ST. LOUIS–With our region in the middle of a major winter weather event that could dump more than a foot of precipitation by Friday, expect to see delays in the collection of trash and recycling.

According to the city of Chesterfield, Republic Services first delayed, then canceled its routes for Wednesday, with a decision still to come on service for Thursday. The company was telling residential customers in neighboring Ellisville that there would be no collection Wednesday, with the next scheduled pickup coming Wednesday, February 9. A Republic Services spokesperson later said that weather conditions would be monitored to determine when to resume services. Ballwin announced late Wednesday that Republic would not collect Thursday.

A Waste Management spokesperson said no routes would run Wednesday and that the focus Thursday would be for critical services, like hospitals. She added that on the Missouri side of the river, residential service would resume Friday and Saturday for trash only, and not recycling. Customers in Illinois should see residential service for both trash and recycling starting Friday.

Even though there may be a brief lull in the snow late Wednesday, the snow chances will stay with us into and through Thursday.

With this kind of long-lasting event, snow totals will be extreme, possibly in the 9-12 inch range, for metro St. Louis and more than that north of the city. This is a dangerous storm for many reasons, so it’s best to be prepared for being snowed in for a day or more.