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Waste Management tells Brookhaven board rollout hit by phone outages, missed pickups
Summary
A Waste Management representative told the Brookhaven City board the first days of the new curbside contract saw intermittent activation of the customer 866 line, long hold times and missed pickups tied to a transfer-station closure; the company and city staff said they are reviewing address lists and scheduling follow-up collections.
David, a Waste Management representative, told the Brookhaven City board the company’s first week of curbside service in town was hampered by multiple operational problems, and he outlined steps the contractor and city staff are taking to fix them.
"Thank y'all for having us," David said, then described what he called a heavy initial call volume and inconsistent phone activation that left some callers hearing an "inactive" message or a long wait. "It was over 900 calls," he said, and he provided a customer number: "(866) 604-5062." The company offered to follow up by email for backdoor or special-service requests.
The board and Waste Management staff also discussed disruptions tied to a transfer-station closure that left crews short-handed for a portion of a day and led to delayed pickups in some neighborhoods. Council members reported residents whose addresses were not on the delivery list or whose accounts were not active, and David said the company is working with the city to reconcile the master address list.
Waste Management described several remediation steps: reviewing and correcting the address/master list, returning crews to pick up missed cans, offering a backdoor-service sign-up option, and coordinating next-week returns for cans left undelivered. Board members pressed about costs for drop-offs to the transfer station; the company noted transfer-station weight fees apply when the city brings collected material to the station.
The board did not take a formal vote on service changes during the discussion but asked staff to continue coordination with Waste Management and to report back. David said the contractor will no longer collect cans that are not properly assigned once the initial cleanup is finished.
Next steps: the city and Waste Management will complete the address reconciliation, schedule follow-up pickup runs and provide a summary of what was corrected since the rollout began.
