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Advanced Disposal will no longer pick up weekly recycling

City discusses problems with trash service

Justin Addison Editor/Publisher
Posted 8/4/20

Advanced Disposal, the company with which the City of Fayette is contracted for waste disposal, will no longer pick up recycling. The change was announced at the rescheduled meeting of the Fayette …

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Advanced Disposal will no longer pick up weekly recycling

City discusses problems with trash service

Posted

Advanced Disposal, the company with which the City of Fayette is contracted for waste disposal, will no longer pick up recycling. The change was announced at the rescheduled meeting of the Fayette Board of Aldermen on Thursday, July 30. The company cites a lack of recycling centers due to a significant decrease in worldwide purchases of recyclables. 

The bottom fell out of the recycling industry in 2019 when China, the largest purchaser of U.S. scrap materials, stopped accepting most of the recyclable material that had been going there for the past decade. Thirty-one percent of U.S. scrap commodity exports were sent to China in 2018, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. Locally, the effect was seen here in February with the closure of EO Recyclables, the recycling business run by Endless Options in Fayette.

Recycling pickups are normally made on Thursdays in Fayette. Yard waste pickup will not be affected. The change in service will reflect a $1.05 reduction of the trash pickup charge included in Fayette residents’ utility bills.

But the end of the recycling program wasn’t the only point of discussion by the city council with regard to Advanced Disposal. Council members shared gripes from Fayette citizens about the lack of bulk item pickups. The garbage company is supposed to pick up one bulk item per week from customers in Fayette. That, apparently, has not been happening. The company contends that customers must arrange pickup for bulk items, which is not how it has operated in the past.

“They have a very severe problem with communication,” said East Ward alderwoman Stephanie Ford. “We’ve had problems with them the whole contract period.

“We had another citizen call and complain about them. I’ve had people complain to me. I feel like they’re in breach of contract because they’re not doing their part,” Mrs. Ford said.

The city’s contract with Advanced Disposal terminates on May 31, 2021.

“It used to be that you could set out one bulk item per week and they would pick it up,” said Danny Dougherty, Fayette’s Director of Public Works. He noted that when bulk items are not picked up, they often end up in the dumpster located at the Fayette City Park.

The council was poised to hear from representatives of Advanced Disposal at its regular meeting on Tuesday, August 4.

Advanced Disposal announced in June that it will be bought out by larger rival Waste Management, a Houston-based company which owned or operated 247 solid waste landfills as of December 2019. Advanced Disposal is based in Ponte Vedra, Florida, and operates in 16 states and the Bahamas.

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