Zachary Heperlin
BU News Service
The neighborhood is bordered by the Rose Kennedy Greenway and Christopher Columbus Park on the waterfront. But the heart of the neighborhood has more trash than grass.
Trash piles up quickly in the North End. It often feels like there is an excess of garbage simply because of how little space there is on the sidewalk.
Oct. 26- Trash in an alleyway on Hanover Street.
“It’s such a small, tight neighborhood that it could be the same amount of trash in any neighborhood but because the streets are so narrow it always feels like it’s overflowing,” Matt Collins, a 25-year-old North End resident, said.
Since July 1 of last year, the North End has collected both recycling and trash twice a week. Prior to that, trash was collected three times a week, and recycling only once. The trend of increased recycling awareness has spread to Boston’s oldest neighborhood, even though 77.4 % of the area is made up of non-family households, many of them millennials.
But Collins doesn’t feel millennials are generally apathetic to recycling. In fact, he says about half of his social circle does actively recycle.
“I would say it’s about 50/50,” Collins said. “When I go over to my friends houses I normally look for recycling bins.”
But Collins still thinks the North End could do more to encourage the practice.
“I’d be curious to see how many trash bins there are in comparison to recycling and if they could do anything to maybe match that,” Collins said.
