Trash talk: Cape Coral rolling out 10,000 new bins for garbage collection

Hurricane Ian caused lasting damage to Cape Coral, but one underrated aspect is the effect it had on residents' ability to take out their trash.

Today, the city sets out to replace approximately 10,000 missing trash bins by the end of April.

"In the recovery of hurricane Ian, there are many tasks that are required to get our city back to pre-storm conditions, and a lot of those activities take place outside the residence home," said Interim City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn. "This is something that for their own personal recovery is going to happen at their doorstep."

Ilczyszyn said Ian massively disrupted the city's collection process, and residents had to find ways to use bags, containers, or other methods to get their trash to the curb.

"Just trying to find a way to get the garbage off the street, so today marks a point where we can get back to this uniform look that's clean and is safer for the residents," Ilczyszyn said.

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What is the timeline for distributing 10,000 trash bins?

Solid Waste Manager Terry Schweitzer said the city is beginning the process of rolling out nearly 1,000 trash bins today (April 4) to residents.

The city and its garbage hauler, Waste Pro, have compiled a list of residents who reported missing bins.

The rest of the 9,000 remaining totes are expected to be delivered over the next few days.

What took so long?

Schweitzer said the city spent five months compiling a list of missing totes.

"It would have been more time-consuming to actually go around and try to look and see where all the carts are missing or who is missing carts," Schweitzer said.

He said it gave residents time to report a missing bin, including renters and those who evacuated the city.

"It was to build that inventory," Schweitzer said.

How much will this cost?

The total cost for the totes is almost $700,000.

Cape Coral contracted with Toter LLC and Container Pros LLC as the provider and distributors of the new carts, which Cape Council had approved in March.

Schweitzer said the city has requested payment through FEMA to cover the cost of the carts.

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If you still need a bin, here's what you can do:

Residents can call the city's 311 number or call Waste Pro for a replacement.

What else is the city focusing on?

The city is hosting a citywide Earth Day clean-up on April 22, and Ilczyszyn encourages residents and interested organizations to register and participate.

"The storm blew around paper, cardboard, and plastics throughout the city, you still see those remnants throughout the city," Ilczyszyn said. "So we're trying to put together one of the largest Cape Coral cleanups that we've ever seen in the history of our city."

Luis Zambrano is a Watchdog/Cape Coral reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. You can reach Luis at Lzambrano@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @Lz2official.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Cape Coral replacing 10,000 trash bins as a result of Hurricane Ian