ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Anyone who’s been to St. Augustine will tell you it’s beautiful. But some acknowledge – even lament – that the nation’s oldest city has had trouble keeping up with its popularity by picking up after its visitors.
The first week of January 2019, First Coast News reported about overflowing trash cans throughout the city, swelled beyond capacity during St. Augustine’s tourist-attracting holiday season and Nights of Lights festivities.
“On a nightly basis, I see at least two to three rats," resident Shane Carman told us just a few days into 2019. "Last night one popped out of a trash can right as I was walking past it."
The problem then was compounded by a federal government shutdown that halted trash collection at the Castillo de San Marcos, part of the United States National Park Service.
“It’s nice with all the lights and everything, then you walk around and you see trash in all the bins," one woman told us from the grounds of the Castillo. "It kind of puts a damper on things."
But the rest of St. Augustine is city jurisdiction, and even a casual observer couldn’t miss trash stacked, strewn and oozing outside collection bins, including along the picturesque sea wall and tourist pedestrian magnet St. George Street.
And people who live and work in St. Augustine say this holiday season appears even busier.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Tony Lippi said Monday at his store, The Panama Hat Company. “Even with all the rain we had from Christmas to New Year’s – busiest week of the year – it’s nuts!”
St. Augustine utility director Todd Grant met us on St. George Street the same evening, showing us new solar-powered “big belly” trash compactor-collection bins.
Grant explained that two nights before the annual Nights of Lights extravaganza began, the city actually removed 20 of the 40 conventional trash bins from St. George Street, replacing them with 10 of the high-tech compactors, each of which is paired with a bin for recyclable materials.
The move reduced the number of bins but increased overall capacity, Grant said.
“They can compact six-to-eight times more than a conventional trash can,” he said.
He added that the high-tech bins transmit data, alerting city personnel when the containers are at capacity or malfunctioning.
“We can monitor them either visually or electronically, and [an app] will tell you how full they are,” Grant boasted.
But according to some, there are other benefits less obvious at first glance.
“It seems like the trash compacting kind of keeps everything contained and you can’t get into them,” Lippi observed, saying that in the past, trash has been spread by people combing through it.
“They’re not an eyesore, let’s put it that way,” he said, contrasting with the older versions.
“It’s almost like a toy, the people like it,” said Ed Firuta, who works in the city’s tourism industry. “They’re actually putting their stuff in and they seem to have fun with it.”
But Carman and fellow local activist Wade Ross acknowledged to First Coast News by phone Monday that the situation has improved, but specifically claimed that such refuse as spilled food, vomit and even feces are nothing unusual.
Grant said St. Augustine has bolstered tidiness also by adding staff, including a crew member who works 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. Thursday through Monday. He also assured that the city is trying to tackle those "liquid" spills by adding a second person to the city’s pressure washing effort.
Firuta said he’s used to the tourist/trash challenge, having previously lived in Key West. But he thinks St. Augustine has improved conspicuously since just a year ago.
“To be honest with you, night-and-day,” Firuta described the difference. “I’ve never seen one article of garbage on the ground since [the new bins] have been here.”
Grant is pleased but not complacent.
“There’s still overflowing trash cans," he said. "It’s just so packed with people that you physically can’t get to the trash can, but having that extra staff, those extra hours, it’s cleaned up much quicker than it was in the past.”
The utility director also emphasized that the city plans to continue using data driven by the high-tech compactors to fine-tune its efforts – it just needs some time to gather enough numbers.
It’s already enough to impress some visitors.
“We haven’t seen anything on the ground,” said MaryAnn Smisko, walking leisurely along St. George Street with her husband Mike.
“Compared to some of our towns in New Jersey, the shore – they’re dirty, they’re not clean. This is immaculate,” Mike Smisko said of St. Augustine. “They’re doing a good job, and the containers – that’s pluses. I would recommend anyone to come here!”