Quezon City authorities asked households Thursday to coordinate directly with their respective barangay officials if garbage trucks fail to collect their household wastes in their areas on time.

With an average of 750 truckloads of discards collected in the city’s drainage systems, Quezon City Engineering Department (QCED) chief Joselito Cabungcal appealed to the public to properly dispose their household wastes.

He said he expects wastes materials to further fill the city’s inlets, canals, esteros, creeks, rivers and drainage system based on previous experiences during the Christmas season.

Earlier, some city residents said the public should not be solely blamed for the clogged drainage systems, noting that some of the city’s local garbage collectors fail to promptly collect their household wastes.

They said stray animals will naturally scratch and eventually tear the plastic garbage bags left uncollected for days, allowing the trash to find their way to the inlets and drainage mains. Households usually place their sacks and plastic bags of garbage at the various waste drop-off points where stray animals scatter them on the streets and drainage mains.

However, city officials said some residents directly dump their trash inside the inlets even before the scheduled collection dates of the government-operated garbage trucks.

Cabungcal said nobody has the right to use the drainage mains and the major waterways as the dumping ground for uncollected garbage.

He urged households to place their garbage bags inside their yards and bring them out only when the garbage trucks arrive in their neighborhood to collect their discards.

Commonly referred to as the door-to-door garbage collection scheme, the policy avoids household refuse from touching the ground where dogs, cats and other animals roaming the streets may scatter the wastes which then find their way to inlets, canals, ponds, creeks and other major waterways.

The QCED chief said proper waste disposal allows the city government to lessen their expenses for flood control projects and similar undertakings, giving the government flexibility in transferring funds for other worthy projects.