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Council hears update on troubled July 1 trash contract rollout
Summary
County officials told the council the July 1 trash contract remapping produced widespread missed pickups because of heat‑related callouts, truck supply delays, route learning and lookup‑tool glitches; officials described fines, new processes and technology steps to shorten response times.
Prince George's County leaders told the County Council on Sept. 9 that a legally procured trash contract and remapped service areas were intended to improve service but produced an uneven rollout after beginning July 1.
Floyd Holt, deputy chief administrative officer for government infrastructure, framed the change as necessary because the county had added households since 2010 and wanted to keep trash service affordable while contracting with local, county‑based minority haulers. "According to my records, we have 364,000 single family residences in Prince George's County," Holt said as background to the scope of the service change. He said the county moved to in‑house management to allow additional services such as electronics and scrap‑metal recycling.
Director Andrea Crooms, who led the Department of the Environment presentation, acknowledged the transition "did go wrong." She described multiple causes: haulers were still acquiring or adapting trucks, crews were learning new routes, a prolonged heat wave increased worker call‑outs and a lookup tool had early technical issues. "Within the first couple of weeks, we had up to 1,000 calls a day," Crooms said, noting the agency expected a difficult initial period but that disruptions lasted longer than anticipated.
Crooms said the department has adjusted operations — moving collection start times earlier, increasing inspections, creating 'hot lists' for on‑premises collections, requiring route drive‑throughs as part of bids, and strengthening contract enforcement. She said service requests are back to pre‑transition volumes and that the department is focusing on continuous improvement, adding that technology will allow faster verification and response to missed pickups.
