The snow may finally be melting, but that weeks-old trash pile pouring out of the garbage can in your alley doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
Until now.
The D.C. Department of Public Works (DPW) says it is repurposing 80 seasonal leaf-collection workers to help address the stubborn backlog of trash and recycling pickups that have been delayed since the winter storm hit last month.
The move comes as D.C. finally seems to emerge from the weeks of frigid temperatures that city officials say made a full return to normalcy much more challenging. It also arrives as residents’ frustrations continue to mount; some say their trash and recycling haven’t been picked up in three weeks, leading to overflowing bins and worries that all that extra trash will be a boon to the city’s already-challenging rat problem.
Many of the trash-pickup challenges stem from the fact that D.C. doesn’t traditionally clear alleys after snowstorms, and in this case, the recent storm dumped snow and ice that subsequently froze in place as temperatures struggled to even approach freezing. City officials scrambled to respond, deploying crews with Bobcats to clear paths into alleys so some trash collection could resume — and in some cases, it did. (D.C. did have an easier time picking up trash from homes where it's collected in front of the residence, instead of in an alley.)
But even then, other issues emerged. “Our alley was cleared and the truck came down,” wrote one commenter on a Facebook group in Brookland. “However, I noticed the guys were dealing with trash cans that were frozen in ice and couldn’t be moved so had to be emptied by hand, and contents of trash cans that were frozen solid so the crushers in the trucks were having a heck of a time.”
In recent public messages, DPW has encouraged residents whose trash has not been picked up to file 311 requests, but in some cases, residents have done so — to no apparent avail. Still, this week the agency repeated the request that any missed collections be logged via the 311 system. “If a previous request has not been resolved, submitting a new one ensures it is captured in our updated routing system,” DPW wrote.
But more human hiccups have emerged, including mixed messages from elected officials. Earlier this week, Mayor Muriel Bowser said that trash pickup was returning to normal. “We are caught up in alleys writ large,” she said.
That doesn’t seem to reflect reality, responded Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen on Tuesday. “The city said service would be back on schedule this week, and it's simply not for a lot of people. Patience has run out, and frustration, mine included, has set in,” he wrote to constituents.
The post-storm trash collection challenges have also tied into some broader concerns with DPW services. Residents in certain parts of the city have complained of consistent missed pickups dating back to last fall; D.C. officials have conceded that DPW has faced staff shortages.
“Columbia Heights [has] appeared on DPW's missed or delayed trash pickup notices over the last few months with troubling frequency, seemingly every week,” wrote ANC Commissioner Jake Sherman in written testimony ahead of Thursday’s D.C. Council oversight hearing on DPW. “Our area appears disproportionately affected. Neighbors are patient when occasional delays occur, but patience wears thin when delays become the norm rather than the exception.”
“Trash and recycling collection continues to be inconsistent, unreliable, and poorly communicated,” echoed Ward 4 resident Tiffani Johnson in her own testimony.
Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, who chairs the council committee overseeing DPW, said she plans to use Thursday’s oversight hearing to raise issues with how the city responded to the storm, from clearing snow to picking up trash.
On Tuesday, D.C. Public Schools officials seemed to concede what many parents had complained about when schools first opened after the storm: streets and sidewalks weren’t consistently cleared, making it difficult or impossible for many kids to get to school. In an email to parents, DCPS said it would excuse any absences on January 29 and 30, the first two days that schools reopened.
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