Supply chain issues are causing a year-long wait for some garbage trucks, and the trash is starting to pile up.
The city of Huntsville can’t get parts to replace broken trucks, but supply chain issues are only part of the problem. The pandemic has also caused other unpredicted problems, such as lifestyle changes where more people are accumulating trash.
“We knew there were going to be delays and problems along the way, we just didn’t expect it to be to this magnitude,” said Keith Robertson with Huntsville’s sanitation department.
It’s one problem after the other for the city’s sanitation department, and it all started during the pandemic.
“The supply chain issues that we’re running into is trying to get the parts for the trucks, to build the trucks, for us to get them here on the street so we can start picking up the trash,” said Robertson.
Trucks that normally take 9 months to come in are now back ordered for 12 to 16 months.
In addition to this backlog, many people’s lifestyles have changed over the past two years. Robertson explained, “There’s more people at home now. More people at home and you got more people ordering stuff online and so they’re generating more trash.”
The routes for regular trash bins are all on track, but bigger items that are left out on the curb, including tree limbs and packaging, are a few days behind schedule. Those larger items are the type of trash that has been accumulating with more people at home.
“When everybody is putting their trash out it sort of backs the trucks up, and a lot of the larger items that they have to pickup it takes more room in the truck which they have to go and dump and come back,” said Robertson.
Plus, the sanitation department is down about half their boom trucks which pick up larger item. Replacement trucks have been delayed for over a year.
“Once we get them here we hope that we can get them out on the street and start collecting the trash,” said Robertson.
As lifestyles change and more people accumulate trash, the city is doing everything they can to keep up. “We are working overtime, we’re working around the clock the best we can,” said Robertson.
The city expects to have 3 new boom trucks go into service in September, and they have three more that have been ordered.
The city of Huntsville currently has 22 trash routes servicing roughly 70,000 customers.
