Classes out for colleges means busy day for trash pickup workers

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – The spring semester is over for most colleges, and students are leaving town.

What they’ve ‘left behind,’ is mounds of trash.

Sanitation workers say graduation is one of their busiest times of the year.

“To keep Starkville beautiful, we have to continue to keep our area clean,” said Administrative Assistant to Starkville Sanitation, Melinda Johnson.

The weekend brought one of the year’s biggest challenges for Starkville Sanitation.

Students leaving for the summer leave behind the items they don’t want, a lot of times resulting in illegal dumping.

“When you put furniture in an area where no one lives or at someone else’s house or if you go to a restaurant and throw furniture in the restaurant’s garbage container, which is not yours and you’re not paying for it,” said Johnson, explaining all the different types of illegal dumping.

As Johnson tells us, the legality doesn’t keep pickup workers from doing their jobs.

“Regardless, if it’s down we still pick it up,” she said.

While many items left behind by students are large, the Sanitation department is prepared for the load.

“We have a slack man,” said Johnson. “When the guys go around to pick up the trash, the driver will cal the office and let me know that they need someone to come out and pick up the furniture that needs to be picked up.”

The total amount of trash is large as well, but workers have seen this before and know what to expect.

“This time of the year, it can be kind of rough, and it just be a lot of couches and mattresses, all type of trash,” said trash pickup worker, Cartavis Beckum.

“What he said,” said co-worker Jeremy Randle. “You know, it be a lot of trash out, and you know, we just got to get it up. We ain’t got no choice.”

Johnson mentioned if you live in the Starkville area and have heavy furniture, you can call the Sanitation department 662-323-2652, and they will have someone sent to have that picked up.