Fighting Department of Sanitation Fine

Our building was hit with a Department of Sanitation fine for cardboard incorrectly disposed of on the sidewalk.  The trash was the work of a building next door, but the DoS did not bother to figure out who was responsible and hit us with the fine.  When we attempted to fight it, one of the members of our co-op was made to look like a fool by the woman officiating the hearing – who refused to listen unless we could prove that the trash was not ours – not clear how this is “provable” – and she declined to overturn the fine.  We are working on appealing this matter.  Does anyone have any tips on how to word our argument or what facts to include?  Thanks!

rstank

in Government 12 years and 11 months ago

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rstank | 12 years and 11 months ago

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Thank you all for your answers.  I suspect that we will submit an appeal, but in the end will be forced to just pay it and move on. @totoro – no, we are in north slope.  this happened some weeks ago – not sure if there was a drive to raise local funds at the time.

daveinbedstuy | 12 years and 11 months ago

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And as for the judge, “there’s no worse tyranny than petty tyranny.”

daveinbedstuy | 12 years and 11 months ago

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Just pay it and move on. Life’s too short. Try and monitor the building next door if you can.

ejalbk | 12 years and 11 months ago

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Sanitation tickets may be the most frustrating part of owning a multi-family building (including rentals, coops. condos) in NYC. It is just a revenue generating/employment scheme. Enforcement is random and 100% compliance is basically impossible without a full-time person monitoring the trash/recycling which smaller buildings cannot afford.

Townie | 12 years and 11 months ago

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FYI…   From NYC Dept Sanitation Only #1 and #2 plastic bottles and jugs are recyclable.  This does not include #1 or #2 plastic molded trays.  Also no #3, #4, #5, #6, or #7 resin types are currently recyclable in NYC. Why Just Bottles & Jugs? Identifying, sorting, and storing up enough of any type of plastic to sell are all extremely important in plastics recycling. It makes sense to limit the range of plastics that have to be identified, sorted, and stored to those that actually can be sold on secondary materials markets and made in to new products. These are #1 and #2 bottles and jugs. Other #1 and #2 plastics, such as some yogurt cups and frozen food trays, are manufactured with different processes and additives, and cannot be mixed with #1 and #2 bottles and jugs in the recycling process. These other plastics do not have strong markets since they are not as easily recycled. Consequently, asking New Yorkers to place only bottles and jugs in their recycling bins captures the largest quantity of the most valuable plastics. Plastic bottles coded #1 and #2 make up 95% of all bottles, so the vast majority ofplastic bottles placed out for recycling in NYC do end up being made into new products. The remainder (only about 5%) are discarded as contamination. In fact, NYC’s contamination rate is far lower than that of municipal recycling programs in other cities that accept a wider range of plastics. You can be proud to say, “New Yorkers recycle more, waste less!” back to top | back to recycling plastics in nyc | back to all about plastics The Recycling Process: You Can’t Just Melt All Plastics Together The plastics recycling process involves grinding plastics into small pellets or flakes, which are eventually melted down to form molten plastic that will be used to create new products. There are many, many different types of plastics, each one must be kept separate in the recycling process. The recyclability of any plastic product depends on not only what resin it is made of, but also the specific plastic molding (e.g. blow molded or injection molded) that was used in manufacture. Each individual type of plastic must be scrupulously kept separate from every other type. If they are melted together, the result is a useless glop that is unsuitable for the fabrication of any new product. Different types of plastic products cannot not be melted together. For example, a #1 bottle or jug cannot be melted with a #1 tub or tray; and a #2 bottle or jug cannot be combined with a #2 plastic bag, and so on. Therefore, contrary to popular opinion, the numerical resin codes do not distinguish between the different types of plastics that can be combined in the recycling process. NYC is working at the federal level to change the codes so that they do not cause this confusion.

Townie | 12 years and 11 months ago

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Just curious, are you in the South Slope/Windsor Terrace “alternate side parking suspension area”?  I believe a ticket blitz is in effect to generate lost revenue that would have otherwise been acquired from ticketing cars.   My street and my neighbor’s were hit hard two weeks ago for rather technical violations.

Arkady | 12 years and 11 months ago

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If you have time before your hearing, take pix of recycling along the block – if neighbors were messy once, they’ll be so again.  Too bad you couldn’t retrieve the boxes to get mailing labels.  Also take photos of how your building complies w/ rules: posters hung in obvious places, bins easily accessible (& preferably loaded w/ recyclables.)  If it’s an on-going problem, ask other neighbors for testimonials that said neighbors are often derelict about rubbish.