News

June 12, 2020

Newark Sanitation Update

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Night garbage collection will begin in parts of the City on Aug. 2 and there’s no question it has good points and bad points.

First, the good. Newark residents will wake up to cleaner streets. Morning commutes will be easier and safer, as cars and buses will no longer get stuck behind sanitation trucks. Trash pick-up will be faster because Newark trucks won’t have to wait in the long, daytime lines at the incinerator.

When morning comes, residents can collect their empty garbage pails, rather than find them blown down the street or missing at the end of the day.

Of course, this is not a silent operation, so on garbage pick-up nights in your zone, you may hear some noise outside your windows.  

On the bright side, it’s only two nights a week.

“Mayor (Ras J.) Baraka has wanted this for a while now,” said Department of Public Works Director Khalif Thomas. “During the pandemic, we tested it out. Now we’re ready to start Zone A night collections on Aug.2 and Zone B will begin on Nov. 2.”

For a couple of months now, sanitation trucks have rumbled through some Newark neighborhoods on Monday night during a pilot program for Thomas’s staff and the public.

“The workers have been on the front-lines, keeping the City clean through the pandemic,” Thomas said. “I’m proud of the hard work they’ve done and grateful for it. The residents also have been very cooperative.”

In other sanitation news, weekly bulk pick-up resumes on July 1, so residents can again put out old furniture, mattresses (must be wrapped in plastic) and other large items, excluding construction debris. Thomas said that no more than 10 items can be put out at one time.

Director Thomas is hosting “Trash Talk Tuesdays” on the Public Works Facebook each week at noon to tell residents about other sanitation news and special events, like tomorrow’s South Ward Community Clean-up, where cleaning supplies will be available to residents from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Clinton Avenue Community Soundstage at Clinton and Peshine Avenues, and the Bo Porter Sports Complex at 378 Lyons Ave.  

The other four wards will have cleaning supplies available in the coming weeks.

The night pick up schedule for Zone A (Weequahic, Ironbound sections, North Broadway, Lower Broadway, University Heights, Central Business District, and the Belmont section) is Monday and Thursday, so residents must put their trash out from 6 to 10 p.m. on Sundays and Wednesdays.

Zone B night trash collection begins Nov. 2 (areas around Roseville Avenue, Branch Brook Park, Sussex Avenue, Ivy Hill, Fairmount, Clinton Hill, West Side and Lincoln parks) on Tuesdays and Fridays. Trash must be put out between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays.

Bulk waste pick-up will return July 1 on the first Wednesday of every month in Zone A, and yard waste will be picked up the third Wednesday.

Zone B bulk waste removal begins July 8 on every second Wednesday and yard waste is picked up on the fourth Wednesday each month.

For more information about sanitation schedules, call the Department of Public Works at 973-733-3644.