Wheelabrator Baltimore Provides Three Neighborhoods Dumpsters For Recycling Drop-Off
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- It's been weeks since people across Baltimore have had their recycling picked up.
The Baltimore City Department of Public Works suspended recycling in June after a coronavirus outbreak at their Eastern Sanitation Yard.
"We hope to resume that collection service as soon as possible," Matthew Garbark said, acting director for the Baltimore City Department of Public Works.
CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:
A total of 15 DPW employees have tested positive for coronavirus, Garbark said Tuesday.
On Thursday, Wheelabrator Baltimore provided three neighborhoods with dumpsters for free recycling drop-off.
"The glass, the plastics, the cardboard, the newspapers... all of those things need to be recycled," Austin Pritchard, of Wheelabrator Baltimore, said.
Residents describe their backyards and streets overflowing with bottles and boxes.
"[There's] trash up and down the alley and it's just pretty disgusting," Shemeika Johnson, in Baltimore's Brooklyn neighborhood, said.
"People's trash cans... there's bags all piled up around them," said community liaison, Kendra Summers.
Summers is worked with Wheelabrator to spread the word throughout the community about the dumpsters. She said her biggest fear is people dumping recycling into their trash cans because they don't have anywhere else to put it.
This trash buildup made Wheelabrator Baltimore uniquely qualified to help. The company owns the incinerator located in the middle of the city, turning trash into energy.
"We have the ability to dispose of that trash," Pritchard said.
"This really helps get it off the streets without letting it sit and collect," Summers said.
The Baltimore City Department of Public Works said Tuesday they hope to resume recycling pick-up within the next few weeks now that over 100 of their employees are back at work after quarantining.
For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.
