Waste Management addresses Marble Falls trash pickup hiccups
A Waste Management collection site at 2101 Commerce St. in Marble Falls. City officials recently admonished the trash services company for lapses in timely pickups and poor communication. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
Waste Management has promised to increase its local workforce and streamline communication after the Marble Falls City Council admonished the company for a perceived “breach of contract” over lapses in garbage pickups and customer service this past holiday season.
According to council members, some residents reportedly had lengthy interruptions in their trash collection following Christmas and prolonged challenges in communicating with Waste Management to report the issues.
“I want to recognize our failure,” Jason Kjar told the council during its Feb. 4 meeting. Kjar is the director of Collections and Operations Texoma for Waste Management. “Our service lately has not been up to your standards and ours either, and we take that seriously.”
According to Kjar, Waste Management has brought in outside drivers to smooth out operations until permanent drivers can be hired. In addition, the company will add two more employees to ensure lapses in service don’t happen in the future, even during the holidays.
Matt Myers, Marble Falls’ Waste Management public sector representative, explained that three drivers were out during the Christmas holiday, leading to service interruptions.
“If any resident, any commercial owner has any concerns with service, they can call me. I can immediately get with my operations team and my customer service team to get service recovery,” Myers told the council.
While the meeting ended amicably, Mayor Dave Rhodes expressed his frustration with Waste Management services.
“It’s our responsibility to do the best we can to contract with someone who can address those issues,” he told WM representatives. “This is a real challenge. .. You really want to take a hard look at that if you want to keep our account.”
Following the meeting, Rhodes told DailyTrib.com the reason behind his strong words was that he had been contacted by several residents who had their trash picked up one to two weeks late in some cases and was told Waste Management was too difficult to get ahold of.
“I gave (Waste Management) a letter that said they were in breach of contract,” Rhodes said. “An anomaly here and there is OK, but it has been consistent and persistent.”
During the meeting, Councilor Craig Magerkurth said he personally experienced service interruptions and challenges in contacting Waste Management through its customer service line to report the issue, waiting on hold for up to 30 minutes and never receiving a call back or confirmation of his complaint.
“We realize that the fate of being your vendor hangs in the balance of how we react to this, and we take it very seriously,” Kjar said.
Marble Falls residents pay $28.86 a month for once-a-week curbside trash collection. Waste Management has handled the city’s refuse since December 2018, when the company bought out Republic Services Inc. and took over many of the collection routes in the Highland Lakes.
To report issues with city trash collection or learn more about services, visit the Marble Falls Trash, Recycling, Bulk Waste and Brush Collection webpage.