Erika Riggs, a retired Minnesota state trooper, lives in a single-family home off Payne Avenue on St. Paul’s East Side.
With something akin to military efficiency, she and almost a dozen neighbors contract private plows to clear the alleys along multiple residential streets in the neighborhood.
The results, said Riggs, have helped Eureka Recycling complete its scheduled alley pickups over the past month, one of the snowiest Februaries in state history. It’s Waste Management they’re feeling abandoned by.
Beginning Jan. 30, the national trash hauler skipped pickups on her street, Cottage Avenue East, for three weeks in a row. Rather than complete full collection Wednesday, drivers exited their vehicles to take pictures of overflowing trash carts and lids that couldn’t fully close. Some they emptied. Some they didn’t.
Now, residents are bracing for financial penalties.
“They drove through the alley yesterday, right past all the garbage cans that were out and not covered with or buried in snow, and only emptied two cans,” said Riggs on Thursday in an email to Ward 6 City Council member Kassim Busuri’s office. “Since that seems to be one of many excuses they use, yes, the lids are not closed, which is another thing they will charge us extra for. According to St. Paul policy, they must close. Otherwise it is $3 per bag.”
Busuri said he’s more than just sympathetic. He’s in the same boat.
“I’ve had the same problem myself,” Busuri said, “where the trash was not picked up for going on three weeks. It bothers me to see a garbage hauler not fulfilling their obligation in the contract. There’s a section in the contract where we can charge the haulers for every collection they miss. I’m looking into that.”
Julie Ketchum, spokeswoman for Waste Management in Minnesota and a resident of St. Paul, said Friday that the company has completed all its collections in the city except for three alleys that run into Marion Street. Ketchum said ice conditions in those alleys make pick up dangerous.
“These alleys are like skating rinks,” she said. “Safety is our number one priority, and we will not send our drivers out in icy conditions, or in 20-below temperatures.”
Ketchum added that Waste Management doesn’t have accurate contact information for all its customers.
“With the new organized collection system, the city provided all haulers with information on new customers,” she said. “Some of them had incomplete or inaccurate information. Without phone numbers or emails for some of these customers, it made it impossible to contact them. However, service delays were posted on the city’s website. Waste Management encourages all customers to provide email and phone numbers.”
Ketchum said she does not know offhand if customers qualify for a credit off their bill. She said customers need to contact the city regarding that issue.
Meanwhile, Busuri and two other council members plan to sit down with the city’s licensed trash haulers on Wednesday, Feb. 20. He expects the discussion to be intense.
LARGEST HAULERS DROP THE BALL?
Busuri said it’s the large, national haulers — Waste Management, Republic Services and Advanced Disposal — that have missed the most collections citywide, which is the opposite of what one might otherwise expect given their resources.
He’s heard of no such delays involving Minnesota companies such as Ken Berquist and Son, Pete’s Rubbish Hauling or Gene’s Disposal.
“I’m not happy,” Busuri said. “It attracts mice, it attracts raccoons. It’s a big mess. The haulers in Highland Park were able to do their work without any delays. They didn’t miss a beat, and they are smaller companies compared to Waste Management.”
A spokeswoman for St. Paul Public Works said this week that the department has been in communication with Waste Management, which has sent out extra trucks and crews in its St. Paul service areas, which include much of the East Side, the North End, the Hamline-Marshall area, Mac-Groveland and West Seventh Street.
Riggs said she’s called customer service and logged complaints through the Waste Management website, and even offered to move trash collection to her front yard, without success. “I’ve had some pretty heated discussions with them,” she said. “They just don’t want to work with us.”
Riggs has another concern. The city moved from a free market trash hauling system — where residents contract their own haulers and can switch providers at any time — to an organized collection system on Oct. 1. As a result, Waste Management is the sole hauler designated to service 1-to-4 unit homes in her neighborhood.
Under the free market system, “I could say bye-bye Waste Management and go get my own carrier,” she said. “Having the choice eliminated is, I think, part of the problem. There’s no incentive to do a good job.”
Residents have had limited success getting their bills reduced as a result of missed collections. “It’s all over the board as far as the credits go,” Riggs said. “One neighbor got $3 back, another got $13 back.”