Garbage man wont take my garbage ( Harassed by ignoring me ) (Sarasota: felons, house)

[kerrysulvo]

Its unbelievable!
Only one time, I had some back and fourth words with the guy when we were remodeling over some construction debris we put out. This was, June of last year. Since, then we haven't stayed in the house but 2 or 3 times a weekend here and there. And, those times we took our garbage with us when we departed. We have since permanently moved in 3 months ago and this man ( Its the same guy ) is going out of his way to make our removal difficult. He takes everyone elses garbage but ours. I have called WM numerous times and I get no resolve. I ask for a supervisor to call me and that never happens. They tell me they will send the driver a missed ticket. I call back later and ask them and they tell me the driver completed out the ticket when he never came.
This is where Im at now:
My neighbors are all witness to this and see what's going on. ( I have witnesss)
I'm not going to go out and talk to the guy or argue with him and haven't since that one time
I'm going to video record my garbage not being picked up and then go to the police for harassment?
Im at my wits end? Can you offer any solution?

And, for the record, the garbage we put out is in 5 or 6 small bags and weigh about 2lbs each. Well within Waste Management guideline rules off website.

Need advice or solutions? Help?

[Diana Holbrook]

If you can't just take your own garbage to the dump, which is much much cheaper.... I might suggest using a carrot rather than a stick. Garbage guys tend to be independent kindof guys who don't take well to threats and especially not the police, over their work.

Instead of videoing him when he comes, perhaps go out there and smile and wave and talk - in a friendly way - to the guy. Apologize for the earlier argument, tell him you didn't understand the rules before, but you have now moved in and want to be a regular customer, and offer him a nice hot coffee or Christmas cookies. Start this relationship over....Unless you want to have an increasingly hostile relationship with your garbage man.

[wondermint2]

Since apparently you had some kind of disagreement with your garbage guy previously about construction waste - maybe he thinks the garbage bags you put out are some kind of construction debris (that WM is not authorized to take away). Depending on the size of your construction debris you might need to contact WM 48 hours in advance for large construction debris.

Also in unincorporated Sarasota County construction waste pickup is limited to four 32 gallon containers. Here are the rules for unincorporated Sarasota County:

https://www.scgov.net/government/sol...-and-recycling

And here is some more information from the WM web site:

https://www.wm.com/us/local/fl/saras...ty/residential

Do you have a container for recyclables? If not I would contact Sarasota County and request one. Recycling is mandatory. I would also recomend that you purchase a container for you regular trash. It would also be a good idea if you want to just put out regular trash bags - to tape a note to it stating what kind of waste it is.

[1rainman]

Just so you know virtually all the people working in waste management around Sarasota are ex felons. A lot of them are nice people but many won't respond to being told what to do or threatened. At the same time most have been on the job many years. They just have an attitude of not taking any crap from anyone. Plus lots of complaints and nobody cares.

I worked for 1-800-got junk. Some people paid us to take their trash because Sarasota wm wouldn't do it despite multiple complaints. One of our employees also used to work for wm and talk to them at the dump. Sarasota is the worst one Charlotte county not as bad. The supervisors are worse than the driver's in many cases.

One time some guy gave us two big screen tvs. We went to the dump to dump the rest of the load, put the TV's back on, the dump supervisor stole our TV's. Since we have to deal with the dump every day we let it go. The one nice guy at the dump they fired him for "stealing" trash.

Waste management is like the seedy underbelly of Sarasota. Generally speaking they don't like rich people who act stuck up. Be humble, tip them etc yeah you'll get further with honey than vinegar because most of them don't give af. Even though they get paid decent believe me it's not a job anybody wants to have other than needing the money. Some people tip them once a year around Christmas time and say thanks. Same with got junk they charge a fortune then pay us peanuts to do back breaking work. Tips go a long way towards getting better service.

[North Beach Person]

Is your trash pickup mandated by local ordinance and is Waste Management the contracted hauler? If so, since you've tried to resolve it with the company without result, it's time you go up the food chain and contact your jurisdiction's Department of Solid Waste and register the complaint.

The companies have contracts that specify that household trash has to be picked up and local officials generally take the complaints very seriously.

[Sunshine Rules]

Going up the chain of command will not fix the problem because it's doubtful they will take any kind of disciplinary action against the employee when finding people willing to dump trash cans all day is almost impossible in this employment market.

My personal perspective is to take a deep breath and apologize to the hauler for starting out wrong, give him some sort of token Christmas gift along with a nice $$ tip and ask if the two of you can start over. Then keep in mind going forward that his job is one few are willing to do, it's a tough job physically, they have to deal all day long with people who want to bend the "trash rules" and then treat him with courtesy and respect.

[City Guy997S]

I'd start making a pile at the neighbors house.........like undercover trash and then you can feel like you won!


My guess? The construction debris was more than a sink or a toilet seat.

[bbronston]

Use a trash can. It’s probably required, it’s easier for them to dump one can then pick up several little bags, and there’s less chance of an animal scattering the trash in the bags. Plus, if your account is accurate, they know your trash is the little bags. They won’t know if a van is yours or someone else’s. If you want to go the extra step, put your real trash in the can and leave out some decoy bags to fool them.

[E-Twist]

Wild! They don't use trucks that grab the trash cans and dump them? I thought they did away with men manually collecting the trash years ago.

[1rainman]

The normal trash guy has a machine arm for cans. When you toss out other stuff, bags construction debris etc a different truck with a human picks that up but you only get one big load a year. Actually the problem could be the bags need to be in a can.