MORGANTOWN — In a recent presentation to Morgantown City Council, Republic Services General Manager Tom Beary said the trash and recycling vendor has a series of initiatives in the works that will constitute the most dramatic changes in the company’s 20-plus years of operation in Morgantown.
The comments come as the city looks to finalize another exclusive, multi-year contract with the national hauler.
Beary acknowledged that there are areas, particularly in terms of communication, where the company needs to improve.
That, he said, will be the goal of a dedicated webpage managed out of the local office on pace to launch in February.
“People will be able search up their address and give them a function that shows them what day their service will be; better education and communication around holiday delays or weather delays,” he said, explaining the site will be used to schedule special pick-ups and handle general service issues and questions as well.
“There is a big focus on communication,” Beary said. “Which has always been a challenge, specifically in the past several years, of getting across where our issues are if there are any and where we need to put our time.”
The company also plans to start regular recycling drop-off events at the Morgantown Industrial Park transfer station.
While the monthly or quarterly drop-offs will be open to any city resident, the intent is to give individuals living in multi-unit complexes a means of participating in the city’s single-stream recycling efforts.
“We can’t just put bins at the bottom of a high rise and expect everyone to understand how to handle contamination the right way, which has always been a big challenge,” he said, explaining Morgantown has one of the lowest municipal contamination rates in the region thanks to city efforts like Recycle Right Morgantown.
Lastly, Republic intends to provide every residential customer a 96-gallon trash cart simply as a means of cleaning up the streets. According to Beary, the average output of trash has increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other initiatives include a county-wide rerouting project aimed at balancing routes through the week in order to avoid missed service on Fridays — which, at times, stretch into the following week.
He said the company is responding to missed Friday pickups by dispatching trucks to the area on Saturday or, at the latest, Monday.
Councilor Brian Butcher said a portion of Eastern Avenue is one of these area with a Friday pickup that is routinely missed.
The Friday pickup problem has been an issue raised by Mayor Jenny Selin going back years.
“Service is better than it used to be,” she told Beary. “But it’s not quite there.”
