WOODBRIDGE — A good labor market has to lead to bad service when it comes to hauling away trash from homes and businesses.
Since February, Prince William County’s Solid Waste Division has received 20 reports of missed collection by American Disposal for trash and recycling pickups from residents in the Manassas area, Woodbridge, Nokesville, and Gainesville.
The company has been not been cited by the county government for the missed pickups. Multiple requests to the company for comment on this story went unanswered.
County representatives are in talks with American Disposal Services about restoring normal collection services, they told Potomac Local.
Prince William County Solid Waste Division Chief Thomas Brunn told the Prince William Board of County Supervisors on Tuesday that trash haulers across the U.S. are having issues finding people to work on trash trucks.
“We have a very low unemployment rate, and they’re having difficulties finding…men and women who are willing to work on garbage trucks,” said Brunn.
American Disposal Services holds the contract to provide residential and commercial trash service in Manassas. There have been problems there, too.
In a statement to Potomac Local, a city spokeswoman said:
On April 26, 2019, the City of Manassas sent an email advisory to HOAs and property managers to inform them of service issues regarding trash and recycling collection within the City of Manassas.
In April, the City put [American Disposal Services] in touch with our Economic Development staff who were able to connect the company with partners who are able to provide assistance with recruitment, training, and retention. We understand that through this support, [American Disposal Services] are actively recruiting and training new staff and that they are moving toward resuming full service within the next few weeks.
The service issues come after the company was purchased by Canadian firm Waste Connections in December.
So far, Prince William County hasn’t issued any citations to the company for missed trash pickups. It has, however, issued four violations within the past four weeks. All violations were for mixing recycling with the regular trash.
Violations are issued with fines, not to exceed $500.
Haulers have the right to appeal within 10 days to the Public Works Director. No other companies were issued violations during this period, according to a spokeswoman from the county’s Solid Waste Division.
The missed pickups also come after Prince William County told residents to stop putting glass to be recycled into single-stream recycling containers. Officials told residents it’s become too expensive to recycle now that China has reduced the number of recycled goods the country imports from the U.S.
Residents may now take glass to special purple containers the Prince William County Landfill, located at 14811 Dumfries Road, and the Balls Ford Road Compost Facility, at 13000 Balls Ford Road near Manassas.
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