ST. LOUIS — St. Louis has a lot of trash.
In a letter to the Board of Aldermen Saturday, Streets Department Director Betherny Williams wrote “The average household in the City of St. Louis produces 1.7 tons of material with a national average of 1 ton per household.”
And right now, they can’t keep up, pausing some recycling services.
“Well, my initial thought was thinking about all the trash that my family has on Christmas Day or just the paper products, but I'm honestly not surprised,” Alderwoman Sarah Martin said.
Representing Ward 11, Sarah Martin is one of the board members who got that letter. She’s also on the committee that oversees refuse and says this has been a long time comping.
“We have not as a city recovered even since 2008 recession and a lot of cuts had to be made, and one of those big cuts across the board for departments in the city was equipment,” Martin said.
Williams’ message said the department is down 11 operators, running 15-20 trucks short, meaning they’re not making it to all 55 daily routes. To fix the problem, they’re working with other agencies, making repairs to their fleet, and offering a $3,000 hiring incentive to anyone who comes onboard as a refuse collector.
Todd Waelterman, City of St. Louis Refuse Commissioner, said the City has hired 20 people under that $3,000 incentive, but about 6 or 7 have already dropped off. And about a third of new hires joined without a CDL or driver’s license so the training is taking time. Waelterman said.
The issues continue during what’s typically a big time for trash.
“Waste increases by 25% over the holidays. You know, we're all ordering more packages, we're wrapping stuff, we're cooking dinners, and things like that,” Elysia Musumeci, Sustainability Education & Outreach Coordinator for Brightside St. Louis, said. “The good news is that we do have these drop off locations.”
Until pickups resume, the City and Brightside is asking residents to drop off their recycling at their 25-plus locations.