Cal Sierra resumes recycling services

Cal Sierra Waste Management Inc., the largest waste hauler in Tuolumne County, is returning to normal recycling operations after months of combining trash and recycling collected at the curbside due to complications brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The county Solid Waste Division announced in a news release on Thursday that the company is planning to resume its normal recycling collection, handling and processing in advance of Earth Day, which is next Thursday. That means recycling from curbside carts will be transported separately to a recycling facility as opposed to a landfill.

While the county said the change was “understandable considering the widespread impact COVID-19 quarantines were having on all aspects of local business,” it lasted longer than initially anticipated due to ongoing personnel shortages.

Paul Rosynsky, spokesman for Waste Management Northern California, said the company began taking curbside recycling to the landfill with trash late last year amid a deadly holiday COVID-19 surge that hampered its collection operations.

Rosynsky said the move was made due to a shortage of drivers caused by mandatory COVID-19 quarantines.

“Instead of letting the trash pile up,

which would be a public safety hazard, we were forced to collect the trash and recycling together,” he said. “We’ve had these issues ongoing, but it looks like we’re seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Cal Sierra Waste Management Inc. has more than 10,000 customer accounts for trash and recycling collection in the county and City of Sonora. It typically has eight trucks servicing the area each day, but Rosynsky said it got down to four or less at the lowest point.

This happened despite additional precautions taken by the company that included separating workers into pods and limiting interactions between them so it would also limit the number who would have to quarantine if one tested positive, Rosynsky said.

The company was forced to provide roll-off containers throughout the county in early December due to normal pick-ups being delayed for as many as five days, which led to the decision to temporarily combine the recycling and trash.

Rosynsky said the company fielded more complaints when the trash collection was delayed than over the recycling being combined for landfill disposal.

We got more feedback when we were delayed in picking up the curbside carts, which is completely understandable,” he said. “It’s important we collect those in a timely manner, which was why we were forced to do this. We did not like doing it at all either.”