STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A reader sent an email last week following an Advance/SILive.com story about the city Sanitation Department’s plan to start fining New Yorkers not abiding by new trash takeout times.
The reader, a Dongan Hills resident who identified himself as “Buddy G,” laid out what seems like a genuine scheduling conflict. He said he lives alone, has to leave for work at 4:45 p.m., and doesn’t arrive home until 7:30 a.m.
Buddy stated he leaves for work one hour and 15 minutes before the earliest trash takeout time of 6 p.m. for trash in containers with secure lids — non-containerized trash can be put out starting at 8 p.m. — and will most likely return home after Sanitation Department workers had already passed his house, since DSNY also moved up its collection times.
Obviously, New York City can’t set its trash takeout times to meet everyone’s schedule, but we reached out to DSNY to see if the department offered accommodations to New Yorkers with genuine conflict schedules. It does not.
“As you pointed out, in a City of nearly 9 million people, there will likely always be someone who says they can’t personally follow the rules,” a department spokesman said. “We hope that those with scheduling conflicts can make their own arrangements to do what is required.”
After 69 years is his Dongan Hills home, Buddy said he’ll do his best to meet the new rules, but he won’t be doing it for long, as he plans to leave the city soon.
New takeout time rules were first announced in October, and went into effect April 1. DSNY began handing out $50 fines May 1, but the department spokesman said last week that the early enforcement would focus on locations that received the more-than 20,000 fines DSNY handed out starting April 1.
The spokesman said a borough-by-borough breakdown where those warnings occurred is not available, but that the warnings were primarily in commercial and densely populated residential areas.
Mayor Eric Adams and city…
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