Gwinnett County Trash Pick Up

LeShunta, I’m in Loganville (unincorporated) too. You should be served by Waste Pro. The GCB website shows a map of the county. There are two areas NW and SE. Waste Pro is SE.

I received a WP invoice yesterday, Tuesday. you will probably see the same soon.

Good article on http://www.11alive.com. Go out read the article and post a comment. By doing so you will be showing your support of Sanitation Solutions, Southern Sanitation and Roy Barnes who are fignting what Gwinnett county has done to us. Keep this issue in the public eye.

I spoke to Nasuti’s (BOC district 2) a few minutes ago. I had again emailed him. After I emailed the first time she called me and explained what a great guy he was and that Bill Liss had blind sided him in his interview on Channel 11 and had not told the whole story. She almost had me convinced. I emailed again yesterday and told Nasuti that after watching this whole thing unfold I felt I had been right in my assessment of him in the first place. In short, I had no intention of ever voting for him again. So the admin called me again today.
Folks, these people just don’t get it. She was very nice and as expected, supportive of her boss; but if what she was saying reflects the official stance they truly are living in another world. Somehow, it is not Gwinnett’s fault or responsibility that Waste Industries’ franchise was ended and that we are being charged this fee. It is our fault that we did read the back of our bills and understand that such a fee could be charged (even if we didn’t deactivate service or terminate service early). In granting Waste Industries their franchise it was not the responsiblity of Gwinnett lawyers to make sure that their service agreement with their customers was fair. Oh, and the $15,000 retreat was totally justified because the BOC needed to get away to make decisions where they wouldn’t be interrupted. They could have used my living room. I would have set up tables, turned off phones and not let anyone in. I would have delivered their lunches and dinners to them- after they paid for their own meals- and even set up cots if they wanted to spend the night. That’s what my friends and I do when we want to go on a retreat.
These guys need to go. We need some people with some common sense who feel a sense of duty to Gwinnett and its citizens in office.

I have gotten a past due notice for not paying the $23.50 from my bill. I tolld them I would gladly pay the $17.99 I was owed, but since I did not deactivate from them I was not paying the fee way over the amount I owed them. Now I get this bill. I called the 1-800 number and they said they were looking into this and yes, they were aware that this was illegal according to the Clean and Beautiful organization. He then said he would transfer me to the local company and I was disconnected!!!! Way to go Waste Industries… I;m going to wait and see how this turns out. Now I’m just plain mad. I’ve been nice so far but they can’t do this.

I am certainly taking a stand on this, but sending our bills to Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful (GCB) won’t be enough. They don’t care! They would just throw them away.

Here is a little update on what is going on and what is happening since I made this post. Waste Industries lawyers responded to the complaint raised by GCB. GCB claimed that the additional deactivation fee was an unapproved rate hike. WI claimed it is not a hike but a fee. It ended up going no where.

I haven’t heard anything back from WI on my refusal to pay their fee, until yesterday. They sent me another bill. Guess what? The bill threatens that if I do not pay they might cancel my service. Hellooo! You already did.

I bet I’ll hear more on this soon. I’m planing on being a big pain in the backside to WI. I filed a complaint with the BBB today and will follow it up with a complaint to the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs. A great idea suggested by a reader who emailed me. Since they have not posted with a name, I’ll respect their privacy. Anyway the complaint is as follows:

—
Waste Industries lost their ability to service my area (Gwinnett County, GA) buy either, not bidding on, or failure to win, a contract with the County. I had absolutely no input or influence in this decision. This may possibly have been due to the provisions set forth by Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful. In short, their failure to secure this contract reflects their election not to continue service.

They have decided to add a $23.50 deactivation fee to my final bill. Their CEO (Jim Perry) publicly describes this fee as a demobilization fee covering the costs of closing the Gwinnett Branch. Waste Industries has never announced such a fee prior to us receiving it in our final bill. Therefore we did not have a chance to challenge or opt out. Also, it is (or was) directed only to those residence of Gwinnett County to recover lost business in this county. http://www.wasteindustries.com/News.aspx?id=7 .

When I called the local office and stated my objection to the fee, the person I spoke with took my address and agreed with me. I sent in the final bill minus the deactivation fee along with a letter stating why that fee was not paid. They are now trying to collect that fee in a subsequent bill. Since my account was in good standing, and their business losses are not related to my actions, I should not have to pay this deactivation fee. Especially since this fee is only targeted to those of us in Gwinnett County, and we did not have a chance to either agree to this or discontinue service.
—

The resolution I am currently seeking is to have them mark my account paid in full.

Louise, As things stand now, it is not optional. The county assumes that if you don’t have trash pickup you are illegally dummping your garbage. As a result you will have this fee added to your tax bill.

Folks, I finally got an actual e-mail from Nasuti (BOC district 2). He starts out by telling me that my email was one of the most churlish he had ever received in 15 years of government service. And he was offended that my attack on him was personal. I have emailed him twice and left a voice mail and if what I said and wrote was the worst he’s ever heard he is one lucky man- especially since he is a lawyer. Once again, winning friends and influencing people as they say. I guess our BOC doesn’t feel like they actually have to recognize how angry the citizens are and admit that maybe they have let us down. Are you guys emailing your commisioners? Because if what I, a little old lady, had to say was the worst Nasuti has heard, we aren’t speaking loud enough. I think I am more angry about this than I ever been about any government outrage. But like the poster above, this is just the last straw in a long line of grievances.

Gwinnett citizens are just replacement free labor for the county prisoners.

I’m not a big fan of creative loafing but check this out :

http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/taking_responsibility_for_recycling/Content?oid=2630

“The catch here, however, and another prime reason recycling hasn’t taken off, is the fact that, on the household consumer level, it rarely pays for itself. From a strictly short-term standpoint, recycling doesn’t make good business sense, with the cost of collecting and processing materials often running higher than the price for raw materials.

Although the markets for many recyclables are fairly strong in Georgia, they are non-existent for others. Plastics 1 and 2 — soda bottles and milk jugs, respectively, as indicated by the number inside the triangle of arrows on the bottom of the container — can fetch around 13 cents a pound in Georgia, but plastics 4 (a mustard bottle, for example), 5 (yogurt container), 6 (Styrofoam) and 7 (fruit cup) have no resale value and are bound for the dump.

The only way the private, nonprofit Gwinnett Recycling Bank has been able to remain a cost-effective enterprise is a 1990 agreement that allows it to use free local prison labor to perform the task of separating cans, glass and plastics, something most consumers are unwilling to do. The center pays a small amount for aluminum cans — 30 cents a pound — as well as plastic bottles, newspaper and office paper — about a penny for every two pounds.

Thus, for recycling to succeed, it must be presented to consumers not as a pocketbook priority, but as a social responsibility, says Craig Swear, president of the Georgia Recycling Coalition.”

(Not a pocketbook priority ? sorry kids, I wanted to buy you new shoes but Connie Wiggins and Craig Swear say I have a social responsibility to use that money to pay more for GCBS’ recycling plan…also instead of throwing the football outside? we’ll be digging through the trash separating recyclables. Yay Green! )

Bryan, I got the same stuff in answer to my BBB complaint, but I replied by saying that I did not deactivate my account so I shouldn’t be responsible for the fee. Sending out the invoice is most likely legal, but I really question whether the fee itself is legitimate. Say, I babysit for my neighbor and invoice her each month for the hours I sit. One month I decide to add a ‘fee’ for feeding her kids snacks, but she never authorized me to feed them snacks. I’m not at all sure that my snack fee would be legitimate even if I had reserved the right to charge additional fees. I wonder if Waste Industries regularly charged customers who terminated their service this fee.

Bottom line, what waste industries is doing is mean- spirited and vindictive. Those of us who helped make them successful for all these years are being penalized for something we did not do. How stupid of Wasts Industries to treat customers this way. If the injunction against Gwinnett goes through and the current haulers can continue to do business in Gwinnett, does Waste Industries really think anyone will want to keep them as their hauler? I know I won’t. Why should I remain their customer when I have been treated so badly.

In any event, I do plan to contact other jurisdictions where they do business and let people their know how Waste Industries treats their ‘valued’ customers.

Good point, Bryan.

My question is this—Why are we losing the right to choose who we use for OUR utilities/services? Does Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful not think that we, the tax-paying citizens of this county, are capable of making an informed choice when it comes to who we use to pick up our refuse? I am all for recycling, but I don’t have time in my rather hectic schedule to be rifling through my trash in order to separate the recyclable stuff from the refuse. That is why I HIRED and created a CONTRACT with a waste disposal company to do this for ME. By forcing us AT GUNPOINT(figuratively speaking) to use a company I had no say in choosing, at a greater expense I might add, undermines capitalism and the free market in general. SHAME ON YOU!

To the Emailer referred to by Mack @ 121-

After I got my notice of the deactivation fee by WI back in November, I took my can to their Pleasantdale Road station & terminated my service before the December bill, including the fee, could go into effect. This has left me w/o trash service in December. I am not officially recommending this, but here’s what I “may be” doing until the legal case is resolved- I “may be” scrubbing each piece of mail, magazine, & anything else that comes to my house with my name & address on it. I “may” cut off my address & then put the piece in a black industrial trash bag (rather than the white kitchen style bags). Then I “may” scope out several local dumpsters to see when they’re empty, and “take care of business”. I would not continue this long term (if I were doing it, nod, nod, wink, wink), because that’s not how I like to run my life. BOC’s attempt to reduce illegal dumping has produced even more. Obviously, they could not care less about illegal dumping, or even a more clean & beautiful Gwinnett, as demonstrated by their many actions. Basically they leave us no choice but to respond in sneaky ways. In troubled times, you do what you have to do….

KB

Hey Mack,
Yeah, if I had my commissioner or Ms. Wiggins’ home addresses, I’d leave it with them. Except they probably have GCB snipers on their roof tops!

I’m actually looking forward to buying a chipper/ shredder for all my recyclables, if Judge Clark doesn’t shut down the fiasco this week. Good luck sorting MY plastic, aluminum, & paper confetti tossed salad!

KB

I have used three different trash companies in eight years. Whenever one of them increased their fees above their competitor’s fees, I switched. Whenever they were unreliable, I switched. Whenever they left a mess at the end of my driveway, I switched. Whenever they wanted to charge extra for services that they previously provided as part of their normal service, I switched.

In short when I was unhappy with their fees or quality of service, I had a choice of at least two of their competitors. Now, my trash can is emptied completely and placed back on the curb where it came from, not lying in the middle of the road. Also, I’m pretty sure I could put a human corpse in the trash, and they’d pick it up.(Kidding! Or am I?)

Now, my friendly neighborhood tyrant chooses for me.
I’m sure that’ll be so much better! Instead of picking up the phone and canceling the private company I’ve contracted with for trash removal, and then making a second call to establish service with their competitor.

Now all I have to do wait until a board meeting! And drive across town to attend it! And maybe they’ll even let me speak! And maybe they’ll even take the time to explain to me (since I am incapable of making these life-altering decisions for myself, but am too dumb to realize it) that it’s in the county’s best interest for this to be my assigned garbage hauler. My own best interest is of no concern, of course.

If you can’t change companies, where’s the incentive to do a good job?

Try this little experiment:
Move to the Lawrenceville area. (Not even in the city limits, just close.)

Call DirecTV and establish service. If you already have a dish and receiver, it’ll be on in minutes.Probably while you’re still on the phone with them. (And they aren’t even the friendliest in the business by a long shot.)

Now call the City of Lawrenceville to establish your gas service. You have no choice of provider because of where you live. It can’t be done over the phone. You have to go to city hall in person. Take a number, and wait outside the office until you are summoned. Go in to your assigned window (they’ll tell you which one when you are summoned) and be prepared to pay a minimum $150 deposit (could be as high as $600), plus a $27 connection fee. (Always lived in Lawrenceville? Never missed a payment? Too bad. You types are untrustworthy. Pony up the deposit, deadbeat.) Be talked to like you are swine by the ever-so-friendly city clerk behind the glass. (They don’t want to mix with the proles. We carry diseases, you know.) Be sure to let her sniff your Driver’s License or other “papers”! Then, they’ll turn on your gas “sometime tomorrow”. Maybe. Oh, and be prepared to wait for 6-8 weeks after the final bill to get your deposit back, too.

See the difference? DirecTV competes with Dish Network, Charter, Comcast, etc.

Lawrenceville competes with nobody.

Why should we expect our competition-free, county-mandated trash companies to be any better?

Don’t forget that you could be charged higher fees for not pawing through your garbage like a vagrant for recyclables! Does your current provider threaten you with that?

And most of you want to complain about $23.50 to the very people who screwed you.

Anybody ready for a tea party? In the end it comes down to “how can we get more $$ out of the taxpayer”. GC&B is another entity putting their hand out wanting my hard earned money. Hope everyone has read today’s article and noticed the jump in revenue that both Gwinnett County and GC&B are getting under the new system?

http://gwinnettdailypost.com/main.asp?SectionID=6&SubSectionID=84&ArticleID=53957

Here are a few concerns I have had through this whole process.
1. The “Deactivation Fee” being charged by the companies being pushed out of the county.
2. Our BOC does nothing other than say “its a small fee, go ahead and pay it”
3. Gwinnett County is now the collection arm for the new service.
4. What if I receive bad service? At least under the current I can fire the company or get a discount/rebate for the service.
5. I cannot go negotiate the best rate for trash pickup.
6. Possible financial fines from not “recycling” properly.
7. The county chose who will pick up my trash.

I know there are more things that I have missed.

When is the county going to mandate that I have to shop at Publix instead of Kroger just because its a few hundered feet closer to my house?

Bryan @ comment 126, refer to KB @ comment 86 regarding “tea party”. You may also want to review @ 122.

KB

I called the “new” provider today because we have not paid for trash service in 5 years(we take it to our office), and I’m not happy about being forced to now. I was told that from January to the end of June, you don’t have to use them, but you can’t use anyone else either. What??? Okay. But then in July, you have no choice. My house is on a corner, on a hill. Where am I gonna put 2 95 gallon trash cans? Plus, a fine if you don’t recycle? I am not a happy camper!

I am going to give you two links to AJC articles but I feel compelled to comment on parts of them:

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/12/17/garbage_plan_public.html?cxntlid=inform_sr

After more than an hour of public comment, Commissioner Bert Nasuti said he was impressed with the points raised. Some of them, he said, the commission hadn’t considered and Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful officials didn’t think about them when the ordinance was drawn up.

What The Hell Did We Hire These People To Do? Think?

“We had some real problems raised,” he said. But, he added, the plan was established to solve a problem of illegal dumping and to satisfy state mandates for increased recycling.

“Believe me,” said Commissioner Mike Beaudreau, “your comments are being heard.”

Commission Chairman Charles Bannister went further.

“This has been quite an experience,” he said to the crowd. It is vital, he added, that the county get this right.

“You may see changes,” he said.

Might See Changes My Ass! Make a commitment Bannister!

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/12/16/gwxtrash.html?cxntlid=inform_sr

“There isn’t anything that is mandatory in terms of them recycling, similar to what we have on the residential side,” said Scott Callan, director of purchasing for Gwinnett County. “We do recycle, but there isn’t anything contractually that requires that to happen.”

We as residents will be fined up to $500 per occurrence for not recycling and the county is not required to recycle? Why not lead by example jerks! This is just another example of why these idiots need to go away.

KB, I can think of worse people to be associated with, like our illustrious commissioners.

For anyone that missed the earful the BoC got here is the link to the Dec 16 meeting video:

http://eciweb.ecstreams.com/EarthCastIndexerViewer/programViewer.aspx?client=gwinnettcoga&show=BOCpublichearing121608.ecx

Scroll down to “Public Comments” near the end; it’s 1 hour and 18 minutes worth but it is good to watch. Some commissioners seemed to appreciate all the many “holes” in the plan, but in the end Bannister basically says This is Needed and it is Going To Happen. I respectfully call B.S. on that, Mr. Chairman!!!

I have read through each post & am happy to say I am a loyal Robinson Sanitation customer not facing a $23 disconnect fee (thank you Robinson!).

I am however facing a sudden rate hike. As a Robinson customer, I was invoiced $40 Quarterly after all taxes, fees & surcharges. Under the new administration (yes, we are talking a government run operation), I will be paying $61 Quartely. Regardless of any cancellation fee, I will be forced to pay $80 more per year to have more restrictions & less control over my collection today, yet I see little mention of the $80 increase in the above posts?

I also noticed that Gwinnett so proudly boasts that “they” (not the sanitation provider) will be the sole benefits of any recycling proceeds generated from the expected 13% increase in “recovered materials”. The proceeds will be “returned to the County for the benefit of all citizens”.

Ahem, will I be receiving my rebate in the form of a check, or a credit on my sanitation statement? My guess is neither! More likely, it will go into the “economic tax recovery fund”

Is it fair that Homeowners are forced to pay more, risk possible fines & punishment, sift through their garbage for cans to drag to the curb, then have the county “recover” these goods & resell them to fund a non-homeowner’s public service? As I understand, the way this program was originally pitched, it made a cleaner Gwinnet & REDUCED COSTS for Gwinnett homeowners. WHERE IS MY SAVINGS? How about you sell my recycled garbage that I sifted through & cut my rates to what they were before you decided to fix our problems. Thanks for nothing & I hope this sh!t blows up in your crooked political faces’ Happy Holidays

Chris B

On trashgwinnett we are being told how we need to be respectful in our communications with our commissioners. I agree that one often catches more flies with honey than with vinegar; but I would like to point out that ‘respectful’ emails only got us response from admins and Connie Wiggins and those repsonses gave very little if any indication that our objections were being heard. They simply repeated the same old stuff without addressing concerns about issues that the BOC and GCB had probably not taken into account when they sat up this plan. (See #12 above) By the way, in my reply to Nasuti where he said my email ‘was one of the most offensive and churlish’ he had ever received, I pointed out that he ought to listen to what we were saying despite our anger. Maybe he learned something because he at least seemed to be listening at the meeting. We will see.

By the way, my ‘offensive and churlish’ email said that I was ashamed that he was my county commissioner because he was not stepping up to protect us from the Waste Industries fee (this was after the Bill Liss interview on TV where Nasuti said he had already paid his deactivation fee and the bottom line was that we all should pay and just look forward to ‘better things’) and that although his admin was very nice, even state legislators manage to respond directly to their constituents. I have copies of all the emails. Oh, I also let him know that if something wasn’t done about the situation he was not going to get my vote and I would actively campaign against him in the next election. There was no profanity and a very clear statement that I was really, really angry. His reply, when I finally got one, was not very nice at all.

Louise,

I have read all of your posts and found them well thought out and certainly civil if not downright polite. I was at the meeting and reviewed the video and got the same impression from these guys.

THIN SKINNED

Were there some ugly emails? Maybe. But if you don’t like stupid emails, QUIT MAKING STUPID DECISIONS.

Don’t like the heat gentlemen? GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN.

Bert Nasuti was absolutely defensive ,weak ,utterly egotistical and elitist. He made a giant show of taking “notes”. Could he have dropped a “note” a year or two ago to his constituents to let them in on the waste situation and Gwinnett’s plan? I believe Nasuti’s seat is on the chopping block so that is why he was squirming like a hooker at a tent revival.

Beaudreaux seemed like a somewhat reasonable guy but was completely absorbed in the price argument repeatedly saying “but they were the lowest bidder!” DUDE. The stupid “fish bowl” bid should never have happened in the first place! Price was never the issue! Is this some kind of attempt at a Jedi mind trick?

Bannister reminded me a lot of John McCain . A guy who possessed honor instilled by service to country, but made his career by kicking his fellow conservatives , and conservative leaning constituents in the crotch when he thought it would benefit him.

I still want to know: Did ANY of them read what Connie and her merry band of Socialist-Greenies put together?
How could ANY of these “Republicans” read the GCBS plan and website with crap like “We ALL must work for a GREENER tomorrow.” and “500.00 dollar fine for recycle violations” and simply say “okey dokey” ?

Wake up!
You guys are seen as RINOs not just by AJC readers but on big conservative websites like Redstate, Free Republic and Drudge! Millions read those publications and shake their heads at your lack of principle.

On another note.

Honestly , I have to say that I am so impressed with the speakers. All of you folks who spoke, conservative and liberal alike made me proud to be in this county. I am honored to call you fellow citizens. I would proudly vote for any of you who ran for a commissioners seat.

KB and Mack,
Was anyone else appalled by Nasuti’s disgusting attempt at a parallel with the building industry? I mean here is a member of a body that allowed out of control building and development to practically pave the entire county.

To be fair , I think that what he was attempting to say was that it is not the business of Gwinnett County to artificially create jobs by using the broken window fallacy. Which is true.

What he was responding to was a citizen saying that there were people losing jobs in the garbage industry.

The DISGUSTING part was that he tried to say that they were not just going to allow building just for the sake of employing builders…..and then tried associate that with the present garbage fiasco by saying that the county had no role in preserving the existing jobs in the garbage industry. Which is true.

But that does NOT means that GCBC has no responsibility when they arbitrarily eliminate jobs not through competition but by misuse of government power !

Are the commissioners aware that everything in Gwinnett County garbage pickup was FINE for the average citizen. At least before they swooped in and tried to TAX the citizens for their FAILURE to enforce the existing county trash ordinances?

If they identified 30,000 homes without trash pickup and trashy yards, why did they not conduct a police sweep and ticket the offenders?

If they had a requirement from the state to attempt to increase recycling , could they not have provided recycling incentives to citizens and businesses including the waste haulers?

If they wanted to get into the trash business, why did they not start a competing service to compete with existing services? ?)

No , Mr. Nasuti and company thought about it for a couple of years and THE BEST THING they could come up with was to create an expensive tax-funded government entity run by a bunch of Greenie – activist types who want to conduct police sweeps of the CITIZENS trash. You remember CITIZENS? The ones who actually pay taxes , have bank accounts, permanent addresses and non-forged identification?

It didn’t concern them that this would entail shutting down and sweeping away all competing existing businesses and taking away employment and business for AMERICANs when the economic conditions couldn’t be anymore dismal?

Seems to me that they LIKED the idea of the commission artificially creating a “garbage crisis” that required government jobs to replace private sector jobs and fatten certain wallets.

They didn’t worry about artificially creating jobs when they created an artificial environment that NO small business could possibly compete in and then arguing that their hand-picked, out-of-state corporation won because ” gosh they were the lowest bidder “?

So what does artificially creating jobs in construction by permitting building have to do with
the arbitrary socialist government take-over of private industry,permitting delegation of police and regulatory powers to a shady non-profit organization and putting many of your Gwinnett County constituents out of work BY THE ACTION OF Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners?

Mr. Nasuti stated that changing the trash plan now was the equivalent of a “bailout”.

Now when the citizens tell him that this is wrong he either fails to respond or responds Mr. Bannister’s line: ” it’s a done deal “.

And Mr. Nasuti and Mr. Bannister think “we” were insulting “them”??????

The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners have insulted the citizens of Gwinnett and the basic tenets of AMERICA with this monstrous mess !!

So just spare us the passive-aggressive melodrama over a few nasty emails.

Sheesh we need a house cleaning at GJAC.

In such a bad economy, where a lot of people is losing their job, now we have to come out with extra money to pay an additional bill!!! What about those that doesn’t need a trash collector, I only have 1 bag of trash a week and I am already paying trash pick up fees in my office. Do I have a choice??

Jay:
Nasuti was also disgusting in his faux attempt to seem concerned by taking notes. Do you really think he will do anything with those notes except line the kitty litter box?

Here’s a solution for our not-so-bright Comissioners: Why not set up a computerized tracking system like the state does for auto insurance? It would probably cost less the Connie Wiggins salary. If you don’t have trash service, you get busted. And if you have permission to use another’s dumpster (such as work, office, etc) then that user puts your tax parcel ID on his account with the county and you’re OK. Exceptions could be handled on a case-by-case basis. Rental owners would have to certify a house is vacant to get an exception. If you get caught lying, THEN you get busted with heavy fines, not when you forget to wash out your mayonaisse jar as the current system. Apparently The BoC is just lazy and doesn’t want to try enforcement.