Medical Waste Found Dumped Next To Local Playground
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Tonight a smelly mess on the city's North Side has been contained but residents are still concerned.
Neighbors say large industrial size dumpsters on their street contain medical waste and they want answers and action.
Neighbors living near a large industrial linen provider on the North Side say they are fed up with the trash and the smell coming from dumpsters outside the facility. They fear medical waste is being disposed of in those dumpsters and they are worried about the families and children in the area.
"We knew it was something biohazardous but we didn't know what and I'm kind of angry nobody notified the neighborhood about what it is," said Connie Monfredi.
Tonight a concerned neighbor living along Marvista Street on the city's North Side walks her grandchildren around the community closely supervising them. She is worried about her family and what they find and smell outside Clean Care, an industrial linen provider that cleans linens for the healthcare industry.
#HappeningNow Medical waste dumped in a local neighborhood right next to a playground. We've got how video of soiled diapers and used surgical tubing in a parking lot 50 feet from neighbors. Hear what they want to be done tonight on @KDKA pic.twitter.com/yEIo2Ryyfd
— Chris Kunicki (@K00nix_Photog) June 23, 2019
Monfredi and other neighbors say what they see going into these dumpsters shouldn't be allowed in a residential area where children play.
"Not only does it smell we come down we see guys with white suits with the masks with shovels with the back end open and they're shoveling it from one end of another," she said.
Residents say garbage that looks like medical waste is being placed in a dumpster near a children's playground and has been there for months.
One neighbor videotaped what she saw on her cell phone and while some neighbors didn't want to go on camera, they say they've witnessed medical waste being placed in the dumpsters and they are concerned for everyone in the area.
"Since Thursday the first think I've seen is mounds of waste from the Clean Care plant. The smell is horrendous I've seen bloody sheets, used surgical tubing, used diapers," said one neighbor that did not want to be identified.
"I saw adult diapers that were stained," said another neighbor. "I saw the blue pads they put on hospital beds if you're incontinent or you're expecting a problem, also used."
An environmental disposal company that specializes in medical waste cleanup is doing dumpster remediation. Clean Care acknowledges this load of waste it received from a client did contain blood but what is put in their dumpsters is not medical waste and is not hazardous to the community.
