Wright City leaders disregarded a trash hauler’s request last week to refrain from putting the city’s trash and recycling service out for bids.

Meridian Waste, the city’s current trash hauler, asked Wright City to instead renew its contract, saying that the company was not aware of many recent customer complaints. At issue are missed trash pickups, inconsistent pickup times and frustrations over recycling service, city leaders said.

Meridian representative Natalie Denando said the company tracks all the complaints it receives, and wasn’t being notified of the issues.

“We thought we were doing a good job,” Denando said. “The thing is, if we don’t hear about (an issue), then we don’t know, and we can’t resolve it.”

Denando acknowledged that there was a spike in missed trash pickups as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the company has been addressing that difficulty, and would like to retain Wright City as a repeat customer.

“We really would like (the city) not to go out to bid. That’s our goal. We want to continue servicing the city,” Denando said.

Meridian general manager Vince Timberlake said during the onset of COVID-19, the company was extremely cautious about employee health. He said 60 percent of Meridian’s three-dozen residential drivers have at one point been placed on quarantine due to family or personal illness.

“Luckily for us now, we can send them for a test, and get that test result back in 72 hours. Whereas in the beginning ... you’re going home for two weeks,” Timberlake explained.

Ward 1 Alderman Michelle Heiliger added that Wright City Hall has its own complaint against Meridian. When city staff try to cancel a resident’s trash service for nonpayment, Meridian collects the waste anyway, Heiliger said. That eliminates any incentive for the resident to pay their bill, which is collected by the city and paid to Meridian.

Regardless of how Meridian responds to the complaints, Mayor Dan Rowden said the city has a financial responsibility to seek bids for the waste service.

“That’s our responsibility to look out for the citizens, and the funds that we expend for trash service,” Rowden said.

Recycling frustration

One specific area of complaints is how frustrating it has been to recycle since Meridian switched to a “dual-stream” system, aldermen said. It causes confusion to have different kinds of materials picked up on alternating weeks, they said.

Additionally, aldermen said they’ve had numerous complaints about recycling not being taken because it was supposedly “contaminated” with the wrong kind of material, marked by a no-pickup sticker.

“My family stopped recycling because we always got stickers,” said Ward 2 Alderman Ramiz Hakim. “(The recycling bins) just stay in the garage.”

Denando said Meridian had heard similar complaints, and will once again offer “single stream” recycling, in which all recycling products are collected in one bin and sorted later.

In response to that update, aldermen said dual-stream recycling won’t even be an option on the upcoming trash service bids. The city will request all waste haulers submit bids for single-stream recycling only.