Bloomington residents who have waited months to clean out the garage because of COVID-19 can take advantage of free bulk waste pickup starting Monday.
The free collection is typically done in May, but the city reduced staff to limit COVID-19 spread. Bulk waste piled up at the curb in some parts of the cityfor weeks.
Public Works Director Kevin Kothe said his staff is all back to work now and has caught up on trash and recycling collection. He said the department has hired seasonal help for the bulk waste collection.
“We pull people that would normally be working with streets and sewers. They might be fixing inlets and other issues, they get pulled into this, too,” Kothe said. “Just because there’s so much to haul that it takes everyone working at it to get everything done.”
Kothe said it remains to be seen how much waste crews will have to haul since the collection was delayed two months.
“We’re not sure, we think there could be more and if we do start to fall a little bit behind, we’ll post updates to the city’s website as to where we are at each day,” said Kothe, adding he thinks his crews can manage the collection with the usual-size staff.
Bulk waste collections will be done on the same daily schedule as trash pickup and opposite recycling week.
The collection is scheduled July 6-17. All bulk waste and brush collection must be placed in separate piles by the curb by 6 a.m. on its scheduled collection day, according to the city’s website.
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