nor transportation departments is taking responsibility for carting off the dumpster, locals said.
Councilman Vincent Gentile’s (D–Bay Ridge) office is lobbying the transportation department to take it away, a spokesman said.
Block residents have started a petition demanding the city revisit it’s refuse-container-renewal policy so other people don’t have to live through their hell, another neighbor said.
“There needs to be some sort of policy change, it’s not fair to the community that this thing can sit here for months,” said Mary Spelman, who filed the petition with Community Board 10.
