South End residents fed up with trash protocol

BOSTON — South End residents are fed up with the trash protocol that they say is leaving garbage scattered across the street.

Residents say curbside trash pickup happens twice a week in Boston's South End. They say the issue happens when people get into the habit of putting out their trash the night before, leaving the chance for bags to be ripped apart.

"I mean it’s frustrating, trash day is twice a week and street cleaning is every other week, so when I see someone take it out the night before I know that it’s going to be all over the street the next day unless one of the neighbors picks it up which we usually do it’s going to sit there for 2 full weeks and get rained on and become a bigger mess," said resident Ryan Hurley.

He's urging residents to get into the habit of putting their bags out in the morning, so they won't sit overnight.

Starting July 1, the city is rolling back pickup time an hour earlier.

Hurley says this will only make matters worse.

"If they really make it mandatory to bring your trash out by 6 a.m. that means that everyone is going to put it out the night before… Suddenly if everyone is going to put it out the night before it's going to be 4 times as bad," he said.

Boston's Chief of Streets Chris Osgood says he understands the frustration but he says rolling back the time will keep trash trucks off the streets during rush hour.

"If we can start sooner that means we can actually have the trash and recycles actually out on the curb for less time and we should be able to get more trucks through that process and advance the PM commute," said Osgood.

Osgood stresses to residents that city workers continue to do their best cleaning up pieces of trash left behind.

You are allowed to place trash out at night as long as it is after 5 p.m.

Cox Media Group