Recycling service issues concern resident, councilman

Beth Ackerman’s full blue recycling container would have been left at her curbside for a fifth week Monday if she didn’t help a Republic Services worker lift and empty it.

“I went out and helped the guy physically lift my can into the truck and that’s the only way it got picked up,” she said. “I’m a middle-age woman.”

Ackerman is among a resounding chorus of residents crying foul over Shreveport’s curbside recycling services. Complaints of missed cans, and sometimes entire streets, have persisted over the last year with some residents and even city leaders growing increasingly frustrated with the contracted service.

Gary Bartels, of Republic Services, said the company has experienced a drastic decline in complaints in recent months, but some city councilors and residents say inadequate services are a persistent problem. Pratt Industries, a recycled paper and packaging company, subcontracts with Republic for curbside pickup of recycled materials.

“It kind of comes in waves. Like, there will be times where I’m reporting the same block week after week,” said Jeff Everson, Shreveport City Council’s new president.

Everson said he’s been copied on emails directed at other city councilman about areas experiencing regular problems with recycling services. Everson listed Jordan Street, Wilder Place, Boulevard Street and several streets in Caddo Heights as areas experiencing problems in the past.

“For several weeks in a row, there will be an area that’s not been picked up, you know, or either it’s always late or there’s just persistent problems in some of the areas. We’ll ask and ask and ask. A lot of the times, the problem may be resolved or then it may reoccur later — or it may not. It has been a tremendous frustration.”

District D City Councilman Michael Corbin said services lapses have occurred in Eden Gardens and Spring Lake. “There are pockets in town that they seem to not pick up quite regularly,” Corbin said.

Corbin is hoping Mayor Ollie Tyler’s administration and the council can sit down and review Pratt’s contract. Everson and Corbin say they believe complaints increased when Republic began picking up Bossier trash.

When contacted by The Times, Bartels said he didn’t have time for a telephone interview and instead wanted to do an in-person interview but was not available to discuss recycling services before deadline.

Shreveport residents pay a $2.50 recycling fee attached to their water and sewer bills for the recycling services. The city has a 10-year contract for recycling services with Pratt. The fee is included in the contract, which runs from 2007 until 2017.

The city’s curbside recycling program began in 2008 and it seemed to have kicked off without a hitch. Early figures revealed 70 percent of the then 17,000 customers in southwest Shreveport participating in the program filed only 17 complaints of recyclables not being picked up on the first Monday, according to archived news reports.

Corbin contends Pratt and Republic have been asked to come to council meetings but have refused. This is not the first time lapses in recycling services have been a point of discussion.

Representatives for Pratt Industries and Republic attended an Oct. 22, 2013, Shreveport City Council meeting to discuss plans to address service issues, according to the meeting’s minutes.

Ron Walters, of Republic, explained at the time issues of missed streets and containers were related to staffing and an imbalance of trucks and drivers throughout the week. As the program grew, 12 trucks operated on Mondays and Tuesdays while nine — the number of trucks when the contracted started — operated on Thursdays and Fridays. New drivers learning their routes sometimes missed streets, according to the meeting minutes.

Joan Twohig said her husband called multiple times when their container hadn’t been picked up several months ago, but she’s happy with her recycling services now. “It has improved. They pick it up once a week,” she said.

Ackerman said she first reported the issue after her container was left three weeks in a row. She also previously reported her damaged bin — both to no avail. Her husband called too. He was told he had the wrong number then was given another number, she said. No one answered.

It wasn’t until Ackerman was outside and stopped a worker that she was told her recycling container had been left because it was too heavy. She said water had gotten through the cracks, but no one left a note communicating the weight issue. Everson said he didn’t know there was a weight restriction.

Ackerman said she tries her best to participate in the curbside recycling by separating her recyclable goods and thinks it’s a good idea. “To have my recyclables not picked up after a month it did something to me. I’m trying to my best. Why can’t they?” she said.

Everson said sometimes issues are resolved, but he always receive the same excuse for service inefficiencies.

“Every time I get angry about this I get this whole, kind of, ‘We’re working on rearranging our schedules ... this has been the problem’,” Everson said. “But the first time I got that answer, of course I was hopeful. It sounds like they’re really working on resolving this. But once you’ve got that answer several times in a row you just start getting really frustrated.”

Everson understands Ackerman’s position since the recycling bins on his street have been missed multiple times, he said.

“I don’t know what it is they need to change, but something isn’t quite going right,” he said.

@ allyburris