Plum Residents Concerned About Trash Pickup

Some Plum residents are unhappy with the lengths they have to go to for garbage collection with new service provider Allied Waste Services.

At Monday night's council meeting, the residents, who live on private drives, expressed concerns that they had to haul their trash and recyclables long distances for pickup.

Some said their trash hadn't been collected at all.

Borough officials said they hope to help address the problems as soon as possible.

Allied Waste provided a schedule before pickup began May 31 which detailed collection days.

It also noted that residents on private lanes had to take their garbage to the intersection of their lane and the nearest main road.

Though the list—available on the borough’s website—marked which drives were private, it did not include them all.

Elizabeth Fillar, a Patricia Lane resident, said her road was not named in the list.

“As it is now, I have to walk three football fields with three kids in tow,” she said.

Fillar said she called Allied Waste regarding the pickup multiple times.

The previous provider, Waste Management, picked up trash and recyclables in the borough for 18 years. Its route always included private drives, she said.

“Why am I paying the same taxes as everybody else when I have lesser services now?” she asked.

Frame Drive resident Janice Wirth said her garbage wasn’t picked up for three weeks. Two weeks into the new service, she said Allied Waste told her they wouldn’t pick up on her drive.

Wirth said they made an exception Monday and picked up her trash, which had been piling up for weeks.

“Nobody’s had a problem in 28 years,” she said.

Officials said the contract with Allied Waste is the same contract that Waste Management had, but Waste Management picked up on private drives.

“That’s a decision Waste Management chose to take," Assistant Borough Manager Greg Bachy said. "Allied chose not to do it.”

The borough cannot authorize a private company to go onto a private drive, he said. Residents of the private drives would have to agree to give permission for Allied Waste to come onto their property and Allied Waste would have to agree to do so.

Plum Borough mayor Richard Hrivnak said the borough should contact Allied Waste to discuss possible solutions to the problem.

“I think we would be amiss if we didn’t go to the extra steps for those on private drives,” Hrivnak said.

Bachy said he’ll ask if a representative from Allied Waste would be available to attend the borough’s July work session.

Council member Leonard Szarmach said the borough hopes to find a solution sooner than that, perhaps as early as next week.

 “You can’t expect somebody to cart their garbage half a mile or a mile,” he said.