Trash pickup problems continue in city of Waukesha following company merger

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WAUKESHA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- The city of Waukesha is trying to get control of a stinky situation before it gets out of hand. 

Thursday night, we reported parts of New Berlin hadn't seen a garbage truck in over two weeks

Friday, we found that in some ways, what's going on in Waukesha is even worse.

Some 72,000 people live in Waukesha. For the last few months, they've seen a steady decline in the service of trash and recycling collection, and it's affecting more than half the city.

“The city administrator and I have at least monthly meetings with the aldermen, and we have specifically been asking them are you getting a lot of complaints? And I would say 3/4 of them that we’ve spoken to say they are getting complaints,” said Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly.

In the Sterling Hollow neighborhood, trash and recycling have been scheduled for Friday pickups as long as John Roberts can remember.

"It's been really good through the years," he said. 

But not so much in the last six months, ever since Waste Management merged with Advanced Disposal.

"We had an occasion in the last few weeks where they missed the pickup and had to come on the next day. I had to actually call the city and I called Waste Management," said Roberts. "So it's just up and down, so it causes a bit of uncertainty."

Pickup is supposed to be Friday morning. Residents can take their trash cans back inside, but by early evening Friday, June 11, the recycling still hadn't come through, leaving piles of uncollected cardboard boxes outside. 

"Well it's frustrating, you know, with spring, the weather, storms coming through, the wind, you know, knocking the can down," said resident Melissa Cruikshank.

Residents have not only been forced to leave their cans out for days, they've been noticing older model, rusted-out garbage trucks and on one occasion, drivers doing something that's not green.

"One truck came through and they combined the trash and the recycling which is pretty disappointing."

We reached out to Waste Management and have not yet heard back.

The Waukesha Common Council plans to go into closed session at their meeting Tuesday night with an attorney to discuss their options.

So far, Waukesha has fined the company $3,000. Their contract is good for another five years. 

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