As some parts of the city have seen overflows of garbage in trash cans due to reduced trash pickups, the city announced Wednesday it will restore dozens of litter basket sanitation trucks.
About 65 trucks will be brought back through the sanitation department every week, a 24 percent increase compared to current levels, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
It’s part of the city’s restarted CleaNYC initiative, which will provide supplemental cleaning services in neighborhoods and parks through the end of the year.
“Good men and women turning their own lives around, but doing great working helping communities to be clean,” the mayor said about CleaNYC.
De Blasio says CleaNYC is expected to focus on 27 neighborhoods across the five boroughs that have been hardest hit by the coronavirus, and areas that will start to see an increase in foot traffic as employees return to the workplace.
Trash has piled up in the city after the sanitation department was forced to slash $106 million from its budget, a fallout of the city’s loss in revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic. Corner baskets are no longer picked up on Sundays. By Monday, trash is piling up on many street corners across the city.
The city's agencies will also get help from the Doe Fund, a nonprofit organization which provides employment to homeless and formerly incarcerated individuals, according to the mayor.
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