Waste collectors will stop picking up bulk and brush collections from Austin homes starting on April 20, the city’s recycling center said in a statement.

The service will be suspended until further notice, the statement from Austin Resource Recovery said. Collections scheduled to take place next week will still occur.

Austin Resource Recovery spokeswoman Memi Cardenas said the service was suspended so crews can focus on regular trash and recycling collections, which have been increasing since Austin residents started spending more time at home amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"We hope this doesn’t affect our clients too much but right now we need to focus on other functions," she said.

Cardenas said the amount of trash that waste collectors had picked up this week was 11% higher than what they saw at this time last year. Recycling collections were up 15% compared to the same period last year, she said.

The amount of garbage and recycling collections this week are also higher from the week before, she said.