New garbage, recycling collection leads to bumpy transition for some Macon neighborhoods

Chris Raiden spent part of his weekend picking up trash in his yard that dogs had rummaged through and scattered.

The north Macon resident left his garbage by the street last week, but nobody arrived to pick it up.

Raiden is one of scores of Macon-Bibb County residents upset by the hiccups in the first week of Advanced Disposal Services picking up all residential trash countywide. About 3,000 people tied up Advanced and county phone lines last week, many of them unhappy about missed pickups.

"I know it was the first week and it's a transition, but bottom line we pay money for this," Raiden said.

His garbage used to be picked up early in the week by Macon-Bibb County crews, but the new contract with Advanced Disposal that began Jan. 4 means his new collection day is Friday.

But Advanced Disposal didn't show up at all in his neighborhood last week. It was Monday afternoon before they arrived.

"They should have done a better job or had a couple trial runs, because it (got) ridiculous," Raiden said.

Efforts to reach Adam Cochran, general manager of Advanced Disposal's Macon location, were unsuccessful Monday.

Under the new plan, the county's Solid Waste Department has taken over recycling efforts while both the county and Advanced Disposal are splitting yard debris duties. Macon-Bibb made the move, county leaders said, to provide more efficient service and divert some waste from the county's landfill.

Commissioner Al Tillman said Monday he has been inundated with calls about the new service.

Tillman said the changes should have been better planned and that Mayor Robert Reichert's administration should have sought more input from commissioners.

"I've got calls from north Macon to south Macon, from family to friends," Tillman said. "It's unbelievable the number of calls."

The county's move to hire Advanced Disposal came with a price increase for residents. For residents whose trash had been collected by Macon-Bibb crews, the cost increased from $15 to $20 a month, but if Advanced Disposal already handled the service, the price jumped from $12.75 to $20 per month.

In a Macon neighborhood near Wesleyan College, some homes had their trash picked up last week while others were missed entirely, said Brown Dennis, who had three garbage containers that still needed to be emptied Monday morning.

"To me, the problem was they have gone up on price and reduced the service," Dennis said. "The bottom line to me, as a taxpayer, we're paying more and getting less."

Many of the complaints have centered on people not knowing when their trash and recycling will be collected. Last Wednesday, two days after the new service began, the county unveiled a new website to inform residents of their collection days.

On Monday, Macon-Bibb spokesman Chris Floore said the county did all it could to notify residents of the changes.

He stuck by his previous comments that the plan was to alert homeowners by using stickers on the waste bins as well as informing residents through the media and the new website. However, he said the rainy weather prevented many of the stickers from adhering to the trash bins during the final couple weeks of December.

The county has also begun placing flyers in neighborhoods to let residents know which week their recycling begins.

"We know there was some frustration last week, and we understand that," Floore said.

By Monday afternoon, crews were about 95 percent caught up on garbage collection, said Floore, who added that everything should be on schedule later this week. He said anyone whose garbage wasn't picked up can call 478-803-0499.

The new routes also means that Advanced Disposal is picking up one 65-gallon container of garbage a week per household and up to 2 cubic yards of waste that can be put into garbage bags. The recycling bins provide another 65 gallons for items such as cardboard, paper and aluminum that will be picked up every other week.

"People will be pleasantly surprised by how much trash they can divert by that (65-gallon) recycling container," Floore said.

Whitney McMath said she was having trouble getting a new recycling container from the county. She said she hasn't been able to put in her request via phone calls or the website.

"I just figure if I'm having this much trouble, then other people are, too," she said.

Anyone with questions about the new collections or anyone seeking a new recycling or garbage container should call the Solid Waste Department at 803-0499, Macon-Bibb customer service at 751-7400, or make a request on the Macon-Bibb County website under "See, Click, Fix."

Residents also can go to sw.maconbibb.us to find out which day trucks will run on their street.

This story was originally published January 11, 2016 at 7:02 PM with the headline "New garbage, recycling collection leads to bumpy transition for some Macon neighborhoods ."