Sean Feeney is a Brooklyn pizzeria owner who spent $60,000 of his own money to clean up his neighborhood’s growing trash problem.
After reporting out this story, my photog and I chowed down on some slices of Fini Pizza. https://t.co/v1Af0lst6t pic.twitter.com/ifoWT5UdAw
— Kirsten Fleming (@KirFlem) January 17, 2024
He told the New York Post he recognized the issue starting in 2016. He said, “I saw the deterioration in cleanliness. It’s unacceptable, it’s embarrassing and it’s disgusting.”
But he didn’t just start rolling out trash cans. His business, Fini Pizza, opened in 2022 with the purpose of helping to combat the issue.
Feeny dedicates 3% of the restaurant’s revenue to the area. During the first few months of operation, Feeny surveyed customers on what they wanted to improve in the community.
Feeny noted, “94% of our response rate was cleaner streets. When you hear guest after guest, neighbor after neighbor, comment on it, I said, ‘Let’s do something about it.’”
He did some research and then bought five big garbage cans, painted “clean streets” on them, and set them up around nearby.
“We noticed overnight that it was cleaner, so we kept adding cans. We maintained them and had pick-up every night,” he noted.
The success came with some confusion. Feeny placed some of the cans too close to the curb and had to explain his mission to the Department of Sanitation to avoid paying some hefty fines.
The department supported his work and now the streets are cleaner.
Feeny stated, “I think it’s easy and rational to put the responsibility on government. We didn’t want to waste time even thinking that. We wanted to know what we could do to help.”
He also spoke about encouraging other businesses to take the initiative, stating, “What if we were to incentivize other companies?”
Feeny has dispersed 50 of his garbage cans around Brooklyn; 30 in Williamsburg, and 20 within the downtown area.
He concluded, “I’m proud to live here. And I’m even prouder now that it’s cleaner.”