Garbage Collection Catching Up

Garbage collection services are getting caught up following the historic winter storm that halted pickups for more than a week throughout most of Fayette County.

La Grange City Manager Shawn Raborn said his city’s garbage contractor, Waste Management, stopped running trucks on Thursday Feb. 11, ahead of the storm. They returned to service last Monday, Feb. 22.

“The (customers) who get picked up on Thursday and Friday were missed not only last week but the week before, too,” Raborn told the Record last week. “They will be picked up this week.”

The City normally prohibits citizens from placing extra bags or cans next to their waste cart. However, Raborn said the City allowed the practice temporarily until the garbage service got caught up. He said Waste Management conducted a sweep with a rear-load truck on Saturday to pick up anything that was left on the ground.

Compounding the problem, Raborn said garbage trucks face three-hour wait times at the two landfills in Austin due to garbage service backlogs in communities throughout the region.

“There’s basically a traffic jam at the landfill,” Raborn told the City Council last Monday.

Schulenburg City Administrator Tami Walker said her City’s garbage service got caught up last week.

“We run trucks to the residential customers on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Walker said. “On both days (last week), we saw an abundance of trash. We ran two trucks both days and rotated a third in service while the other two went to the transfer station.”

Flatonia City Manager Sarah Novo said her City’s garbage contractor, Texas Disposal Systems, also got behind on collection during the storm. TDS was able to pick up all the garbage by the end of last week, she said.