Dive Brief:
- City workers in Washington, D.C. have been enlisted to remove trash from 372 federal parks which have not been maintained since Tuesday last week due to the federal government shutdown.
- D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray has announced that the city will collect the trash in order to avoid attracting rodents and other animals to the sites.
- The cost associated with providing these services is estimated at $57,930 per week, according to the public works spokeswoman Linda Grant.
Dive Insight:
The cleanup effort stems from a string of complaints about trash piling up in area parks. City employees will add the parks to their existing routes until the shutdown comes to an end.