ST. LOUIS – Overflowing alleys, mounting frustration, and cries for action. Some St. Louis residents say their neighborhoods are being neglected when it comes to trash pickup. They’re fed up and are demanding answers from city officials.
“The trash is never fully picked up. If they drop something out of the dumpster, they don’t care to pick it up,” Taylor Obst, a Carondelet resident, said. “It just basically creates a landfill in the alley. They haven’t picked up our trash since the week before the snowstorm.”
The city claims progress in addressing trash overflow, announcing a trash blitz from Jan. 24 to Jan. 26 that cleared 348 tons of waste. But residents like Obst say their alleys tell a different story.
“Why are you cleaning up Holy Hills? Why are you cleaning up Lafayette? Why are you cleaning up those higher-income neighborhoods?” she said. “Are they more valuable? No! We’re all human beings! Why are we getting treated any less than anyone else?”
Obst’s frustration peaked when she caught sanitation workers on video driving over the trash instead of picking it up.
“I have a video of them picking up another dumpster while the trash bag fell off top of it while they were picking it up and putting it into the dumpster and then setting the dumpster back on top of it,” she said.
Obst says she has not received a response from the city regarding the trash.
Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office sent a statement to FOX 2 News, stating: “We know there are still streets and neighborhoods yet to be covered and we know that is incredibly frustrating for residents whose trash has piled up.”
While Obst waits for her trash to be picked up, she says other neighbors have at least six more bags on their decks ready to go out.
The city says crews are working overtime, with added help from Forestry and Parks divisions for bulk pickups and bag collections.