St. Clair Shores reaches agreement with new trash pickup provider amid delays from Priority Waste
Across Metro Detroit, from Allen Park to Dearborn Heights and Westland to Madison Heights, many residents have had frustrations with Priority Waste. It got so bad in St. Clair Shores that the city voted to use another provider.
"I kind of thought about bringing it back in and putting it behind the house cause it was looking kind of trashy not having your garbage picked up," Heather Conte said.
Conte's trash was picked up on Thursday afternoon, but it was supposed to be taken away on Tuesday. While on the other side of the street, the trash is still there.
St. Clair Shores city leaders voted on Monday to use another provider and to not renew the city's contract with Priority Waste. The city's new agreement with Express Waste Services will begin on July 1.
"Every time they promise, promise, promise, and under deliver, under deliver, under deliver," St. Clair Shores City Manager Dustin Lent said at Monday's meeting,
Residents say they're not shocked the city made this decision.
"It's not been consistent and good, so I'm not surprised at all they're going with another company," said Linda Denomme.
Similar frustrations have been felt in several communities across Metro Detroit. Westland City Councilmember Mike McDermott told CBS Detroit that he is now working toward figuring out how to solve this problem in the city.
"And if this was something that was going on for maybe one week, I think people would be understanding, but when they've been dealing with this since the middle of April, I can certainly understand why every resident across Westland is terribly upset and frustrated with the horrible service that Priority has been providing," said McDermott.
McDermott also says some of the problems stem from local municipalities not having many other options.
"One of the problems I think we have here in Metro Detroit is that Priority Waste has kind of monopolized the trash pickup. And now we're all left collectively frustrated and stuck with Priority Waste," he said.
Priority Waste says it is actively investing in fleet upgrades, route reliability, and faster response times to improve day-to-day service and deliver solutions to impacted service areas.
