Superstorm Sandy still floods N.J. coast — with trash

• New Jersey towns are reeling from the refuse left by massive storm
• Communities are hauling as much as 570 tons of garbage a day
• The trash is a health hazard and an economic headache for communities

MANASQUAN, N.J. — You can see the destruction of Superstorm Sandy just by looking out at the curb.

Landscapes of destroyed furniture, tree branches and jagged metal stretch for miles along the streets of once picturesque New Jersey Shore towns, leaving officials wondering how they will get rid of all the garbage.

Cash-starved communities and waste companies are struggling to haul the debris away as the piles of trash become even bigger safety hazards.

"It's been quite a challenge," says Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer. "The bottom line is as soon as we pick it up, there is a mountain full out there again."

On a normal day, the city of Hoboken averages about 60 tons of trash. Since the storm, workers have been hauling an average of 300 tons a day and peaked one day at 570 tons.

"It's a public-safety issue, and it's a quality-of life-issue," Zimmer says.

The city is working with FEMA and the Department of Environmental Protection to make sure that they continue to get the financial coverage they need to continue the mass pickups. But cleanup is constant, with no end in sight.

"It's going to take months," says Mario Schito, president of M&S Waste Services, which serves Monmouth and Ocean counties in New Jersey. "Some of the piles are 40 feet long. You could fill up 30% of a garbage truck just at one house."

Sandy's devastation is taking a big toll on the company's finances. It takes workers much longer to complete their routes, and the trash is about five times heavier than usual because everything is wet.

M&S Waste Services pays by the pound to dump their trash at the Monmouth County landfill. Normally they spend about $40,000 a week on dumping, but in each of the past two weeks they have paid about $35,000 more than usual.

The company ordered more trucks and hired additional workers to try to stay on top of the seemingly endless job. On top of the added expenses, the money just isn't coming in because displaced customers have been unable to pay bills.

"It's emotional," Schito says. "You have no idea what it's like out there. People are calling crying. They lost their businesses; they lost their homes; and the debris is still just everywhere, all over their streets."

Soaking couches, mattresses, fridges, insulation and bags of trash line the street in front of 58-year-old Maryann Monaghan's home on Lockwood Avenue in Manasquan, N.J.

Monaghan has been putting her trash out, and it includes her entire first floor — everything from furniture, paperwork and photo albums to appliances, sheet rock, hardwood floors and carpeting.

"We just gutted absolutely everything," she says.

Now, the trash is on the street waiting to be picked up. "Little by little it's all been going," she says. "People come with trucks and take things that they can use to make money off of, like refrigerators that could use scrap metal."

Businesses are just as hard hit as residents. Outside of motels are the televisions, carpeting, insulation and bedroom furniture that used to make up the rows of matching bedrooms. Grocery stores are throwing out tons of food ruined by flooding and power outages.

On New York Avenue, a grill, mattresses, doors, broken bookshelves, couches and tree branches top mounds of trash that stretch along eight houses.

On Harvard Avenue, a broken piano sits alone in front of a dark home. Just a few yards away is a broken highchair and a rowboat in pieces.

Rich Gibbs, 47, of Point Pleasant Beach, carried out rolls of carpeting from his home to the curb.

"The town has been wonderful," he says. "They started by cleaning up the main roads, getting it to look nicer. Maybe as a confidence booster."

Gibbs says people are just beginning to return to the town to clean out their homes.

Residents of Sea Bright, N.J., were just let back into their homes on Wednesday. The town is preparing for cleanup to begin by placing Dumpsters on every street.

"We got a jump on it," says Sea Bright administrator Richard Kachmar. "We are trying to stay ahead of the game."