TAMPA, Fla. — Millions of pounds of debris from homes and businesses have been piling up for days now in neighborhoods all over Tampa Bay.
There is so much of it, that it's challenging solid waste workers to figure out what to do with all of it.
Between residents themselves, private haulers and municipalities, massive piles of debris are being slowly collected. In some cases, they are being brought to holding areas like one in South Tampa of Manhattan Avenue.
However, there is still discussion going on about where it will go next, and whether it is overwhelming their capacity to process so much of it.
“We've had to take a different approach to it,” Tampa’s Solid Waste Director Larry Washington said. “But it's nothing we can't conquer.”
Washington says even for him it’s hard to wrap your head around as they are seeing waves of debris.
“First, all their items. Then the drywall. Then the wood planks,” he said. “Or whatever was damaged in the storm, so it's completely catastrophic.”
In a typical year, Washington says they collect about 40,000 tons of household items put to the curb. This week alone, he says they have seen nearly three-quarters of that.
“And once we make our second sweep of the areas, once we perform another collection effort, then we will truly know how much is out there and how much we have here and how many years, you know, of life, we will take away from the landfills,” he said.
The city of Tampa says it's also hiring outside contractors, saying that much of the debris collected will be taken to private landfills helping to spread out the impact on local dump sites.
Pinellas County’s landfill isn’t designed to accept storm debris, forcing private haulers to take it to private dump sites.
“The volume of debris we received from this storm would overwhelm our site,” a county spokesman said. “And interrupt regular waste processing.”
There’s also an ongoing concern about the hazardous materials people should not be throwing out — especially items with lithium-ion batteries.
Solid waste workers say to keep those out of the trash as they can start fires in the trucks that are hauling that debris or at the dump sites where they are eventually being unloaded.
