Chamber Joins Borough President for Anti-Litter Campaign
By Dom Provenzano, Staten Island Chamber of Commerce
Staten Island has a new slogan: “Don’t Trash on Me.”
“If you were walking down the street, would you think of dumping garbage on their lawn, or in their backyard? Would you dump something in your living room or kitchen? The answer is no,” said Borough President Vito Fossella at a press conference on May 12. “So why is it that people decide to treat areas like this as public dumping grounds?”
The press conference, held on a strip of grassland on North Railroad and Spratt Avenue, was held to announce Don’t Trash on Me, a new litter prevention and cleanup initiative from the Office of the Borough President. Through the new program, Staten Islanders can report littered locations to new “litter liaisons,” who will organize cleanup.
The press conference location itself was stripped of trash a day earlier by the Department of Sanitation.
The Chamber was present to support the initiative. “We live, work, and play here - so it is important to keep Staten Island clean. There is no reason to litter,” said Linda Baran, President & CEO of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce. “We encourage all businesses to take part by keeping their storefronts clean, and encouraging their customers to do the same. We don’t promote trash talk, but today, let’s trash talk!”
Attendees included:
Roseann Caruana, DOT Borough Commissioner
Lynda Ricciardone, Parks Borough Commissioner
Joseph Homsey, Chief of Staff Parks Staten Island
Joan Brynes, DSNY Director of Community Affairs
Linda Baran, President of the SI Chamber of Commerce
Sherry Diamond, The Office of Congresswoman Malliotakis
Hanane Dbajat, The Office of Assemblymember Tannousis
Frank Rapacciuolo, Chief of Staff, Congressman Joe Borelli’s
Giuseppe Deserio, Chief of Staff, Congressman David Carr
Barbara Felder, District Director, Congressman Kamillah Hanks
Jim Scarcella, President of the Natural Resources Protective Association
Lisa Thompson, The Office of District Attorney Mike McMahon
Andrew Olsen, Borough Director at Office of the Mayor Housing Recovery Operations and NYC Cleanup Corps
To report littered locations, please reach out to the Office of the Borough President’s litter liaisons Tiffany Arguello at (718-816-2069, targuello@statenislandusa.com) or Zsakee Lewis (718-816-2147, zlewis@statenislandusa.com).
