HOUSTON – Piles of trash line some streets of the Cypressdale neighborhood, one of the latest to experience issues with garbage pickup by Texas Pride Disposal.
Residents claim the trash takeaway day hasn’t been consistent, some days are skipped altogether, and they’re dealing with growing piles of garbage, drawing creatures like rats and raccoons.
“I want to know what they’re going to do if we’re going to change companies or what’s going to happen,” longtime resident Linda Reesor said. “In the 40-some years we’ve lived here, this has never happened, ever.”
The Cypressdale HOA met on Tuesday night where other concerned residents raised their voices, at times talking over each other, all focused on the smelly stacks of garbage.
“We just want something to change so it’s not like this because this is not right,” longtime resident Karen Patterson said.
KPRC 2 was not allowed to take a camera inside the meeting, but a representative from Texas Pride Disposal addressed resident questions, telling them issues first started in 2020 when the company lost several drivers and turnover became higher than usual.
He also assured them he’s confident the company will be out of this rut soon.
“It’s gotten to the point where I am contemplating just taking it all in my truck down to the city (to) dump myself,” Cypressdale resident John Walker said.
Neighbors said trash is supposed to be picked up twice a week, while recycling pick-up is scheduled for once a week. Some received notifications that the company would be combining trash and recycling as part of its effort to get back on track, even though they said they pay a separate fee for recycling.
“It’s kind of disheartening that it’s just going straight to the dump,” Walker said. “We’re paying the premium to be proactive with the environment, yet we’re not getting what we’re paying for.”
The company rep also told residents growth and new contracts have slowed to a near standstill while they focus on getting back to normal.
“We should give them a chance,” Reesor said, just glad someone showed up to talk to them. “They said they were going to make sure things are going to get fixed, and we weren’t going to have this problem anymore.”