and Alex Rush

Trashocalypse 2011 appears to be over, as the city has slowly but surely picked up the detritus left in the wake of the Blizzard of 2010 and the snowfalls of 2011.

Since our coverage of the Trashocalypse began last week, drifts of garbage up to 3 feet high have been removed from curbs and sidewalks borough-wide, making for a cleaner, less smelly Brooklyn.

And because of our dogged coverage of the city’s handling of the heaping piles of garbage and recyclables, a Manhattan Beach woman who hasn’t seen a trash pick-up in more than a month is getting some much-needed relief.

Oriental Boulevard homeowner Mona Kavowras told us Monday that two overflowing bins and more than a dozen plastic bags worth of recyclables, food and adult diapers have been piling up outside of her house since Dec. 23 — days before the first flake of snow fell.

“My husband is 80 and has Alzheimer’s so he has to be changed three times a day,” said Kavowras. “Now all that waste has been accumulating for weeks.”

But what was more disheartening was that most of the trash in Manhattan Beach, as well as the rest of the borough, have been cleared out by now — except for Kavowras’ front yard.

“It took a while after the snowstorm, but lately everyone else on the street has had their garbage picked up,” said Oriental Boulevard resident Flori Kostoff. “I usually have no problems with the garbage men around here.”

Kavowras’ garbage pile measures about four feet high and five feet wide, making it too large for the senior to bring it out to the curb. But Kavowras called both 311 and Sanitation Garage 15 on nearby Knapp Street several times to let them know that she had a large pile of refuse in front of her home. Each time she called, she said she was assured workers would pick up the waste — even though she couldn’t get it to the curb.

“A very polite person always answers and says that it’s fine that my garbage isn’t out by the curb,” Kavowras said. “They always promise it will be picked up, but then it never is.”

Enter CNG Newspapers.

When we called Sanitation Garage 15 Monday afternoon, a receptionist named Sherry told us that a garbage truck would be sent to the house soon — even though the trash on Kavowras’ block had already been picked up that morning. When we called a second time, another receptionist said that the trash would be cleared by Monday night.

Panicked city Sanitation officials even sent out an inspector to find out how Kavowras’ home was missed.

“It’s very strange that this is the only house with garbage in front of it,” explained city Department of Sanitation spokeswoman Kathy Dawkins. “In general we have been able to catch up with garbage collection since the blizzard.”

Sanitation workers are supposed to collect garbage that is in front of a house even if it’s not on the curb, said Dawkins, who could not explain why Kavowras’ home had been overlooked.

Over in Bensonhurst, an 84th Street resident living between Bay Parkway and 23rd Avenue reached out to us Friday to tell us that more than 120 garbage bags were piled up outside her apartment building.

“I’m looking out the window and I’m shocked at what I’m seeing,” said the resident, who only wished to be identified as Ellen. “I haven’t seen things this bad since the garbage strikes. They haven’t picked up the trash since last Thursday, but they’ve plowed the streets three times today. Give me a break.”

Ellen found the lack of pick-ups is just a symptom of a “general deterioration of city services.”

“We’ve had a tremendous diminution of services, then the blizzard hit,” she said. “The city is reacting to that, but now they’re going to have to react to all the garbage piling up.”

Ellen received her response the next day when the city took away all the trash from in front of her building. But, this time, we had nothing to do with it; After Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and Wednesday’s snowstorm, the city resumed pick-up operations last weekend, a Department of Sanitation spokesman told us, adding that the city was now seeing “near to normal pickup operations.”

But, as the old saying goes, a garbageman’s job is never done: On Monday, there was more trash on 84th Street, waiting for the next round of collection.