As Daily Bulk Pick-Up Ends In Detroit, Residents Express Concerns

(CBS DETROIT) - In just three days Detroit residents will have to wait for their assigned bulk day to bring large amounts of debris to the curb.

"There's trash over there," said Joseph Cron, a Detroit resident. "Been there for a week, week-and-a-half. I just thought they would automatically come around and pick it up."

Since June, crews from The Detroit Department of Public works have been picking up bulk trash on a daily basis after heavy rainfall left thousands of homes damaged by floods.

On Friday, Sept. 3, that rotation will come to an end and the Cron family on Lakewood Street is feeling uneasy about the deadline.

"They just haven't picked anything up," said Detroit resident Tonya Nash-Poland. "We haven't seen the big garbage trucks in like two weeks I think it was."

Donna Ramsey-Cron says she's been waiting over a week for this load to be removed…and there's even more still taking up space in the basement.

"Mold in my basement from the flood," said Ramsey-Cron. "June the 25 and 26, 2021, and I'm still waiting for them to come clean my basement. They told me they would and then when they didn't show up, I called the city of Detroit water and they said 'oh you're not on the list.'"

DPW Assistant Superintendent Dhaval Patel says crews have cleared more than 66 million pounds of bulk trash in flood recovery and The Department is working overtime to assist affected residents.

"Some of the hiccups we did have were potentially timely service but with the volume of work we had between us and our contractors we did the best we could, and we've gotten past that stage now," said Dhavel Patel, the DPW Assistant Superintendent.

Starting Sept. 4, bulk waste operations will resume back to normal, and fines will be enforced but if you need to remove debris after the deadline contact DPW by phone or on the Improve Detroit mobile app.