JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Temporarily halting curbside recycling collection in Jacksonville is supposed to free up some workers to concentrate on other garbage concerns.
Tammy Patterson, who lives in the Paxon area, isn’t so sure about that.
“It’s been four weeks. Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be the fifth week that they missed our pickup,” Patterson said.
Up and down her neighborhood, trash has been sitting for weeks. She said she and her husband haven been complaining for weeks about the problem. While News4Jax was talking with Patterson on Tuesday, crews showed up and started hauling away the trash.
“It’s amazing. I guess the squeaky wheel gets the oil after all,” Patterson said.
The crews were actually responding to those complaints made by Patterson. So her advice appears to valid: Let the city know when there is a problem.
News4Jax has also been documenting problems at the 15 recycling drop-off points in the city. Dumpsters have gone days without being emptied. That was the case again on Tuesday. But there was a change Tuesday. While the dumpsters were still full, city crews had cleared and picked up the trash around the dumpsters.
Staff in the mayor’s office said it’s up to haulers, which have a city contract, to empty the dumpsters.
There’s no word yet on why that is not happening every night except Sunday.