CEO Column

The two-and-a-half year-old pandemic has impacted our personal and professional lives in numerous ways. For many of us, the pandemic’s effects on solid waste collection have also become both personal and professional. 

During Spring/Summer of 2020 and the initial wave of Covid-19, numerous businesses and schools closed causing residential waste generation to increase by 20 to 25 percent in many communities and commercial waste generation to decline by half or more in some major cities. Some collection workers got sick or needed to quarantine because of exposures, which created temporary staffing shortages. Those shortages coupled with the increased residential waste generation meant some communities experienced delayed collections, including in my neighborhood.

In the Spring/Summer of 2021, a handful of larger cities again experienced difficulty collecting trash and recycling on a regular basis. Elevated residential waste volume and staffing issues remained the primary causes, leading municipalities to make operational adjustments, including changes to recycling and yard waste collection, to ensure regular trash collection.

This Summer, local media is again filled with numerous articles about collection delays. Just in the past month, I have read numerous articles about residential collection delays in New Jersey, Georgia, Michigan, Virginia, Ohio, Florida, and Wisconsin. The delays have often been for several weeks, with residents complaining to elected officials and their service providers. During the hot weather, garbage becomes ripe and can pose a public health hazard when it sits out at the curb for weeks.

These more recent delays aren’t directly tied to municipal services. In each example in the previous paragraph, a private waste hauler collects residential solid waste under a contract with a local government.

Most of the companies involved reference the “labor shortage” as a reason for the delayed collection. The haulers ask for patience. Some of them are bringing in workers from other locations to help address the situation. Some companies are increasing pay and offering bonuses to attract new drivers.

I am sympathetic to the fact that there is a worker shortage in the solid waste industry. SWANA has been a leader in the solid waste industry calling attention to the problem and suggesting solutions such as raising wages and innovative recruitment processes and targets. This effort pre-dates the pandemic and includes a well-received Applied Research Foundation (ARF) report.

Many local governments privatized solid waste collection over the past few decades, as they concluded that the private sector was more nimble, could fill open positions more readily, and collect residential trash and recyclables more cost-effectively—allowing limited municipal resources to be allocated to other services. The pandemic is making some municipal leaders question whether the private sector retains those advantages, especially when a franchised hauler does not face competition from other companies. In one case, a New Jersey municipality with an exclusive residential waste franchise renewed its agreement with a hauler at more than double the price—even after the hauler had been experiencing collection delays—because no other company bid on the contract.

We are one industry, and face common challenges. SWANA will continue to provide recommendations on how companies and agencies can best respond to ongoing difficulties attracting and retaining employees. These will include increasing wages for sanitation workers, and we should not be shy about explaining to residents that this is contributing to their monthly bill increasing (along with other operational cost increases). Regardless, collecting solid waste is an essential function of local governments, and the cost of providing it is increasing. If private companies are unable to provide this service in a reliable manner, municipalities may want to consider other options.

Sara Bixby contributed to this column.