Waste Management Issues Hamper New Orleans Hurricane Recovery

Since Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans last month, the city has been cleaning up the debris left from the storm and flooding. Unfortunately, much of this refuse from commercial and residential buildings has been left on the side of the road for weeks without trash pickup, NBC-TV reports.

The rotting garbage is attracting animals and creating health hazards and suffocating smells in the Louisiana heat. City officials, activists, sanitation workers, and the company contracted to do the work all agree that a main problem is a labor shortage among waste haulers.

Although Hurricane Ida has exasperated the problem, New Orleans has had problems with garbage pickup for a while. The waste management contractor points to a nationwide sanitation worker shortage during the coronavirus pandemic, especially garbage truck drivers. As many workers evacuated the city before the hurricane, the problem has been compounded.

City officials have set up emergency contracts with four local and national garbage hauling companies to end the trash crisis, New Orleans Public Radio reports. Dozens of extra garbage trucks and other vehicles and equipment—dump trucks, pressure washers, and sweepers—will begin hitting New Orleans streets for 12 hours daily the next several weeks until every street is cleared of trash and debris.

Dubbed Operation Mardi Gras because it will resemble the intensive cleanup traditionally performed after the annual celebration, the trash-hauling blitz is expected to last about a month, WDSU-TV reports. City residents and businesses affected by the delayed trash pickup will reserve reimbursements for their monthly sanitation fees and will not be billed for November.