Trash Hauler’s Contract Restricted; New Hauler to Serve Silver Spring
Montgomery County has cut back the pickup area to a trash hauler that has failed to fulfill its meet its contract and hired another contractor to take its place, County Councilmember Tom Hucker said Monday.
Potomac Disposal had served the Bethesda and Silver Spring areas, but because of a lack of help, the company was missing pickups. The Goode Companies, with an office in Beltsville, will take over Potomac Disposal’s routes in Silver Spring.
“I’m hopeful this contractor will be much more reliable than Potomac has been,” Hucker said.
The county, on its Department of Environmental Protection website, says it hopes to have a “similar solution” for Bethesda within the next week.
Starting Tuesday, May 30, Goode will pick up trash and bulk items, yard trimmings and scrap metal in the Silver Spring area, according to the Environmental Protection website.
Council President Roger Berliner raised the problems with trash pickup at his meeting with reporters on Monday.
“We need to demonstrate in no uncertain terms that it is unacceptable to fail to meet a fundamental government responsibility,” Berliner told reporters.
Hucker agreed; the failure to pick up trash is giving residents concerns that other services aren’t being delivered as reliably as they thought.
“I think it undermines people’s confidence in government,” he said.
Here are the remarks Berliner made:
“Over the last month, we experienced a higher than normal level of service problems with one of our solid waste collection contractors, Potomac Disposal, Inc., specifically impacting the Bethesda and Silver Spring areas,” the notice on the Environmental Protection website reads. “While trash collection is occurring on the regular schedule, residents in these areas continue to experience delays in the collection of yard trim, scrap metal, and small amounts of recycling.”
Potomac Disposal will continue to be responsible for collection of recyclables; the company has assured the county it has sufficient crews to provide recycling collection service, the website says.
Environmental Protection said county staff would monitor neighborhoods to evaluate the contractors’ performance, and follow-up on any reported collection problems.
Residents who have yard trimmings, scrap metal or blue bin/blue cart that have not been collected on the normal collection day are asked to leave the material at the curb. The contractor will collect missed items as soon as possible.
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