Orange County’s revamped curbside garbage service, plagued by late and missed pickups after its January launch, is headed in the right direction as its first-year anniversary approaches, an officials says.
“Everybody’s adjusted now,” said Jim Becker, manager of the solid waste division. “We’re getting a huge number of customers picked up every week without incident, and we’re seeing far fewer complaints. That’s what we work for.”
The program collects garbage from 210,000 households. To reduce costs, the county switched Jan. 1 from twice-a-week curbside collection of household garbage to once-a-week pickup.
But customers trashed the new program in its first months. The county turned to fines to motivate haulers, whose failures led customers to file 8,500 complaints in the first 90 days.
Measured in complaints, progress has been remarkable.
Customer objections have plummeted over the past eight months, totaling 3,679 complaints, less than half as many during the start-up.
One hauler, FCC Environmental Services, racked up more than 2,400 customer complaints in January, but just 46 in November.
Despite the improvement, some issues remain. In recent weeks, customers have emailed the county about garbage trucks going too fast through neighborhoods and rude customer service.
Some also say performance varies week to week.
“It’s hit or miss with them,” Neil Werner said of his hauler in the Bithlo area. “One week they pick up everything, and the next they get everything on one side of the road and miss everyone on the other.”
Karmen Williamson said his hauler has skipped him so many times this year, he stopped complaining, figuring it wouldn’t help.
“I had county employees come out and tell me how hard the garbage people work,” he said. “I told them they need to fight for us, the residents.”
Meanwhile, solid-waste officials also say they continue to have compliance problems in the county’s recycling program.
Customers who toss batteries, clothes, greasy pizza boxes and other prohibited materials into the blue-lid recycling roll carts can spoil a load.
Tainted loads are hauled off to the landfill, adding to the administrative costs and defeating the purpose of a recycling program.
Those issues tend to get worse during the holidays when customers generate more garbage from parties and family gatherings.
Division spokeswoman Jamie Floer said discarded holiday lights, plastic toys, and wrapping paper may not be recyclable.
Wrapping paper, for instance, is often dyed, laminated or contains non-paper additives like glitter while ribbon and light strands can damage recycling machines that sort materials.
“When in doubt, leave it out,” she said.
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