CAPE CORAL, Fla. — It’s a smelly situation that is spreading throughout Cape Coral.
Waste Pro trash pickup has been put on hold and a recent string of events has not helped the situation.
“The city needs to step up and take care of the situation. I don’t think Waste Pro needs to, I think the city needs to.”
Jeremy Clark is just one of the many Cape Coral residents who still have their week’s old trash. A week that brought with it a holiday and a tropical storm. But Clark doesn’t think that is any excuse.
“My pick up day isn’t until Wednesday and Fourth of July was on Sunday, back to work on Monday," said Clark. "Maybe they got the holiday on the 5th- if they did, that’s okay, we still had it out. So we thought, ‘Okay we’ll leave it out until Thursday…Friday…Saturday…Sunday…Monday.’”
Clark even took the liberty of going through his home’s property camera. As he rewinds the footage to Wednesday, July 7, you can see a Waste Pro truck driving down his street. But as it approaches Clark’s driveway, the truck cruises on by past his laid out receptacles.
“Waste Pro needs to step up or move on and the Cape needs to get somebody else in here. Just fining them obviously isn’t resolving the problem.”
In fact- before they gave Cape Coral their update last month, Waste Pro faced $1.6 million in fines for missed pick ups. The company has previously cited a shortage in staff as the issue.
Throughout the month of April, there was a total of 1,200 missed pick ups. And you don’t have to look very far to find a number of Waste Pro trash bins placed at curbs throughout the Cape.
“This is taking out on your taxes and they’re not providing the services that are needed, do we get supplemented for that?" says Clark. "Cape Coral fines Waste Pro for this situation but where does that fine go?”
Clark says he is forced to use his lawn waste bin for everyday trash. A situation he, and many other cape residents, want to see resolved.
“There’s three trucks that come by here so maybe downsize it? Maybe have a truck that has some sort of separation- recycles and agriculture. It’s all recycled.”
Back in May, the company hired 15 workers and wanted to reach a total of 85 drivers. We reached out to Waste Pro regarding an update on those numbers, but have not heard back.
The trash collectors are scheduled to host a hiring event this weekend.
