Thursday, March 23, 2006

Talking Trash

Fresh off the email list:


"I have been calling solid waste religiously regarding missed pick-ups and missed recycling. I am not sure if we have new people or just lazy people. For the past few weeks, they have taken partial pickups, have missed recycling for the past 2 weeks (however they have picked up the load across the street.) The problem is every time they miss the recycling bin, the papers blow all over the street. I have called at least 4 times over the past 2 weeks and have to hold at least 7 minutes before you get a live person. The CSR today said they are having pickup problems city-wide. Last night I got out weighed the garbage to make sure it was less than 50 lbs. Today I was told that if I had 8 bags, they may not take it all. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. However, they have no problem billing me $25.25 for solid waste each month. Do you realize that your garbage service is billing you $25.25 each month That is 56% of my total water and sewer bill. And this is the service we get. Not once have they offered a credit or adjustment. It is always, we will pick it up next week. The house across the street since vacant has never had the garbage picked up. Yet, they still charge me $25.25. I have to pay someone to haul it off, or do it myself. "


One Response:
"I just witnessed our garbage man in truck 1260 at 11:41 dump my recycling in with my garbage. He proceeded north on 10th street and dumped my neighbors recycling in with their garbage as well.

It's now 11:42.

What does this tell you? "

Citywide trash pick up problems? Why is that? Are there a bunch of people sick? Or are there not enough people hired? Or are the trucks broken? Are they being siphoned off to handle other duties? Is this a momentary thing or are there endemic problems in solid waste? Curious.

4 comments:

David Scott Banghart said...

More on the subject from the email group

"I have had a MAJOR problem this week with my garbage man. We put out a bunch of bags with yard debris and NONE of them were picked up on monday. I called solid waste and a supervisor came out to inspect. Left me a note on door saying bags must weight less than 50 lbs. (duh!) so,
not being someone to lose a battle, I took a big scale home from work and manny and I weighed and tagged the bags. The heaviest one was 48lbs, the lightest, 15lbs. On average, most bags weighed between 25 and 35 lbs.

So I called David McCrary 348-1148 ... I guess he's the head of solid waste(?) Anyway, problem solved. I highly recommend calling him directly. He is a genuinely nice guy, and very concerned about how his workers are performing. I never even have to get mean or threatening with him ... he's that nice a person and really truly gets to the bottom of things. If he's not in at the time I call, he always returns my calls promptly. I've already mentioned to him that we are having some pretty heated discussions on this e-mail group regarding garbage and recycling, so maybe more neighbors calling and reinforcing the issue may have more of an impact."

Anonymous said...

Recycling into the regular garbage is not new in the area, St. Pete for severl ayears did it as policy! The contrator who had the recycling business quit and there was no one to do it, so they collected it and took it to the dumps with everything else. This went on for several years till the SP Times brought it to light.

Anonymous said...

http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2006/3/24/150253.html

Bungalowlady said...

If you want to call Barbara Honiker (sp?) at 348-1165 she's at Solid Waste and good too! I had problems with my recycle bin and she had it picked up the next day. She said they are short-handed and that some of the people don't want to work 6 or 7 hours a day even though they are paid for 10 hours a day. Bdeats me! I'm happy to have a job that pays the bills and wish I could work only 6 or 7 hours a day.