Overview
- Reports this week from local newspapers and residents say multiple streets in Hamm have experienced repeated missed or delayed trash collections that caused strong smells, heavy maggot infestations and increased sightings of rats and large birds.
- The Abfallwirtschafts- und Stadtreinigungsbetrieb (ASH) acknowledges route-planning problems and says roughly five percent of collection tours were overlarge after the January reorganization and that most routes have been adjusted.
- ASH officials say they are doing address-level checks, briefing crews and running spot inspections to find and fix remaining gaps but their logged missed-pickup totals for specific streets are much lower than some residents claim.
- The city offers short-term steps such as placing extra bags beside bins and free drop-off at the Wertstoffhof Am Lausbach, but it has refused requests for refunds of municipal waste fees.
- Residents say the disruption has forced some households to store waste indoors or carry it to disposal sites themselves and raises public-health and nuisance risks that heat makes worse, so the ASH review will be watched for further operational fixes and clearer accountability.