AMHERST, N.Y. (WKBW) — Residents on Chestnut Ridge Road, in Amherst, are full of frustration and recyclables...Three weeks of it.
"There are seven recycling totes, and they are overflowing," said Nick Falkides. He owns homes on Chestnut Ridge Road.
Falkides showed the overflowing bins to 7 Problem Solver Michael Schwartz on Monday morning.
Falkides said for the past 3 weeks its been a recycled process of neglect. Residents there have brought their recycling bins to the curb on Sunday, and then have to haul them back to their home on Monday night, still full.
"The people in our rental homes have recyclables that are piling up in the kitchen, creating health issues for them," said Falkides.
He said this has happened before, more than a dozen times in the past 2 years with either recyclables or garbage.
Another neighbor reached out to 7 Problem Solvers, and said it's become a "huge problem," having to keep uncollected waste in her home.
"We call the town, sometimes they answer the phone, sometimes they don't answer the phone," said Falkides. He said he has been told to contact Modern Disposal Services, the company that is contracted by Amherst to handle waste.
Modern Disposal Services sent this statement to 7 Problem Solvers:
"Modern is committed to servicing our customers and the WNY community. We apologize to the residents of Chestnut Ridge for the recent service delays. After we were made aware of the delay on Tuesday morning, our operations team responded and sent a crew out to recover any trash, recycling, and yard waste. Modern regularly checks in with our partners at the Town of Amherst and will continue to have open communication, especially when we are reviewing areas to further improve upon. Modern is not unique in seeing an uptick in COVID-related absences in the past few weeks. With eight drivers out last week, we pulled and continue to pull extra trucks and personnel from other sites to run extra Saturday routes to make full recoveries."
The Town of Amherst Refuse and Recycling Department told Schwartz on Monday morning the recyclables will be picked up by Monday night. They were picked up Tuesday morning.
"I have no confidence it will be picked up," said Falkides. Unfortunately he was right. As of 7 p.m. Monday the recyclables remain at the curb, for a windy and rainy night ahead. Falkides said he often has to pick up garbage that the wind takes down the street.
Amherst Highway Superintendent Patrick Lucey said he is very frustrated with Modern, and has received multiple complaints from people in Amherst who haven't had their yard waste picked up in two weeks.
Lucey said he has brought on Amherst Town Supervisor Brian Kulpa to help get to the bottom of this for their residents.
On Tuesday Kulpa told Schwartz there is no issue with Modern and the town, and a plan is in place to address the missed pickups with extra crews and trucks.
7 Problem Solvers will be following up on this until it is solved. Until then, if you have an issue you need help getting resolved in your neighborhood, email Michael at 7ProblemSolvers@wkbw.com
