Frustrations Growing Over City's Snow, Garbage Removal

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Days after Tuesday's snowstorm, fed up New Yorkers are still having to navigate their way around dirty mounds of snow and garbage.

Many want to know why the cleanup is taking so long.

As CBS2's Raegan Medgie reports, layers and layers of trash bags are starting to take over several corners in Manhattan.

"I think it's causing rats," one man said while pondering over a heaping pile of garbage.

Some piles on the Upper East Side were higher than most of the people walking by.

"If they were clearing the snow, I could understand why trash is still here," Upper East Side resident Maggie Guenoun said. "They don't seem to be clearing snow either so I'm not sure why the trash is still here."

Others were a bit more sympathetic for the city and their monumental task at hand.

"I feel for the sanitation department, it's a task for them to remove the trash," Upper East Side resident Elliott Suggs said.

In Washington Heights, it was more of the same.

According to the Department of Sanitation, trucks have been collecting rubbish all Sunday across the city and have more than 20,000 tons still uncollected.

Neighbors in Midwood, Brooklyn say they're afraid of running out of garbage cans.

"Now it's just bags on top of bags and when they wind blows, it falls down and opens up, it isn't tied properly, we have possums, it's just not safe," resident Muyer Majer said.

The sanitation department says they hope to be back to normal shortly.