It has been more than three weeks since Ida caused major flooding around New Jersey. Many neighborhoods are still a mess. The state’s trash removal industry was hit hard by the storm and is working hard to keep up.

Debris from the storm was finally picked up from the curbs of Cresskill. Homeowners say that this is a relief since the trash has been causing the neighborhoods to smell.

“There’s so much debris. It’s overwhelmed every facility. It’s still overwhelming them,” says Christina Westphal of Westphal Waste Services. “There’s just not enough trucks to take it out.”

Christina and Michael Westphal own the Norwood-based trash company. They provide municipal trash pickup, rent out containers to residential and commercial projects and remove materials from sites like Cresskill High School.

"We pick up the trash from facilities like this and it goes to a transfer station where it's transferred to go to a landfill. It either goes there by transfer trailer or rail car,” says Michael Westphal.

But because of the amount of trash that Ida produced, the process of picking the trash up is taking much longer than usual. The Westphals say that trash is piling up in facilities across the state, forcing drivers like Robert Pisano to wait on line for hours before they can dump a load to trash and pick up more.

“The transfer station is loading it into rail cars or trailers – whatever it may be – and they’re just trying to get it out faster than we can bring it in. And right now, it’s not working for them,” says Pisano.

Pisano has been in the business for 30 years. He says that he has never seen backups like this. Normally he can make up to 10 trips in a day. But he says that lately he is lucky if he can do half of that.

It is costing trash companies a lot of money and customers are tired of waiting. Everyone is asked to remain patient during this time.