Trash customers are becoming increasingly frustrated throughout the metro as pickup continues to be delayed.
41 Action News aired a story Tuesday night which showed trash piled up in one Belton neighborhood.
Since that time more complaints have flooded in from all corners of the metro, including Blue Springs, Independence, Lenexa, Shawnee and even Excelsior Springs.
Lisa Disbrow is the regional spokesperson for Deffenbaugh (now Waste Management Inc.), the trash company responsible for the missed pickups.
"It's truly related to the weather conditions and then with the holiday week. On a holiday week, we normally go to a one-day collection and then with the weather that came in, we were already working one day behind due to the weather, and it just furthered the delays," she said. "Currently we're operating normally this week and we're almost caught up."
She also said the issue in Belton was entirely separate, having tried to workout over-due invoices with the neighborhood’s HOA for several months before ceasing service.
"It is our intent to always work with our customers and help resolve these issues, but at the end of the day customers need to pay their invoices for services rendered, and at that time the Belton HOA was not paying their invoice and it was outstanding. Unfortunately, the only recourse was to suspend service,” said Disbrow.
Deffenbaugh was purchased by Waste Management Inc. last March. Disbrow said the acquisition has nothing to do with the delayed pickups over the last three weeks.
KC Disposal will pick up trash in Belton’s Cimarron Trails neighborhood through January 26.
Bruce Reid, the customer featured in Wednesday night’s story, did confirm Deffenbaugh picked up his trash late Wednesday afternoon.
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Josh Helmuth can be reached at josh.helmuth@kshb.com.
