Waste Management Picks Up After City Negotiations

NEW BERLIN, WI — The City of New Berlin is working with Waste Management after the company violated its contract with the city to pick up residential trash on time.

The city is working with the waste management company to improve its service rather than searching for another trash pickup service, city executive assistant Melody Styba told Patch.

"We thought it would be better to ride the boat than jump the ship and go to another boat," Styba said. "That would create some transitional problems and logistical problems also."

In the last two weeks, the company has rented out extra trash trucks and hired a third party to make bulk pickups, the city said in a statement.

The new trucks worked for the past couple of weeks and they've improved the situation between the city and the waste management company, Styba said.

"For a while I was operating as a call center, I was getting so inundated with calls," Styba said, "In the past week and a half those have subsided."

This follows nearly two months of residents' complaints about missed and delayed pickups. The city fielded complaints and found Waste Management in violation in early July, according to a previous city statement.

Waste Management faced equipment failure and a shortage of truck drivers, repair technicians and call center workers, Styba said. Since then, the waste management company has run a recruitment campaign to fill in these positions, she added.

"Even operations managers and supervisors were in the trucks themselves to pick up missed things and work late in the evenings," Styba said. "It was all hands on deck."

See Also: New Berlin Trash Pickup Delays: Answers To Your Questions

Residents are allowed to put one bulk item that weighs 50 lbs or less out for pickup for free every week, the city said in a statement. A single bulk item that is manageable by one person doesn't need to be called in, it added.

Residents who do have a bulk item that weighs over 50 lbs or is an appliance must Customer Call Center at 262-369-3080 or use the city's contact form.