Driver turnover has contributed to missed recycling pickups in Pulaski County in recent months, a Waste Management official told the Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction District board Thursday.
David Moore, who was appointed Wednesday to oversee residential services for Waste Management in Little Rock, said he expects drivers to better understand the routes with more experience and education.
"I anticipate it to level out in the next couple of weeks," Moore told the board.
Another Waste Management official present at Thursday's meeting noted that the company has raised truck driver pay to increase retention.
The district board consists of the mayors of each of the six cities in Pulaski County with populations of more than 2,000 residents: Little Rock, North Little Rock, Sherwood, Jacksonville, Maumelle and Wrightsville.
Waste Management has about 90,000 customers in Little Rock, North Little Rock and Sherwood. It provides the service through a seven-year contract with the cities via the district that will expire in 2019. The company has a separate contract with Maumelle to accept the city’s recycling at its materials recovery facility in Little Rock but does not contract with the city to pick up curbside recycling*.
Officials in Little Rock, North Little Rock and Sherwood said streets and sometimes entire neighborhoods have been missed by Waste Management trucks during the every-other-week recycling pickup since June. Little Rock residents calls to the 311 nonemergency number about missed recycling pickups have doubled since June.
In addition to missed recycling pickups, Waste Management has missed trash pickups in unincorporated areas of Pulaski County, County Judge Barry Hyde said. He estimated the county received 400 complaints about it in August.
"It's a serious problem," Hyde said. "I urge you to put all of your resources into getting this resolved."
Missed pickups aren't the only problems, district officials and city officials said.
Residents who wish to report a missed pickup often call their city, where officials must refer them to a customer service phone number for Waste Management.
Those calls are never fielded by anyone local who understands the recycling program or any current problems, according to district Deputy Director Carol Bevis and North Little Rock Sanitation Director Harold Ford.
Sometimes residents get sent back to city officials for help or even the Pulaski County Sanitation Department, which doesn't handle recycling, Bevis said.
Moore said he would discuss the issue with company officials and try to come up with a solution.
Metro on 09/16/2016
*CORRECTION: Waste Management has a contract with the city of Maumelle to accept the city’s recycling at its materials recovery facility in Little Rock but does not contract with the city to pick up curbside recycling. The city runs its own curbside recycling program. This article incorrectly described the relationship between the city and the company.