Hoover council delays Santek garbage contract extension due to complaints

The Hoover City Council tonight postponed consideration of a three-year contract extension with Santek Waste Services of Alabama for garbage and recycling pickup due to an uptick in complaints about service.

Sam Dillender, the head of Santek Waste Services’ Alabama operations, acknowledged a 10 to 15 percent increase in complaints in December. He attributed some of the complaints in December and January to people getting confused about their pickup day during the holidays and said the snow day on Dec. 8 also created some problems.

That was the first day that garbage pickup has been delayed because of snow since Santek took over the city’s garbage and recycling collection in October 2015, Dillender said. He also had to pull some trucks in early this past Tuesday due to icing concerns, he said.

Also, some complaints are due to a lack of understanding of some of the rules concerning recycling pickup, he said.

For example, people may call to complain that their recycling bin wasn’t picked up, but they may not understand the company frequently won’t empty a recycling bin if workers see that it contains unacceptable items.

The company that collects recycled goods from Santek charges Santek much more to sort through a load that is contaminated with garbage or other items that are not on the recycle list, such as glass, Dillender said. The charge is $15 per ton for a clean load, $50 per ton for load that is deemed half-contaminated and $100 per ton for a load deemed fully contaminated, he said.

Frequently, workers will leave a contaminated load of recyclables at the curb and then dump that bin in the regular garbage truck when they come back another day, he said. That also leads to complaints that workers are mixing recycled goods with regular trash, he said.

Workers also will leave bins unemptied if they are over the weight limit or if they contain hazardous materials, such as paint or pesticides, he said. If the truck lifts a cart that is too heavy, it might crush the cart, he said.

Of course, sometimes workers simply make mistakes and miss some areas, he said.

Regardless of the reasons for complaints, Dillender said 251 complaints in December is too many. With 324,000 scheduled pickups in a month, 251 is less than 1 percent and less than the industry average, he said. However, it’s still unacceptable to him, he said.

“Traditionally, we’re better than that, and we ought to be better than that,” he said.

Santek is shifting some supervisors around, making shifts in some routes and addressing concerns they are hearing, Dillender said. They also are going to try to do a better job of communicating with residents about what is and is not acceptable to put in their garbage and recycling bins, he said.

Workers will start leaving notices hanging on the garbage bins they can’t pick up, explaining the reason why, he said. Also, Santek will mail out flyers to residents to remind them about what can be picked up and recycled and what cannot, he said.

Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said he didn’t realize he couldn’t put a cardboard pizza box in the recycling cart because of the food particles left on such boxes. He has done that many times, he said.

Council President Gene Smith said Santek has plenty of time to address the problems before the current contract expires at the end of September. The company certainly doesn’t need to wait to address issues, but this gives them some time to show improvement, he said.

Click here for more information about garbage and recycling pickup in Hoover and here for a list of items that acceptable and not acceptable to put in recycling bins in Hoover.

Note: The city of Hoover's website as of 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 19, had some incorrect information about what is acceptable to put in Hoover recycling carts. Santek DOES accept plastics No. 1-2 but DOES NOT accept plastics No. 3-7. Also, Santek DOES accept cardboard but DOES NOT accept cardboard milk or juice containers due to the wax that is on them, Dillender said. Hoover officials said they will get the information on the city's website corrected.