Representatives from Republic Services, the company that provides Devine’s trash disposal, attended the Regular meeting on May 19 to address the City Council’s concerns regarding trash pickup after a number of residents complained about not having all of their trash picked up each week.
Republic rep Blake Caesar, who provided trash services for the City with ACI before that company was bought out by Republic, said that extra garbage not contained in the 96-gallon rollaway cans was often picked up as a courtesy, but was not required as per terms of Republic’s contract with the City.
Republic has not been picking up extra garbage since the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic first hit.
“This has affecting our business tremendously,” Caesar said. “We generally, before COVID, would pick up eight tons [of trash] a day, roughly, give or take, in the City of Devine. Now we’re picking up 11 to 12 tons.”
The company normally only runs one truck in the City per day, but now deploys two on Wednesday’s route because the volume of garbage is so high.
Hilda Juarez, a division manager with Republic, said that around 100 residents are putting out extra trash that doesn’t fit in their 96-gallon cans.
“If we pick up all that [extra] stuff in the front, then that means that’s an extra 50 customers or 100 customers on the back end that do not get picked up,” Juarez said. “And we get about 500 customers that we pick up every time we come service.
“So that’s the big, real issue here, is that if we pick up extra trash at the beginning, then at the end, we just don’t have room and those people are going to have to wait till tomorrow.”
Residents can receive another 96-gallon trash can for an additional $10.63 a month. Garbage placed in those trash cans will be picked up.
By Marly Davis
Staff Writer
