ANAHEIM, Calif. (Dec. 15, 2021) — Waste collection at homes and businesses in Anaheim picked up Wednesday after the city pressed for expanded contingency service and continues to support a quick resolution to the labor standoff at provider Republic Services.
“Reliable waste collection is critical for Anaheim,” Mayor Harry Sidhu said. “We know how frustrating this is for families, businesses and everyone in our city. We have worked on behalf of residents to restart home service and secured expanded collections at critical business locations across our city. We are the only impacted city seeing this level of service.”
Partial Anaheim home waste collection is underway and is expected to pick up through the week and beyond.
Limited residential service started Monday in west Anaheim, expanded for those west of Harbor Boulevard on Tuesday, and continues Wednesday with homes in downtown and other parts of central Anaheim.
Residents around and east of the 57 freeway will see partial service on Thursday and Friday.
Residential service remains limited, and not all homes are seeing service just yet. In some cases, home service may include just waste pickup and not recycling and yard waste.
Service in Anaheim has been disrupted since Dec. 9 amid contract discussions and a labor work stoppage at Republic Services, the city’s contracted provider for waste and recycling collection.
Working with Anaheim, Republic has provided expanding contingency service during the disruption, focused first on healthcare, schools and other locations where health concerns are the highest and then broadening to some homes and other businesses.
Anaheim is not directly involved in contract talks between Republic and its employees, but the city has offered support for a resolution that restores service to our community as soon as possible.
While Anaheim stands ready to see the matter settled, agreement also requires the support of neighboring cities serviced by Republic.
“We have heard from our community,” said Sidhu, who, as mayor, represents Anaheim at large. “They want to see service restored. We stand ready to support a reasonable resolution that expands collection as soon as possible.”
Talks between Republic and its workers continued Wednesday after a full day of discussions on Tuesday.
“Republic Services is encouraged that negotiations have resumed with the union representing our Orange County employees, and we feel we are making progress toward a competitive contract that is fair for all,” the company said in a statement. “Republic is grateful for the support of our municipal partners, in particular, the city of Anaheim and its leaders, who have played a key role in facilitating the restoration of collection service across the region and encouraged a resolution to the work stoppage. This collaborative approach across all of the cities we serve will be essential to resuming normal service for our customers as quickly as possible.”
We will continue to update on expanding service and any other updates here and at the city of Anaheim on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.