An Update on Trash Collection

Dear Livonia Resident,

As you likely know, Livonia has experienced delays in solid waste, recycling and yard waste pick-ups in recent weeks. Recently, I met with officials from GFL Environmental, Livonia’s municipal waste service provider, to help understand and hopefully address these delays.

Below, you will find a letter from GFL Director and Livonia resident Sam Caramagno, outlining some of the challenges GFL is facing and what they are doing to address these issues.

Over the last couple of months, my office has been regularly providing GFL with the list of residents who have contacted us to note delays in their solid waste, recycling or yard waste pick-up. During our recent meeting, we provided GFL a map of all reports of delays across the City. GFL agreed to begin providing the City with regular updates when a day’s pick-up is not completed, and the City also agreed to a new strategy to help reduce trucks’ time in transit to their yard waste dump site to maximize the time GFL teams spend on pick-ups in our neighborhoods.

If you experience pick-up delays beyond 7 p.m. on your assigned day, please fill out this form on our City’s website to help us ensure all neighborhoods are completed in a timely manner.

Best,
Maureen Miller Brosnan

July 29, 2021
The Honorable Maureen Miller Brosnan
Mayor
City of Livonia
33000 Civic Center Drive
Livonia, Michigan 48154

RE: Service concerns

Dear Mayor Brosnan,

Per our recent conversations with your team regarding recent service issues in the City of Livonia, we wish to formally address your concerns in this correspondence.
Some Livonia residents have recently experienced delayed pickups of municipal solid waste, recycling, and yard waste. GFL Environmental acknowledges this concern and apologizes for the inconvenience it presents to both residents and city officials. We understand the frustration experienced by residents who have grown accustomed to our history of prompt, high-level service when the expected service schedule is disrupted in any way.

As you are well aware, our nation is experiencing an employment crisis of unusual proportions. Many jobs across nearly all employment sectors have gone unfilled. Unfortunately, the solid waste industry is not immune to this phenomenon and GFL is no exception. Our staffing levels have been below an optimal level for several months and this has had an unfortunate impact on our ability to deliver services to our customers. To meet the challenges presented by the ongoing labor shortage, GFL is aggressively recruiting new employees at very competitive wages. We will continue to do so until our staffing levels return to a point where we are satisfied with our ability to deliver quality service to our valued customers.

While we have no "quick-fix" for the current employment issue, we understand the need to clear the curbs of refuse, recycling, and yard waste. While residents may experience a delay in service, we have expanded our service schedule from five days a week to six with crews running on Saturdays whenever a delay is experienced anywhere in the city. We believe that this will minimize the impact experienced by residents with delayed service.
Another factor hindering our service delivery involves the international disruption of supply chains, specifically in regards to truck parts. Our maintenance teams are working tirelessly to keep our fleet in top performance and safe condition. When a truck requires parts to keep in on the road, we are often forced to wait for back-ordered shipments. Trucks that normally would be up and running are sometimes parked until essential parts can be delivered. We worked our way through this during much of the pandemic, but the parts supply chain limits have reached a critical juncture. This situation, unfortunately, compounds our issues with staffing levels.

We, like you, wish there was a "silver bullet" capable of instantly rectifying these situations. GFL remains committed to providing the residents of Livonia with the service they expect and deserve. We will continue to seek all remedies to our current challenges and will keep the lines of communications open with you and your team as our partners. Above all, we very much appreciate your patience and understanding of our current predicament.
Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Very truly yours,

Sam Caramagno
Director
Municipal Affairs & Operational Improvements
GFLEnvironmental USA Inc.