Marble Falls ponders change in trash pickup provider over service issues
Marble Falls leaders are considering a new trash pickup provider following a series of service issues from current provider Waste Management. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
Marble Falls is considering changing its solid waste pickup provider following a series of service hiccups by Waste Management.
The City Council discussed what a potential switch would look like during its regular meeting Tuesday, June 3. No firm decisions were made, but City Manager Mike Hodge and some council members expressed concern about consistent problems with Waste Management.
“My overall issue is that (the service) doesn’t seem to be getting better,” Hodge said during the meeting. “We told (Waste Management) during our internal meeting last week that we were talking about what to do as far as extending the contract.”
The city’s contract with the company is up at the end of September 2025.
According to a customer service report provided by Waste Management to the council, the company has averaged 17 missed pickups per month in 2025. This was disproportionately demonstrated in January with 30 missed pickups, which led to a public apology in February from Jason Kjar, Waste Management’s director of Collections and Operations for the Texoma region.
“I want to recognize our failure,” Kjar told the council during its Feb. 4 meeting. “Our service lately has not been up to your standards and ours either, and we take that seriously.”
Since then, reported missed pickups have been fewer, with five in March, 18 in April, and six in May.
“It is our goal to reach zero missed pickups per month,” said Waste Management representative Matt Myers during Tuesday night’s council meeting.
The issues go beyond missed pickups, according to city leaders.
“We do need to make sure that we’re competitive with our pricing and things like that,” Mayor John Packer said during the meeting. “More importantly, it’s the (customer) service side of things.”
Marble Falls residents pay a base fee of $26.86 per month for once-a-week curbside collections through Waste Management on a calendar schedule that can be found here. The price is about 27 percent higher than it was in 2022, rising $5.71 from $21.15 over that time period.
Customer service issues have been brought up since February’s meeting, when councilors noted that residents complained of not being able to contact Waste Management when a problem arose. These same sentiments were echoed during Tuesday’s meeting.
“The way it used to work, we could drive in (to the Waste Management office)—anyone—a citizen could go in, the gates were open, there was somebody in the office. We could have a conversation and get some things done,” City Manager Hodge said. “It’s not that way anymore.”
According to WM representative Myers, the gates of the company’s facility at 2101 Commerce St. will remain open from now on. DailyTrib.com saw open gates on Wednesday morning.
Myers also noted that the proper line of communication for a customer service complaint would be a resident calling Marble Falls Utilities, which would then contact Waste Management, which would then address the concern.
Residents may call Marble Falls Utilities at 830-693-3615.