More garbage, blood downtown, says St. John's trash collector

The man in charge of the early morning garbage cleanup in downtown St. John's says his crew is seeing a lot more trash between Harbour Drive and Duckworth Street, including a lot more blood.

Joe Conway of Kelloway's Construction said every morning his crew picks up an average of 20 garbage bags full of litter —the remains of drunken partying.

Conway said on weekend mornings the amount of garbage doubles and the crew can't complete a cleanup during an eight-hour shift.

Conway said the problem has gotten worse since he started on the job four years ago, and in addition to litter, he said his workers are seeing more signs of violence.

'Now it's like, 'Ah, there's blood here'.' —Joe Conway, garbage contractor

"I can remember when we first started if one of us had seen blood we would actually mention it, like 'Hey look, there's a bunch of blood here.' " said Conway.

"Now it's like 'Ah, there's blood here.' It's common practice. Yesterday, we swept up bloody t-shirts, bloody shorts, bloody track pants, sandals. It's just a common occurrence now."  

Conway added Friday mornings can be particularly bad because some bars have cheap beer and drink specials on Thursday nights.

Officials with the City of St. John's said they are hiring more workers to deal with the downtown litter situation.