Winter weather and holiday schedules are being blamed for delays in trash pickup this week and last week for some residents in rural parts of La Plata County.
Mitch Durkan, who lives southwest of Bayfield, said WCA Waste Corp. didn’t pick up his trash last week or Wednesday as scheduled. He tried to call the company for two days but received busy signals.
“We haven’t seen any trucks in two weeks,” he said. “There’s a lot of trash cans still sitting on the street, curb side, basically ... and they’re still full. I guess people are doing what they can to deal with it.”
Durkan said the area has received heavy snow around Christmas in the past, and it hasn’t been a problem.
Suzanne Brown, gate attendant with WCA Waste Corp., said visibility and road conditions were so bad Dec. 23 that some trucks were called off the road. The winter weather is also hard on trucks, she said. They take longer to warm up and some need to be chained up. Trucks can’t drive faster than 35 mph with chains, she said.
“The bad weather just slows them down immensely.” she said. “When weather hits, it just makes it a big mess.”
Customers should call their trash service collector if they haven’t received trash pickup in a while, she said.
Brown said her phones have been busy with customers complaining about missed trash pickup, but there’s no way of knowing exactly how many people may have gone without service.
“I’m one of them,” she said. “I live off (U.S. Highway 160 east), and mine was still missed last week. But I know the driver, and I know he’s struggling right now.”
If your trash was missed on its regularly scheduled day, WCA Waste Corp. recommends residents leave the trash out for collection the next day. For example, one driver was collecting trash Thursday from a Wednesday route, she said.
shane@durangoherald.com
