SAN ANTONIO — With kids out of school and many starting to work from home this week, trash bins are filling up much faster than normal. Officials with the city's Solid Waste Management division say there are things you can do to help them out.
"We don't want our residents to take advantage of the situation and use the recycling as another garbage can, or the organics," said Nick Galus, senior projects manager for Solid Waste Management.
He says trash needs to stick to the brown cart, organics in the green and recyclables in the blue. Besides the trumped-up trash, he says there's normally an increase in waste this time of year anyway.
But with more people staying home by the day, the waste just keeps piling up.
"What we've seen, though, is our garbage and recycling have also started the trend upwards," Galus said. "So we are expecting in the upcoming weeks, with everybody staying at home, that those tonnage will also increase."
Every year, Solid Waste Management picks up 550,000 tons of waste from 155 routes across the city. Including their bulky and brush trucks, they have close to 250 trucks on the road each day. And while they say residents shouldn't expect an interruption of service, it may take them longer to collect each day.
"There are going to be some instances where, if you are used to getting your cart picked up by 11 a.m., it might not be until 2 p.m. or even later."
The city says that if you can't fit all of your trash into the bin and need a second pickup during any week, you can call 311 and they'll come on a different day to collect that bin of trash. But it will cost you $10 for the service, which is still less than fine you may be slapped with if you place your trash in the wrong bin.