The best thing that can be said for the debut of Bridgeville’s new trash collection service is that the borough’s garbage got picked up last weekend—mostly.
That outcome didn’t seem entirely certain on Saturday, however, as a rocky rollout led residents to social media to ask questions, including:
- Why hasn’t my trash been picked up?
- Why is there a trail of broken glass running down several streets?
- Why are they putting recycling and regular trash in the same truck?
Borough manager Lori Collins said that she spoke with the contractor, County Hauling (a part of Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill), about residents’ concerns, and she expects improvement tomorrow.
“We are hoping to have a better week,” she said. “We’ve been in contact with them and I listed my concerns and the issues we had.”
Things started on a sour note just around New Year’s Day, when residents learned that they would no longer be able to recycle glass bottles and certain plastics. That is an industry-wide trend, not just the new company’s policy.
Bridgeville’s new contract moves the weekly garbage collection day from Wednesday to Friday. And the New Year holiday pushed Friday to Saturday. Yet, some residents who mistakenly put out cans on Friday morning contacted Bridgeville.org that evening to ask why their recycling was gone, but the regular trash was still there.
The next day, County Hauling trucks picked up a majority of residents’ garbage, Collins said, but a malfunctioning recycling truck leaked broken glass, leaving a trail down several streets.
On Saturday, the drivers were misinformed about the borough’s boundaries, Collins said, which led to several streets being skipped entirely.
The company took a mulligan on Sunday, and sent a truck back to collect the trash that they missed on Saturday. However, glass-leaking recycling truck did not return. Instead, some people’s recycling was intermingled with regular trash, Collins said.
The CEO of County Hauling, Richard Walton, came to Bridgeville and personally swept up the trails of broken glass, Collins said.
By mid-week, one resident reported that a recycling can still sat full outside of the house.
On a positive note, one resident reported that the trash collectors gently sent her garbage can back on the sidewalk, rather throw it in her yard.