Frustrated Big Apple residents are raising a stink over mountains of trash piling up on city streets as “limited” sanitation collection drags on a week after a massive winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow.
The unsavory sights were clear as day on Saturday night when a Post reporter spotted heaps of garbage bags and cardboard boxes littering the sidewalks in several neighborhoods, thanks to the Department of Sanitation playing catch-up since the storm.
One fed-up Upper East Side resident fumed that a mound near his block towers “higher than a car.”
“It’s very dirty,” Frederick Radie, 55, told The Post, adding that crews haven’t picked up the garbage “since the first snowfall last weekend.”
“Actually, we have people visiting, and it’s a little embarrassing,” the 35-year resident said, as his partner, Mirys Rosa, ripped Mayor Zohran Mamdani for urging Gotham residents to be patient.
“This was like two weeks ago,” the 61-year-old seethed, slamming the sea of garbage as “so gross, it’s disgusting.”
Sanitation officials announced Wednesday that limited collection was underway, telling New Yorkers to put garbage out on the curb as usual – but not recycling – warning that pickups would be delayed as snow removal continues.
The Department of Sanitation told The Post Saturday they are currently operating under “slight delays.”
“We are prioritizing trash and composting (the stuff that gets gross), but New Yorkers can follow their regular schedule,” a spokesperson said.
“We are running hundreds of collection trucks each day in addition to ongoing snow operations. We just ask for patience as we catch up.”
Still, the patience was wearing thin among many.
“It’s very concerning,” Chris Kendal, 38, said.
“They usually pick the recycle up on a Monday, so it’s Saturday, so it’s almost been a week. I don’t know why they can’t pick it up. I mean, buses are still running, and the city is still operating. So I’m not sure why they’re not able to reduce some of the garbage on the streets.”
But one Upper East Side resident defended the department, saying that while the overflowing refuse is an “eyesore,” sanitation crews have been swamped all month.
Meanwhile, in the Bronx, waste bags littered the Grand Concourse – just one block away from where Mamdani held an event Saturday afternoon.
A 51-year-old resident of the 5.2 mile-long historic thoroughfare said trash has cluttered the streets for almost three days, adding that the situation is worsening as the homeless tear into bags looking for items.
“Every time it snows, it gets worse,” the Local 157 union member said.
“Right now, the people in the neighborhood, they cleaned up as much as we could, but the city hasn’t really been doing much, like down the block by the courthouse, they clean that up. The garbage attracts more rats and it makes the neighborhood look bad.”
Bundles of recycling bags also cogged Upper West Side streets, with one doorman, Angel Martinez, saying nothing has been hauled away since Jan. 19 – nearly two weeks ago.
“Once in a while that happens where there is a big storm,” he said.
“Hopefully they’ll come soon.”
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