At a recent Albuquerque City Council meeting, a councilor called out the Solid Waste Management Department after a constituent told her his trash can was damaged by a garbage truck and he had been waiting more than a month for a replacement. But he is not the only one.
Councilor Klarissa Peña asked Solid Waste Director William Gallegos why the damaged trash can had not been replaced. Gallegos told the council the department is behind on requests for trash can replacements because it is waiting on an order for more.
Alex Bukoski, a spokesperson for the department, told City Desk ABQ there are nearly 2,000 outstanding requests for either residential trash can repairs or replacements.
“The problem is certainly there and we acknowledge it, but there are a lot of plans in place for not only building back our supply, but also building up the team of how we’re going to be more efficient and work on that,” Bukoski said.
Complicating things is the 4,500 trash cans and 1,300 trash can lids Bukoski said are on backorder from a manufacturer. He said the order should be in by early November.
“Once we get those, we’re going to roll those out as soon as possible,” Bukoski said. “We’re hoping that should get us at least through the backlog that we’re dealing with right now.”
According to Bukoski, the department gets around 100 to 200 requests daily and spends nearly $1.5 million yearly on replacement trash cans and supplies.
Repair and replacement requests are usually fielded through 311 calls and the department tries to return a call within 24 to 48 hours to find out more information and maybe coordinate a delivery time.
“[A Request] does encapsulate everything from a minor little repair that maybe we just need to send the team out and they’re able to do repairs with parts that we have, it could be a completely damaged bin…or even a stolen bin where we need to get a whole replacement for,” Bukoski said.
Bukoski said the department is in the process of hiring more staff, which he says will hopefully allow crews to catch up.
“We’ve got over 3,000 requests in a month,” he said. “It just tends to be a little cumbersome with the crews that we have in place, we’re pushing them to their limits.
Read more about how to request a trash can repair or replacement here.
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