Macon-Bibb trash pickup running smoother but will be delayed by holiday

Just as some Macon-Bibb County residents are starting to get a handle on changes with their garbage pickup, along comes the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Advanced Disposal Services, hired to pick up garbage across the county, and Macon-Bibb County, which is handling an expanded recycling effort, are hoping for minimal hiccups this week as the holiday pushes the new garbage and recycling schedules back a day.

This week, trash schedules will be Tuesday through Saturday instead of the usual Monday through Friday, Macon-Bibb spokesman Chris Floore said.

"We've put out a mass distribution. We've told the press, we've announced it at the commission meeting, Advanced Disposal is running radio advertisements," Floore said. "We're trying to get the information ... out as much as possible."

Earlier this month, garbage pickup days were changed for about a quarter of residents, and the county has been inundated with calls from people whose trash wasn't picked up, especially during the first week of the new service, Floore said. This was due in part to trash crews missing streets while learning their new routes and also because some residents put their garbage carts by the street on the wrong day, he said.

Macon-Bibb County is helping Advanced Disposal with missed pickups, and the company is using extra trucks as well, said Adam Cochran, the company's general manager.

"We are caught up on anything we've been told we've missed," Cochran said. "Anything that we get an email (about) ... a missed street or a missed customer, automatically we go back that same day or the next day and we collect."

Despite some residential trash not being picked up during the first week of the change, Floore and Cochran both insist that trash pickup was never behind.

"We may have missed a spot ... accidentally in learning new areas, but we're not behind in completing routes every day," Cochran said.

Floore said anyone saying trash pickup was behind during the past two weeks is "splitting hairs."

"We never ran behind. We didn't have too much and fell behind in collection," Floore said. "Being behind means they're running late on their schedule as opposed to 'We missed it, we've got to go back.'"

Before the new trash pickup days were set, Advanced Disposal typically received about 150 calls daily, Cochran said. The first week of the change, the company received 700 to 800 calls daily. Last week, the company received between 300 and 350 calls.

Floore said the decreased number of calls and questions indicate things are beginning to run more smoothly.

"We can tell by the calls and questions and concerns ... it's smoothing out," Floore said.

Floore said county commissioners are expected to vote Tuesday to order 3,400 more recycling containers. The county recently ran out of them because of high demand.

Follow writer Laura Corley on Twitter @Lauraecor.

This story was originally published January 15, 2016 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Macon-Bibb trash pickup running smoother but will be delayed by holiday ."