To the Public

It is clear that many citizens are very angry with the recent failure of the trash hauler GFL to follow through with their contract and pick up all of the trash, recyclables and compost. Mine is sitting at the end of the drive as I write this.
Here is what has happened: Highland did not drop the ball.
GFL decided at some point to get out of the residential trash pickup completely. There was no conversation with the Supervisor about this until the trash disruptions began to occur just a few weeks ago. 72 communities have been left out at the curb and as much as homeowners want to believe there is something that can be done about it there is not. No ifs ands or buts. When they announced the sale many of their employees bolted on them which left us with the problem of GFL being unable to fulfill their agreement in its last weeks before the proposed change over. No employees, no truck drivers, in essence lousy or no service.
GFL was an excellent provider until this happened. I have no control over what a multi-billion dollar corporation from Canada decides to do. Contract or not. As mad as this may make many of you it isn’t going to help the situation to threaten or verbally abuse township employees who are trying their hardest to handle the back lash on this situation. July 1 is the take over date and I can assure you that smooth sailing will not occur on the first day or couple of weeks until the new drivers and handlers become familiar with their new routes.
Let me address the comments about refunds and throwing the trash in my yard or through the township hall windows. The refunds will not happen and please carefully rethink any other concepts.
What your trash pickup actually costs you: residential customers currently pay $180.00 PER YEAR (52 weeks)! There are three components to the pickups #1 is trash #2 is recyclables #3 is compost plus the bonus of nearly unlimited trash and large objects.
This breaks down into $1.15 per week for trash, $1.15 per week for Recyclables and $1.15 per week for compost. You can’t buy one compost bag for $1.15! The moral of this story is stop and think about how you would handle your trash if you had to do it yourself. You couldn’t put it in a car and drive it to a waste site (like many Michigan residents have to do) for $3.45 for an unlimited amount of trash.
So please be realistic and understand that we are doing everything that we can possibly do to accommodate you with your trash. Today and tomorrow we have hired an outside contractor to pick up compost only. They are not approved to haul trash.
I have (not GFL) called for everyone to please not put out compost or recyclables because they are having enough trouble handling the trash alone. They don’t have enough trucks or employees to manage anything else. By only putting out trash GFL will hopefully be able to pick it all up on Fridays.
Please accept my apologies for the huge inconvenience this has caused and please look forward to improved service in the very near future.
Rick Hamill
Highland Township Supervisor