What You Need To Know

• Areas in Hillsborough County experiencing trash pickup delays and/or missed altogether


• Issues worsened when County announced they were not renewing contract with Waste Connections per residents


• Waste Connections has been losing drivers since announcement of discontinued contract


• The company says it's making efforts to increase its workforce

"It smells horrible," said Ricky Henderson of Wimauma. " It looks horrible. You come driving to your house and you want to relax, and you see a whole bunch of trash."

Neighbors say the issue with trash pick up delays became unbearable when it was announced that the contract between the County and Waste Connections was ending. 

The agreement isn't officially over till February, but residents say the company is already scaling back on their services and trash is piling up. 

"We've had some areas of the county that have had trash pickup missed for weeks now," said District 4 Commissioner Stacy White. 

 "We've been told that Waste Connections has lost some of their drivers," said Denhartog. 

Drivers are not sticking around before the contract ends.

"They are losing employees everyday because these employees know they need to find another job," added Noelle Licor of Ruskin. 

Instead of two only one pick-up is happening per week. Some homeowners say they've been skipped. One man tells me he's waited for more than seven days for a pick-up. 

"Its unacceptable. We have enough problems," said Ricky Henderson. 

"Entire streets smell and maggots are flowing out of garbage cans," said Licor. 

"We're definitely not getting what we pay our taxes for," added Denhartog. 

Because of the ongoing problem, Commissioner Stacy White shared that residents can take their own trash to the landfill free of charge. However he says that is not the fix to the issue. 

"We're looking at all kinds of options to remedy this situation," White added. "It could be having the new hauler come in early." 

A solution neighbors hope will come soon. 

"We just want to keep the environment safe and clean," said Denhartog. 

Residents say they've done their part in doing just that and expect the hauler [Waste Connections] to pick-up their end of the deal. 

Waste Connections tells Spectrum Bay News 9 it has taken the following actions in an effort to increase its workforce and help alleviate the issue: 

• $5,000 Retention Bonuses for 200 employees to be paid after the January transition 
• $2 per hour wage increases to front-line hourly employees, in addition to COVID-19 and retention wage increases 
• $125 weekly bonuses to supervisory employees
• Increased recruiting efforts, including appointment of a location-specific recruitment coordinator and holding job fairs 
• Bringing in employees from affiliated companies despite incurring significant travel costs, overtime costs, and lodging costs for these employees 
• Scheduling a job fair for Waste Connections employees to explore opportunities with other haulers, effective at the end of Waste Connections’ current contract term.