nothin Litter, This Man Is On Your Trail | New Haven Independent

Litter, This Man Is On Your Trail

Maya McFadden Photo

Marottoli on the Q Avenue beat.

Clamper in hand, Vin Marottoli watched cars roll in and out of the El Mexicano Hand Car Wash across the street as he picked up a receipt and a black ice car freshener from the ground.

Marottoli, a 76-year-old environmental activist and retired wine-shop owner and wine-tour leader, was out cleaning up litter on Quinnipiac Avenue. You see him doing that often. He lives on Quinnipiac Avenue. He has made it his mission to combat a constant flood there of debris originating from chain-retail outposts.

Marottoli started out picking up his block’s litter every day while walking his dog. Now he goes on more extended rounds every three days a week to pick up all the trash blown over by the wind from Taco Bell, Dunkin Donuts, McDonald’s, Walmart, and numerous Foxon Road gas stations. The strip’s litter has plagued neighbors for years.

Foxon is a city artery. But those of us that live off of it should not have to deal with living in trash,” he said.

After getting suited up in his winter jacket, gloves, and mask, Marottoli (pictured) started his litter walk the other day in the back parking lot of 1215 Quinnipiac Ave. He clamped down on a plastic water bottle and a paper receipt tucked in a shrub. Marottoli dropped the bottle in his plastic trash bag, then clumped the paper receipt labeled with El Mexicano Hand Car Wash’s name.

Marottoli picked up 26 receipts from the busy car wash at 1228 Quinnipiac Ave. Currently he has collected three months worth of receipts to present to the business along with a neighborhood specialist Pauley Morbidelli from the city’s anti-blight agency, the Livable City Initiative (LCI).

Over the course of two years, Marottoli has reached out to the car wash and gas station management at least three times, he said. I’m not anti-business. It’s about responsibility.”. One solution the owner proposed was sending a worker to Marottoli‘s property to clean up the blown-over litter when possible.

El Mexicano Hand Car Wash manager Soany Orellana told the Independent an employee cleans up the neighboring area at least once a week. Then twice a week if they have a slow day. Marottoli said the once-a-week cleanings help slightly but new trash blows over daily not just weekly.

She said the car wash empties its trash multiple times a day in the property dumpster.

After each car wash a receipt is provided to the customer. If a customer opts to only get the outside of their car clean, the employees have no way of putting the receipt in the car, Orellana said. Each receipt is placed on the dashboard.

After hearing from Marottoli, Orellana said, she attempted to change the car wash’s system by not providing customers with a receipt, to avoid them blowing off the dashboard or customers littering them. However, customers complained. They accused employees of stealing items from their cars when they saw them put the receipts in their pocket. So Orellana had employees return to placing the receipts on the dashboards.

I understand the frustration, I would not want to live like that,” Orellana said. But we can’t have control of the wind. We try our best.”

Marottoli said Alder Gerald Antunes proposed adding more trash cans in the neighborhood to help. Marottoli suggested that the city hold businesses accountable for their litter and trash upkeep. (Antunes told the Independent that he believes the business owners aren’t the problem, but rather customers and others who pass through and drop their trash.)

It seems that the litter has increased since the start of the Covid pandemic, said Marottoli.

While Marottoli would prefer not to have to spend his days cleaning up McDonald’s bags and Taco Bell wrappers, he said, he feels obligated to keep his property and the surrounding area clean.

When I was growing up everyone would clean up after their own property. They would sweep their sidewalks and be responsible for just their home. That makes a neighborhood,” he said. It needs to start in grammar school. The new generation needs to be educated on having pride of their neighborhood and keep it clean.”

For 40 minutes, Marottoli picked up disposable face masks, plastic bottles and cans. Marottoli has received complaints from his tenants in the past about the trash. At times it looks like someone just came and dumped a bag on our lawns,” he said.

Marottoli joked that his litter walks give him time to meditate in windy and below-freezing temperatures.

I was just doing this three days ago, and it’s all right back,” he said.

Three months of collected car-wash receipts.

After years of picking up the trash without a clamper, Marottoli could feel the physical effects of constantly having to bend over to pick up the litter on his body.

Marottoli filled up two and a half 13-gallon trash bags of litter with trash from one block of Quinnipiac Avenue during this one walk.

Plastic gloves and lottery tickets were lodged in nearby shrubs and fences, forcing Marottoli to bend over to reach them.

Sometimes, Marottoli said, he needs to pick up car parts and clothing items by hand because they’re too large for his clamper.

In the past two years Marottoli said the litter has gotten worse. Even recycling has gotten sloppy. This neighborhood is neglected,” he said. It’s a blue-collar neighborhood. Not everyone has time like I do. These businesses have to step up.”

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