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Who's Responsible For Cleaning Filth-Filled West Side Highway Median?

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Trash tossed as cars exit the West Side Highway has been piling up for months, just feet away from city workers responsible for removing waste.

It looks like it could be a flower bed, but instead the area in the middle of the busy roadway is filled with filth. It's an apparently popular spot for drivers turning onto 56th Street to toss styrofoam coffee cups, water bottles, plastic bags, even old NYPD barriers.

What's worse is that the city is just feet from where the city's Sanitation Department, practically under their nose. Drivers who don't discard their trash want to know why nothing's being done.

CBS2 sent a picture to the Sanitation Department, asking who's responsible and how often the area is cleaned. A spokesperson didn't acknowledge whether the department knows about the mess in the median, but says it works with other city and state agencies to ensure the cleanliness of the highways.

The department also wants to remind people that littering is illegal, with the penalty for littering from a vehicle amounting to $75. Later this year, that fine will increase to $200.

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