With many families home from work and school due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pearl River County residents are spring cleaning and disposing of unwanted items, which is creating problems for the local landfill.

Central Landfill in Millard is seeing more people individually bringing waste to the landfill, which is slowing down service. The Pearl River County Board of Supervisors made an informal request that citizens temporarily postpone or limit taking personal garbage to the landfill, to allow commercial garbage services to access it more easily.

The landfill is being overrun with traffic and not able to let all of the commercial trucks in and out, said County Administrator Adrain Lumpkin. Service at the landfill is also being slowed down because it is difficult to enforce social distancing guidelines at the dumpster where people bring residential waste, said Lumpkin. The Board might consider an order to prevent so much traffic at the landfill during the shelter-in-place, but as of Wednesday Board members were hopeful that asking the public to temporarily postpone taking their personal waste to the landfill would reduce traffic.

Waste Management District Manager Sam Williams said the landfill is working on a plan to address the issue.

Nonprofit Jacob’s Well is also seeing donations pile up because staff are unable to properly sort through the influx of items, said District V Supervisor Sandy Kane Smith. Jacob’s Well has voluntarily closed its doors due to COVID-19, so while donations are appreciated, citizens are asked not to take donations to Jacob’s Well locations in Picayune and Poplarville at this time, said Smith.