Bradenton Yard Waste Pick-Up Backed Up Due To Solid Waste Staff Shortages, Christmas Trees

BRADENTON, FL — A staff shortage is causing Bradenton to get behind on its yard waste pick-up this week.

The city’s solid waste division is short 23 workers this week, Jeannie Roberts, communications coordinator, said. This includes 13 open positions and four staff members out with COVID-19.

When fully staffed, the department has 51 employees, she added.

A CDL driver shortage plaguing the solid waste industry in many areas across the country caused the city to temporarily reorganize its solid waste collection schedule in July.

Garbage collection has continued on its normal schedule, but the shortage of drivers has made it difficult to consistently cover both yard waste and recycle collections every week.

The city's temporary solution has been to switch every other week between the two. Yard waste will be collected one week, while recycling is picked up the next.

“This is yard waste collection week, which right now includes Christmas trees, and it is not going well,” Roberts said. “Consequently, as per usual lately, we are way behind on yard waste collection, and we are at risk of some areas not being collected at all this week.”

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Because of the Christmas trees, the trucks fill up faster and have to be emptied more frequently, she said. “While the trucks are off being emptied, they are not, obviously, on the route. Fewer staff means fewer trucks on the routes in the first place.”

City administrators can’t identify areas at risk of not getting collected in advance because they don’t know how many routes will be covered each day, she said.

As the department deals with the driver shortage and back-up in yard waste, the city is trying to minimize the number of phone calls it receives about the issue, Roberts said.

“We just want people to know that we are behind and are doing our best to catch up,” she said.