People are outraged after Sanitation Department workers threw out thousands of dollars worth of fresh fruit and vegetables earlier this month because of sidewalk obstruction. Vendor Mohammad Ullah told the Post that the officials didn't even give him a chance to move the edible items before dumping them out: "They took all my stuff and just threw it in the garbage. It's such a waste," Ullah lamented. "People have to eat."
You can see video of the incident, which occurred on East Broadway in Chinatown on Feb. 3rd, below:
"The cop came and told me to move, so I started moving the boxes," Ullah explained. "Son of a bitch sits in his car and calls sanitation, then they come and take everything. He was watching me move the boxes and he still called men to take it away. It was like a robbery. I lost $8,300 of merchandise in one day."
Cops say that Ullah was cited for unlicensed vending and sidewalk obstruction, and had owed $60K in fines. But even so, he feels strongly that officials wasted perfectly good food without giving him an opportunity to move it: "It was all fresh," he explained. "They threw out 52 boxes of fresh cherries — those were $3 a pound! There was lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, grapefruit, Chinese pears. But the worst was the oranges. Everyone here wants the Mandarin oranges, and they're all gone."
There were over 6,000 comments on Facebook about the video, with most saying they were infuriated that the Sanitation workers didn't bring the food to the less fortunate: “That food could have been donated to a shelter or given to the homeless. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to 'waste' in NYC," wrote Antonio Mastrogiacomo.
"This has to be the dumbest shit in the world, so many people hungry and we’re wasting food over fucking regulations," added Sam Marrero.
The Department of Sanitation website recommends that "instead of throwing away organics as garbage," New Yorkers should separate it "for composting so it can enrich our environment, not damage it."
