Trash talking: Snow causes Philly pickup controversy

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Winter storms can force trash collection to be delayed or postponed by a few days or a week.

But when trash started piling up in one neighborhood for almost three weeks, residents reached out to Action News Troubleshooters for help.

You see, the city has to balance trash pickup with safety.

The Streets Department tells Action News what many people don't realize is a winter storm can actually affect trash collection for not just one, but for two weeks, especially if its calls for help from city residents go unanswered.

"The problem is we haven't had any trash pickup in two and a half weeks," Judy Hasday of Wynnefield Heights told Action News last week.

Residents we talked to say they called the city numerous times.

"And I spoke to someone. I guess he got phone calls from a lot of folks because he wasn't too pleasant and he said the trash men will not come down a driveway that is impassable to them," Karen Gill of Wynnefield Heights said.

"When you have a loaded trash compactor and you have these driveways that are a sheet of ice, they can be a real safety hazard," Deputy Commissioner Donald Carlton of the Philadelphia Streets Department said.

The city says in past winters, it had to tow more than 100 trash trucks that have gotten stuck in driveways.

"When we cancel driveway collection, we ask residents to put them out front; we notify everyone as much as possible to please put your material out front," Carlton said.

Carlton says many residents don't comply causing trash pickup to be further delayed the next week because of excess material.

"It wouldn't be an issue if they put it out front; we went through every street last week, we just didn't do the driveways," Carlton said.

The Streets Department says the city has been making these curbside calls since 2011 and it issued the one for two weeks ago via a press release, on social media, on its website and via robocalls to residents.

But Hasday says she and her neighbors never got the information.

Meantime, Deputy Commissioner Carlton gave us his word to take action and the trash will picked up.

The trash in that neighborhood did get picked up that same afternoon we talked to the Streets Department last week.

But, of course, after this weekend's storm, it couldn't get picked up Monday on their regular trash day.

We'll see how long it takes this time.