Beginning next month, residents within the city limits of Picayune will have their waste picked up by a new company.

In preparation for that change, Darin “Gus” Bordelon, president and CEO of Coastal Environmental Services, spoke about the changes that can be expected during Tuesday’s Picayune City Council meeting.

Starting on the 13th of this month, staff with Coastal Environmental Services will begin staging the new waste carts at two locations in the city. Distribution of the carts will begin on the 20th in an effort to have them at each house before the company takes over the city’s waste pickup contract on Sept. 1.

For the most part, services will remain the same as they were under the previous contractor, Waste Management.

Garbage collection days will remain the same, but recycling services will change from twice a week to just Wednesday.

Brush collection will be broken into four zones picked up during one of four days, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

City residents should expect to receive brochures detailing these changes in the coming days and weeks, which will include maps outlining the zones and collection days for brush pick up.

Any concerns residents have will still be reported to the city’s Public Works Department, Public Works Director Eric Morris said. Those concerns will then be recorded in the city’s system, and relayed to Coastal Environmental Services.

Waste Management will begin picking up their carts by the end of the month.

A public hearing was also held during Tuesday’s meeting, where a number of business owners were advised to cleanup their properties, including two tire businesses located on Highway 11, a car repair shop on Palestine Road and the old Panda Palace.

All of the businesses were deemed a public nuisance and given 11 business days to fix the problems, which ranged from cutting the grass in the case of Panda Palace or removing old tires stored on the property for the tire businesses or removing junk cars in the case of the repair shop. 

The next Council meeting will be held on August 21, at 5 p.m. in City Hall.