BALTIMORE (WJZ) — The Baltimore City Department of Public Works is extending hours at the community collection sites to help residents with their recycling.

Starting this week, the community collection centers’ hours will be extended on Tuesdays and Thursdays until 6 p.m. The locations will still be open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The move comes three weeks after the city launched the recycling drop-off program to free up crews to focus on trash collection.

“These guys work really hard and my heart goes out to them. They are wonderful people,” Cathy Morell said.

The city also added another community collection site in northeast Baltimore and changed two sites on the city’s west side.

“People can walk over here to drop off their recycling whereas over at the other site, you had to have a car, you had to have a friend who had a truck,” Morell said.

“There was a little bit of a challenge of how to even load stuff in your car, where to go, the lines were really long at some of the spots,” Stefanie Hopkins added.

One new location across from Steuart Hill Academic Academy serves the ninth district, where neighbors are thankful it’s closer.

“With school starting and traying to have a lot to figure out, it’s hard to actually get to the locations that are a little further out, so it’ll be great to have something in the neighborhood,” Hopkins said.

City Council President Brandon Scott called a public works hearing Tuesday, during which he wants the agency to get more creative to solve is waste management woes.

He also said dozens of city residents reached out after he asked citizens to help neighbors with trash and recycling pickup.

“We have to support our workers who are doing a tough job in a very tough time that many people wouldn’t do their job period, let alone during global health pandemic,” Scott said.

The public works department did not make anyone available for an interview Monday, but in a statement, the department said trash collection is happening on schedule.

“We are extremely appreciative of City residents who have received the recent changes to recycling services well. Those residents saw the change as DPW’s way of continuing recycling services in a community friendly manner, permitting the Department to better manage staff and keep residential trash collection as the main priority during this time. Our two-week assessment of the modified recycling services revealed the need for a number of changes and I am sharing them now,” said Acting DPW Director Garbark.

The hours at the Citizens’ Convenience Drop-Off Centers’ hours will remain unchanged.

The department also announced a vendor has agreed to service eight trash routes to help close the service gap.

The recycling drop-off program will continue through at least November 1.

Community Collection Center Location Changes

• District 1: DPW Maritime Operations Facility, 3311 Eastbourne Avenue
• District 2: DPW Eastside Sanitation Yard, 6101 Bowleys Lane and Hazelwood Elementary School, 4517 Hazelwood Avenue
• District 3: Hamilton Elementary, 6101 Old Harford Road
• District 4: Chinquapin Middle, 900 Woodbourne Avenue
• District 5: Former Police Academy, 3500 W. Northern Parkway (Access off of Manhattan Avenue)
• District 6: Greenspring Middle School, 4701 Greenspring Avenue
• District 7: Westside Elementary location moved to William S. Baer School, 2001 N. Warwick Avenue
• District 8: Westside Skills Center, 4501 Edmondson Avenue
• District 9: DPW Meter Shop location moved to Steuart Hill Academic Academy, 30 S. Gilmor Street (Access off of W. Lombard Street)
• District 10: DPW Southwest Sanitation Yard, 701 Reedbird Avenue
• District 11: Digital Harbor High School, 1100 Covington Street
• District 12: Dunbar High School, 601 N. Central Avenue
• District 13: DPW Property Management Facility, 1825 Edison Highway
• District 14: Mergenthaler (“Mervo”) High School, 3500 Hillen Road (Access off of 3500 block of Tivoly Avenue)