Frustration in Lee County over debris disposal

Frustration is growing over debris pickup and the proper way to put your stuff on the curb.

On Thursday, WINK News explained you can’t put debris in black trash bags and that you need to make three distinct piles for vegetation, appliances, and construction debris.

It’s been over a month since the storm and neighbors are still waiting for their debris to be picked up.

WINK News spoke to Fort Myers resident Napoleon Vilaboa, who explained he’s a little bit frustrated that they’ve only come into his neighborhood once. He said he wants things to go back to normal and is hopeful the county will have some answers.

“No information whatsoever. We’ve been basically doing everything on our own, trying to separate it on our own. You know the construction debris over here, furniture on one side and then maybe plants on the other. Trying to keep it as organized as possible. It’s terrible I mean I felt like this part, at least this neighborhood has been abandoned, it’s been looked over,” Vilaboa said. “They came one day maybe a week or four or five days after the storm one time, but it’s just so much. Once a day is not enough to remove everything we have here and they’ve never been back. I was expecting them to come back a lot earlier. It’d be nice to know what’s happening I mean I know you know that resources may be limited, but you know it’d be nice to be informed exactly you know what we can expect and when.”

WINK News reached out to FEMA and Lee County to see if neighbors should be separating their piles of debris and if it’s allowed to be put into black plastic bags. Lee County says you can put food waste in bags of any color, but all other debris should still not be in bags.