Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Trash talk: In this suburb, cutting garbage pickups sparks a nasty backlash

(Click on the image for the Washington Post report by  Arelis R. Hernández)
At a recent civic association meeting, Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III happily touted the commercial investment, new grocery stores and tax revenue his government had helped generate since 2010.
But when he opened the floor to questions, residents had something else on their minds.
“What’s going on with our trash?” one Clinton resident asked.
It is a question Baker has heard repeatedly in the 14 months since his government cut trash pickups from twice a week to once, a change aimed at staving off a growing deficit in the solid-waste fund and bringing Prince George’s in line with the services offered in neighboring Montgomery and Howard counties and in Washington, D.C.