Mayor's Monthly Message
Published: 10/07/2024
Improving Riverside's Waste Collection: Addressing Delays and Planning for the Future
Let’s talk trash this month! It is no secret that the City has struggled to stabilize waste collection services due to a fleet of aging trucks and staffing. This month I want to spend some time identifying the challenges facing our waste management collection and also outline our plan to improve services.
Residents are angry and rightfully so! Many of our routes have been days behind which is a health and safety issue. Something had to be done.
On Tuesday, September 17th, the City Council and City Manager took action to address the issue head-on. City Manager Mike Futrell authorized an emergency order to address the service delays that Riversiders have been experiencing. Through the emergency order, Athens Services began supplementing our city crews on impacted routes starting Thursday, September 19th.
Under this emergency order, Athens Services will temporarily expand its refuse services in areas covered by city crews facing delays. While this emergency order is in place, our city refuse drivers will continue to work delivering replacement trash cans, checking residential cans for contamination, and assisting with service on manual routes. This emergency declaration will be reviewed periodically but could remain in place for six months.
Additionally, the Public Works team has been strategizing other ways to improve services. For example, on September 17th, City Council approved an interfund loan of $2,870,000 from the General Fund Infrastructure Reserves to the Solid Waste Fund. This funding will facilitate the purchase of 5 new refuse vehicles from Peterbilt Motors, expected to arrive by the end of the year.
These 5 trucks will join the fleet along with the 10 side-loading trucks and 2 rear-loading trucks from Velocity Truck Centers, approved for purchase by City Council in June of 2023. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the vehicles but are facing long waits for delivery due to high demand nationwide. Almost every city in the country is facing this backlog.
Staffing challenges have also impacted our services, but we are making progress hiring (this is also a national issue!) City Council approved a 5-person relief crew that will assist with route coverage when the regular drivers are unavailable. The Public Works team is working closely with our Human Resources department to fill these and other vacant positions with interviews and testing scheduled on September 14th and 28th.
We are also installing technology upgrades in all trash trucks to improve route service, especially for new drivers. This new software will collect data such as when cans are not placed on the curb for service and will enable us to rebalance routes and assess driver performance. The Solid Waste division is currently testing this technology and will be fully operational soon.
