Tim Tompkins and Polly Trottenberg speak about cleaning and maintaining NYC as more residents and tourists lead to more trash.

“At the Brooklyn Bridge, cleanings were doubled to four times a week in 2014 after Polly Trottenberg, the city’s transportation commissioner, noticed trash bins overflowing. Now, twice as much garbage is being collected. ‘You want the city to look its best,’ she said. ‘No one likes to see garbage piled up and falling on the Brooklyn Bridge.'”

Times Square, which draws as many as 445,000 people daily, requires a full-time cleaning staff of 68, up from 41 in 2012, including one worker whose only job is picking up chewing gum, some 400 pieces a day, according to Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance. The organization has invested $1.5 million on 385 waste-compacting bins, which have made a dent in what Mr. Tompkins calls the ‘Mount Everest of trash bags.'”

Read more: New York’s Growth Can Be Measured in Trash Bags, NY Times