City Crews Work to Catch Up on Trash

By Jacqueline Sit, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- After nearly a week of record snow fall in the metro, Oklahoma City has been trying to get back to business as usual, but there are still a few bumps on the road. Thousands of residents have had their trash cans sitting in the streets for several days waiting for their trash to be picked up.

"We do have about 7,000 households who are still without service, but we are literally rectifying that today," said Jim Linn, Oklahoma City Solid Waste Manager.

Despite the snow drifts, city crews have already collected from most of their customers last week, but crews said it wasn't easy.

"It's dangerous in some neighborhoods. You think about your own home how difficult it is to wheel the cart over the ice, but as it is 95 percent of the city was collected last week, which is amazing given the difficulty," Linn said.

Adding to the snowy situation, abandoned cars were littered along the way keeping trash men from accessing certain streets.

"We're able to access all but a couple of areas in the city that are primarily outlying rural areas. That's where we're having some of the difficulty," Linn said.

City crews are asking for the public to help them by placing the trash bins close to the curb.

"It's our intent to hit every single household that we can possibly access this week," Linn said.

Depending on the weather, city crews said they expect to have their trash pickup back on track by Thursday.