ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Many Orange County residents are complaining after the lids of their garbage bins were destroyed by a trash collection truck, according to county officials.
Mike Kleiman, a resident in Orange County’s Conway neighborhood, told News 6 on Monday that his bin was one of those that were damaged. He added that it all began about a year ago.
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“(The county) implemented trucks with claws, and now, they don’t have to have all the people doing the trash and all that kind of stuff. I think that’s a great idea,” he said. “Great program, the whole thing works — but they’re obliterating lids.”
Kleiman said that the garbage trucks have been picking up the cans with a claw to empty them out, but in the process, those claws have knocked off wheels, broken lids and scraped up the bins.
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“It’s just really rough, rough duty on the cans,” he said. “This is super-thick plastic. I’m telling you, if I took a baseball bat, I don’t know that I could break these lids.”
While that’s been bad enough, the worst part has been dealing with the flies.
Kleiman explained that the unlidded bins have been attracting tons of flies to the neighborhood. Within the span of three days, he nearly filled up an entire flycatcher, he said.
With the long wait times and continued garbage truck issues, Kleiman added that there isn’t much that he or his neighbors can do to fix the issue.
“You just have to sit there in your flies, and that’s about the most horrifying thing I think I’ve ever seen. And I can reproduce that fly mess in two days,” he told News 6.
Virgil Akers, another resident of the neighborhood, stated that most people in the neighborhood have been struggling with the massive volume of flies.
“My other neighbor was just over here, and we were chatting, and he said to me, ‘I cannot believe the flies,’” Akers said.
Akers added that he’s reached out to the county several times for help, despite the long wait times on the county’s automated phone line.
“I finally got through the other day. This young lady answered the phone, and it sounded like I was talking to a telemarketer because I could hear five people behind her talking at the same time with all this reverberation. And I said to her, ‘How in the world do you do this all day?’” he said. “It gave me a headache trying to talk to them for five minutes. She just laughed, and I thought, ‘This explains it all. This is why nobody has a new bin or new lid — because this is what they have to deal with.’”
Kleiman reached out to Orange County Utilities Solid Waste about the issues and offered to personally come out to grab the lids for his neighborhood. The department responded with the following automated message.
Thank you for contacting Orange County Utilities Solid Waste. This is an automated response to verify the Customer Service Team received your message and will respond within two business days. On occasion, due to a high level of inquiries or the need to research your inquiry, it may take slightly longer to send you a reply. We are currently experiencing an increase in calls due to cart and lid damage and are working with our vendors to identify the root causes and make appropriate corrections. Currently repairs are taking approximately 15 to 20 business days. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.
If you wish to contact us regarding your original message, please call the Orange County Utilities Solid Waste Hotline at 407-836-6601. We are here Monday through Friday (except holidays), 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. and look forward to providing assistance.
Orange County Utilities Solid Waste
News 6 has reached out to county officials for comment on the ongoing issues and is awaiting a response.
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