JACKSON, Miss. — Residents of Mississippi’s capital are scrambling to figure out what to do with their trash after garbage collection abruptly ended this week as contract negotiations failed between the mayor and the City Council.
Stacks of cardboard boxes and black plastic garbage bags lined residential streets or were dumped in the front yards of vacant homes throughout the city, angering residents who called for a quick resolution before the dispute escalates into a public health crisis.
The sudden end to trash-hauling services in Jackson is the latest problem to plague the state’s largest city, which is already roiled by gun violence, unpredictable access to clean drinking water and crumbling, pothole-riddled streets. More than a quarter of residents in the state’s predominantly Black capital live in poverty. Many Jacksonians rely on public transportation, or a neighbor’s goodwill for rides, which makes it difficult to bring their trash to a dropoff point.
“This is absolutely ridiculous. We have all of the problems with crime, potholes, dilapidated buildings, and we are putting our effort and energy into garbage,” said Tim Norris, who is considering moving his restaurant, Mom’s Dream Kitchen, out of town. “At the end of the day, it’s poor leadership.”
The contract dispute, which has been brewing for two years, came to a head recently when Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and some City Council members could not come to an agreement over which company should be allowed to pick up the city’s trash. As a result, in a split 3-3 vote, with one member abstaining, the council failed to ratify a proposal last weekend to award Richard’s Disposal, a New Orleans-based company that has been collecting trash for the past year, a new, six-year $54 million contract.
“This is about the ability to execute in a professional manner,” said City Council President Ashby Foote, who voted against the contract Saturday, saying that although Richard’s Disposal
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