"We’ve placed clusters of baskets at each of the beach entrances and exits,” said Phil Abramson, a spokesman for the Parks Department, who said that the collection stations have elevated signs that people can’t miss. “This way they can drop off their trash as they are entering and they are leaving,” he said.
Abramson said that the previous practice of putting cans all over the sand was eliminated at most of the public beaches because of safety and efficiency.
When the cans are in random places, the trash collectors had to make many stops in order to reach all of them. The arrangement is safer for the tractors that clean the beach during the night, since “they can move in the straight lines rather than zigzagging around the trash cans,” he said.
Abramson said the rearrangement was a pilot program that will be adjusted if necessary. “Litter in Coney Island is our big concern,” he added.
Visitors to the beach had varying opinions about the garbage stations.
Becky and five of her friends took the trashcan from the collection station and dragged it closer to the water. “I don’t know if it’s legal, but we are going to spend all day here,” she said. “We have a cooler full of food and water so we will have a lot of garbage. We don’t want to walk all the way there. The sand is too hot.”
Jay Williams, who works for the Department of Sanitation, bikes to the beach at least five times a week. “I don’t see more garbage on the beach -- I think I’ve seen it worse when the cans were all over the place,” he said.
Williams said that during the busy days at the beach, before the collection centers were set up, some single cans couldn’t accommodate the amount of trash and people simply put their garbage around the cans. “It’s also obvious that it’s easier to collect the garbage from one place,” he said.
Robert Steckman said he doesn’t like the new solution. “Now you have to carry your garbage from the beach to the garbage can,” he said. “People are too lazy to do that. Nobody is going to take their garbage from all the way down by the water to a place by the boardwalk. It's not a smart move by the city.”
Anatoly Seyn said he likes the stations because he doesn’t have to sit close to the garbage can while being on the beach. “It’s kind of good that they put it away,” he said, adding that all visitors are responsible for cleaning after themselves while leaving the beach despite the distance from the trash cans. “There should be more police around and fines given to people who don’t obey that,” he said.
