Complaints about garbage and recycling collection aren’t new to Crestwood, but according to the city’s elected officials, the number of such complaints saw a notable uptick through autumn and into December. Mayor Scott Shipley says that, over the last six months, the city has received over 60 online complaints.
“Each one of those (complaints) costs the city money, because we have to spend staff time to research that,” Shipley said. “It also costs our reputation as a city.”
The Crestwood Board of Aldermen invited Tony Lamantia from Waste Connections — a trash pickup service located in Bridgeton, which services the city of Crestwood by contract — to field questions at the Jan. 27 board meeting.
The most common complaints that elected officials mentioned to Lamantia included consecutive missed pickups, confusion after missed pickups, the potential of trash and recycling being thrown into the same truck and rude customer service representatives.
Lamantia opened the discussion by explaining that Waste Connections is struggling to retain truck drivers to service routes, calling it “a real fiasco.” He attributes this to employees jumping from company to company based on increased pay — the trash service has increased the hourly pay in response, but to no real gain.
Lamantia says that Waste Connections is currently “overhiring” in an effort to have enough drivers in the future, but that it takes time to train new employees. He estimates that six trucks service Crestwood: three for trash, three for recycling.
“We’re going to fix things, I promise you,” Lamantia told the Board of Aldermen. “We’re trying to communicate better. That’s one thing. You guys need to know what’s going on, where we’re having issues.”
He added, “Hopefully things are going to change from the way December was. Any time we get into the real cold weather, that’s when I really start losing drivers. That, yard waste season and when it gets to 100 degrees — that’s when they really start to bail. I’m hoping if we overstaff, we can solve that issue.”
Missed waste pickups
Inconsistent pickups were the main gripe. Shipley suggested that consecutive missed pickups in December were due to a “snow event,” and Lamantia stated that he was unsure whether all the routes were completely serviced on the Tuesday after the major snow storm that swept across the country on the weekend of Jan. 24-25.
Aldermen mentioned that, if a pickup is missed without communication or explanation, residents have no idea when their trash will be picked up. Trash and recycling cans might stay out on the street for days.
Ward 3 Alderman Grant Mabie added that, when residents call Waste Connections to ask about a missed pickup, representatives have told them, “Sorry, we’ll send the driver back out to get your trash.” But when no truck ever comes to grab it, “that’s when people get the most irritated.”
“You’d have the happiest people if you could make that commitment and honor it, and actually send a driver back out to do it,” Mabie said. “But what you don’t want to have is someone disappointed twice. You’ve already disappointed them by missing the pickup, but if you make the promise and break the promise, you’ve disappointed them a second time. That’s when we’re hearing about it. If it’s a Friday afternoon and you know that driver’s not coming out, don’t have customer service say someone’s coming out.”
Ward 4 Alderman John Sebben said that approximately two-thirds of his ward has Friday waste pickups. According to the alderman, if a pickup is missed, there’s inconsistency in communication about whether the trucks will come through to grab trash on Saturday — or at all.
“If it’s not on Saturday, the week resets, and we’re back to Friday again,” Sebben said. “I don’t know if there is a proper solution to that if a whole street is missed, for a truck to go out of its way on Monday all the way over here.”
Ward 1 Alderman Jesse Morrison suggested that Waste Connections communicate early and often about missed pickups through the app or via phone call. Morrison says the company has used those modes of communication before, and that pre-warning residents has been helpful in the past.
Garbage and recycling in the same truck
Shipley asked about a complaint that garbage and recycling were being combined in the same truck. Lamantia explained that this is not a typical practice of Waste Connections. If things are operating as usual, a garbage truck will drive the route and collect the trash; later, after dropping off the garbage, the same driver will drive the route again to collect recycling, which is taken to a company in Maryland Heights to be sold.
Lamantia said he reviewed the footage from the truck camera to investigate these complaints and did not see evidence of that. When Lamantia talked to the driver, the driver reportedly said, “I know I get accused of that a lot, but I do not do that, I promise.”
“I don’t want to call anybody a liar, but he has been doing exactly what he’s supposed to do,” Lamantia said. “He takes the trash to the transfer and then goes back to do the recycling.”
Shipley suggested that it might be an issue of confusion for people if they see the same driver collecting their trash and recycling in similar-looking trucks.
Customer service
Multiple aldermen brought up the issue of what residents complain is “poor customer service” on behalf of Waste Connections. This included “rude representatives” as well as conflicting or wrong answers from the call center.
For residents having issues on the phone with Waste Connections, Lamantia encouraged them to ask for Carole Sajnaj, who manages the customer service representatives. If Sajnaj can’t find an answer for them, she can direct them to Lamantia himself. Lamantia also said, if there’s been an issue, he can listen in on the call and get to the root of the problem.
Shipley said that city officials will check in with Lamantia in a month or two to see how these complaints are being addressed. Lamantia took notes throughout the discussion as aldermen addressed concerns and suggested potential changes.
“Last time you came and talked to us was probably two-and-a-half years ago when we were having some issues, and following that, I think we went on a pretty good run with very low complaints and exceptional service,” Mabie told Lamantia. “I’m hoping that’s the result of today — another two-and-a-half year run with low complaints.”
