Some residents in unincorporated Lowndes County have complained that their garbage cans have been taken up, leaving them without a way to dispose of their trash until Jan. 1.

Allgreen Services, one of the waste management companies ousted out of unincorporated Lowndes County with the Oct. 9 Commissioners decision to award a waste contract bid to Veolia Environmental Service, has begun picking up the waste carts in anticipation of the holiday season.

“We hate to have to remove them, but we have to,” Allgreen General Manager Sam Sullivan said. “We thought about waiting a month, but the problem is if we wait until the end of the year, we would be removing the carts around Christmastime. We didn’t want to be out there then.”

The removal of the carts is a “very cumbersome” ordeal, Sullivan said. If there is any garbage in the carts, it must be removed by a garbage truck, and the cart strapped down in a trailer afterward.

“We have to follow the truck to get the can empty,” Sullivan said.

Allgreen serves about 275 customers, and the County has received several calls from residents angry that they received no notice.

“We informed customers by letter to let them know, and certainly some of them had their cart removed before they got the letter,” Sullivan said. “We tried to do them at the same time.”

The County encouraged residents with complaints to contact Veolia at (229) 244-2466 to make arrangements prior to New Years Day. Veolia will offer temporary service at Allgreen’s rate until Jan. 1, when the rate will decline to $12.80 across the county.