Sea Cost Disposal said Tuesday that its delinquent accounts are down to 15 percent — a difference of more than 10 percent from earlier this month.

Terry Hendricks with Sea Coast said 538 customers have recently been removed from the list of delinquent accounts and that just over 750 customers are currently suspended. That’s a big step forward for the company, which said 32 percent of customers were not paying their bills before the cut-offs were announced.

Stephen Hendrieth, the waste accounts coordinator for the city, said around 600 households in the city have still not signed up for garbage service. He said at least 35 of those households have been turned in to code enforcement.

Anyone that hasn’t signed up for garbage service is running out of excuses at this point. Sea Coast has been up and running since February so there’s been plenty of time to pay.

Anyone that hasn’t paid their current bill, or hasn’t paid since getting service started, needs to get it taken care of quickly.

Sea Coast also needs to double check that customers are receiving bills. Some customers have complained about receiving bills after the marked due date had passed. If that’s the case, it’s confusing and frustrating to customers.

With that said, customers know when their bill is due and they know they’re supposed to pay. It’s really not that complicated.

Sea Coast doesn’t want to take anyone’s trash cans, but will do so if bills aren’t paid in a short amount of time.

We hope to see the number of delinquent accounts continue to drop for Sea Coast.