Mayor Ras J. Baraka announced today that the City Department of Public Works began a containerized waste bin pilot program in the downtown business district. The program is part of the “Love Newark Keep it Clean” campaign efforts and aims to clear sidewalks of trash and debris, and improve aesthetics and quality of life. The city will supply business owners with these specially designed bins to safely and sanitarily hold trash for later collection. The pilot started on Broad Street between Lafayette and Bank Streets.

“Newark’s downtown density of consumers and producers generates the volume of waste expected of any productive city,” said Mayor Baraka. “By providing aesthetically pleasing, rodent-proof sidewalk trash containers, we gain a safe, sanitary way to store garbage awaiting pickup, and simultaneously improve life for our business owners and residents alike.”

The pilot program will be expanded in the fall to the following corridors:

·         Downtown Market Street

·         Downtown Washington Street

·         Downtown Mulberry Street

·         Clinton Avenue between Bergen Street and Fabyan Avenue

·         Springfield Avenue and 10^th Street

·         Springfield Avenue and Hayes Street

·         South Orange Avenue, between Bergen Street and 12^th Street

·         South Orange Avenue, between North Munn Avenue and Stuyvesant Avenue

“In the quest to provide a clean and enjoyable commercial experience to our city’s residents, shoppers, and visitors alike, we are proud to be instrumental in bringing a more progressive means of containing trash for pickup to Newark’s downtown area and eventually to other areas of the city as well,” said Department of Public Works Director Craig Smith.

This program to make sealed containers available to business owners is based on a similar program that was launched last year in New York City’s Times Square, using the same supplier, Citibin.

As part of Mayor Baraka’s “Love Newark Keep It Clean” campaign, designed to reduce littering and beautify Newark, the pilot program launched in the downtown area where local businesses often lack the resources to properly store trash for disposal.

For photographs of the new containers, visit HERE.

-NEWARK-

For more information on the City of Newark, please visit our website:

www.newarknj.gov

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