Waste removal cut in New York City

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is restricting waste removal in various areas of New York City in order to clean up the areas that are most affected by Superstorm Sandy.

He is cutting the days that rubbish is picked up from three days down to two. He is also stopping recycling pickups altogether, and this service won't be restarted until further notice.

Until normal services are restored, households and businesses will not be penalised for leaving their rubbish on the pavement on days that it is normally picked up.

The extra manpower is being used in areas of the city that need particular help in recovering from the Superstorm.

Workers are being asked to work really long shifts to compensate for the huge amounts of mess made.

New York City waste removal men are working shifts of up to twelve hours.

The long shifts are an attempt to remove the rubbish as quickly as possible.

On Tuesday, Mr Bloomberg said: "We are going to get this cleanup from Hurricane Sandy done as fast as humanly possible. I've been visiting the parts of our city hit hardest by the storm...  and one thing I hear in all those places is the need for debris removal and the incredible work the Department of Sanitation is doing."

So far, a whopping 55,000 tons have already been collected thanks to the hard work of New York waste removal companies.

The mayor is clearly very proud of his waste removal men who have given up their time to serve the city.

"I don’t think anybody could do it better than the best sanitation department in the world," Bloomberg said. "They have a mission that they’re proud to carry out and we should all be proud and grateful to have such men and women serving us."