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New year, same trash: Garbage pickup problem in Highlands Ranch

Posted at 6:08 PM, Jan 02, 2020
and last updated 2020-01-02 20:53:17-05

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HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. — Christmas and New Year's Day have come and gone, yet the trash from both is still sitting on many curbs in Highlands Ranch.

Several residents told Contact7 that the private trash pickup service, Pro Disposal, hasn’t come by for pickups since Dec. 20, and won’t be by until Jan. 4.

“Yeah there’s garbage everywhere,” Kim DeCoste said.

Several streets in her Eastridge neighborhood had overflowing trash cans on the curb, some with bags and boxes piled up next to them.

“Especially during the holidays, when you have parties and visitors, you have tons of garbage [and] tons of recycling,” DeCoste said. “And our neighbors have small children, four small children. There’s lots of extra diapers, there’s just lots of gross stuff in the garbage.”

Pro Disposal, recently renamed Waste Connections Denver, was supposed to pick up on Friday, Dec. 27. The Christmas holiday bumped that to Saturday the 28th, but that pickup was canceled because of snow. The next scheduled pickup, according to an automated recording on their customer service line, will be Saturday, Jan. 4 — 15 days later.

“People are mad,” DeCoste said.

Posts on neighborhood Facebook groups have dozens of comments, including many upset because other trash services made their regularly scheduled pickups.

Contact7 emailed Waste Connections, but as of Thursday afternoon did not hear back.