Curbside recycling delays continue in the Richmond area due to labor shortages.
The Central Virginia Waste Management Authority, which offers waste collection and recycling in 13 local jurisdictions including Richmond, Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover, warned customers about continued delays this week and going forward.
CVWMA said pickups this week for all residences in Richmond, Chesterfield and Hanover counties on the color-coded schedule “Blue” will slide a day or two or more this week through Saturday or Sunday. CVWMA recommends residents leave their recycling out for collection. At this point, nearly all customers are experiencing delays, TFC said.
“We sincerely apologize for the recent delays with recycling collection,” Kim Hynes, CVWMA executive director, wrote in an apology email to CVWMA customers. “Just like many industries are experiencing, waste and recycling companies are struggling to hire and retain drivers and helpers on the trucks and are continuing to deal with COVID outbreaks and exposures. In addition, the lead time to get parts and even new trucks is getting longer. All of this has led to delays and in some cases cancellation of service.”
CVWMA contracts TFC Recycling, a Chesapeake-based company, to handle the collections and processing for about 275,000 residences for CVWMA.
TFC has faced difficulties hiring and keeping employees who do the daily work of curbside or alley collections of recyclable materials.
The company collects materials from about 26,000 homes a day for transport to its Chester plant, which processes more than 20,000 pounds an hour of recyclable materials such as plastics, glass and paper.
The company normally runs 26 routes daily with 26 drivers and 18 helpers, but the company is down right now by three drivers and three helpers, which is an improvement from a few weeks ago.
The delays with curbside recycling pickup started roughly four weeks ago during a heat wave at the end of August and are now expected to continue through the first week of October.
“We lost an entire crew from one temporary agency because of insurance costs,” Tad Phillips, vice president of TFC, said. The company also lost workers due to heat exhaustion.
As a result, curbside pickup on Sept. 2 was cancelled entirely for 29 routes on the “Blue” week, which primarily serves the Chesterfield area. Residents were encouraged to hold their recyclables until this week or take their items to a collection site, posted on https://cvwma.com.
“Compounding the delays, we know many of you are frustrated trying to reach us by phone and by email to get information,” Hynes wrote in her email apology.
While CVWMA can handle the typical call volume for the over 275,000 homes they service, they could not handle the significant increase in calls and emails due to the delays.
Hynes said that she sent out the email because she wanted to let customers “be aware of why it was happening and that we were working on it to fix it. We wanted to apologize and thank them for their patience and for continuing to recycle.”
The CVWMA has been posting updates on any delays to its website at https://cvwma.com.
“We are running a day or more behind this week. But we’re hoping everything will get picked up by the end of the weekend,” Hynes said.
TFC has been running crews on Saturday and Sunday to pick up the delayed routes.
TFC has had a contract with CVWMA since 2001. In addition to Richmond, Chesterfield and Hanover, the localities the company serves for CVWMA are Ashland, Hopewell, Colonial Heights and the counties of Goochland and Henrico.
TFC pays competitive wages of $18 to $25 an hour depending on job duties. But because the job is physical and demanding, Phillips said it can be difficult to find the right fit.
“We’ve been able to hire 7-8 more helpers which is really important to help get these routes completed,” Phillips said. “We are collecting as fast as we can for the areas that we’re behind on.”
While progress is being made on staffing, he said it may be a few more weeks before the routes are fully staffed. In the meantime, customers are encouraged to leave their recyclables out for pick-up which may be delayed a day or two or more.
“We’re working hard to get it corrected. We want to thank our customers for being patient while we work through these challenging times,” Hynes said.