Santa Ana’s new trash hauler, Republic Services, has done an awful job as they have started their new huge contract. Trash cans are going unpicked up for as long as two weeks and the complaints are piling up.
The City of Santa Ana announced last Friday that Republic Services would work on Sunday to try to catch up but it barely made much of an impact.
The situation has been compounded by City workers actually leaving nasty notices on residences that have left their trash cans out on as they hope to get them picked up eventually. The city notices advise that residents can be fined $500 dollars for a second warning and $1,000 for a third warning.
It is beyond belief that the City of Santa Ana would resort to citing residents when the real culprit is Republic Services – and the City Council majority, as well as Mayor Vince Sarmiento – who gave the trash hauling contract to Republic Services.
Exasperated residents are now talking about bringing their unpicked up trash cans to City Hall, which would be pretty hilarious.
The problem extends to local apartments and planned communities as well. Here is a note we received from a manager at a condominium complex:
We are told every day that Republic is coming, but so far the only thing they did was pick up one trash bin in our community yesterday (July 6th) leaving a mess behind. We have now been informed that the emptying of this one trash bin was considered a pick-up for our community although we have 144 units and bins throughout the complex.
I spoke with our HOA President this morning. She and our property manager have made multiple calls to the City of Santa Ana, Republic, and OC Health. At this point, we’re getting the run around. The City representative (Christy) is now saying we have to hire our own vendor to come on-site and clean out the bin areas and trash overflow or Republic won’t empty the bins even if Republic comes on-site which she couldn’t give us a date for that either.
For 40+ years, our community has been contracted for trash pick-up on Tuesdays and Fridays, so this is not something new… someone somewhere has dropped the ball big time!
Here is another note we received from a resident –
On Tuesday, July 5 around 5:00 p.m. I called the new waste management (Republic Services) company to find out what time they were going to pick up our bins. I was told by the customer services representative that they still had until 6:00 p.m. to pick up my trash. I mentioned that I used to get notifications from the previous company letting me know about holiday and any other pick-up delays. The representative proceeded to tell me that since they are new to our city, they don’t have any contact information on file to be able to do that. In addition, their website does not work properly when you input your address. She then asked me for my telephone number and email address so they could begin sending me notices which I did. 6:00 p.m. came and went and there was no pick up.
I called again this morning at 11:00 a.m. and was told the same thing that they have until 6:00 p.m. to pick up the bins. I asked the representative why they hadn’t sent me a notification letting me know about the delay and was told that an account needs to be set up online in order for them to send the notices.    Â
By this time I was irritated and I told her what was the purpose of providing my contact information yesterday, and she said that she couldn’t speak about what I was told yesterday and that I needed to create an account online. It is obvious that this new company doesn’t know anything about customer service because instead of apologizing she was more concerned about getting her point across. Out of frustration with Republic Service’s extremely poor customer service I just hang up. Numerous other complaints have been logged by Santa Ana residents on Nextdoor.
As of today, July 6th at 4:30 p.m. All the receptacles on numerous streets in northern Santa Ana, haven’t been collected.
In addition, other residents have mentioned that they received a variety of responses from Republic Services.
There of course had been no comment on any of this by Mayor Vince Sarmiento or his City Council majority. How does Sarmiento expect to get any votes for his Supervisorial campaign in November if this keeps up?
Bad service provided by that company and the city needs to put attention to it because icn result on infections and bacterios aruond our neighbiorhoods
Yes, we became victims of Republic Services and Sarmiento’s incompetence. Our whole block got cited. Not sure why the person doing the citing didn’t notice that the trash cans were FULL. Why are we being fined instead of Republic Services? Makes me miss Pulido.
THEY PICKED UP ALL 3 TRASH BINS WITH 1 TRUCK, AFTER WE WENT THRUGH THE TROUBLE OF SEPARATING OUR TRASH. WHAT’S THE POINT NOW?
RECALL THIS MOTHER%$$%$%$
Wowww Republic sucksss
I called the City of Santa Ana to get our old trash cans picked. The people answering the phone have no knowledge of what to tell customers. I finally got the City of Santa Public works 714-647-3380 and they took my info on Tuesday July 12, 2022 on Friday July 15, 2022 they picked up our cans. There are all my neighbors with old cans sitting out, but they were left. What are they thinking.
Hello Residents: I understand your frustration. My trash was not picked up either. My understanding is that the previous Waste Management company did not pick up on their last week and left the entire city’s trash bins for Republic to deal with (including hundreds of restaurants, condominiums, apartment buildings and not to mention our neighborhoods). Thus, it was something beyond city and Republic’s control. However, Republic has been working day and night (I’ve personally witnesses) to prioritize the most crucial areas and should be picking up our neighborhoods’ trash regularly this week.
As to the rumors that the city is citing residents for leaving their trash bins on the curb–I verified directly with the appropriate city department that this in fact is NOT the case. What actually happened is that someone (or someones) illegally dumped items (probably large items, such as furniture, mattresses, televisions, etc) at the curb. Thus, the resident was issued a warning against illegal dumping. There was no ticket, no fine, nothing else.
So please, let’s help one another in resolving this issue together. If we complain and do nothing, then we don’t accomplish anything, but just bad vibes. Here is how we can help our city get cleaned up and stay beautiful: (1) Schedule your free large item pick up at https://www.republicservices.com/residents/bulk-waste; and (2) Download MySantaAna app and report any illegal dumping you see in your neighborhood.
We are the NEW SANTA ANA…..Let’s be good neighbors and join forces to make Santa Ana the best city in Orange County. I know that I don’t have to thank you, but I do want to say thank you for your understanding and your patience. This is a major transition with major challenges. Be well neighbors.
PS: I don’t know for a fact, but it is my belief that the reason the 3 trash bins were emptied into one truck is this: since residents needed to discard more trash and it did not fit in the regular bin, then we started putting regular trash into the green bin and the recycling bin. So for this go around, it made sense that the bins were picked up together in order to expedite your service. For your next pick up, continue to separate your trash. I know you have to put more effort when you separate, but we need to do our share to decrease our carbon footprint on Earth so that our future generations may enjoy a green and clean environment. Be well neighbors.
Since republic took over everything is upside down, I am on Orion Street and trash haven’t been pick up. It’s been a month since this company took over and they are a complete disaster shame on this company. Shame to the authorities for not doing anything this is very unhealthy because of the flyes going all over, very discusting, they been several weeks delaying the pick up.
The rumor that residents are being cited for leaving trash bins outdoors is FALSE. Please stop the false allegations. Get the true facts. It doesn’t do our city or our residents any good by creating negative vibes. The resident who was cited was due to illegal dumping or large items (perhaps furniture, mattresses, broken TV., etc). Use your MySantaAna app to get illegal dumping items picked up. Or may also call to schedule your large item pick-up. We are the NEW SANTA ANA. Let’s work together to make our city better and stronger.
The citation clearly says trash. There is a box for furniture, so perhaps if it was furniture they would have ticked that box. Citations aside, businesses are paying 60% more for trash and recycling service, and we are not getting serviced. We have spent more time on the phone with republic in 6 weeks than we did with WM in 6 years, and that is not acceptable. The organics program is a mess with missed pickups every week and the food is decomposing in the bins. More rodents, more flies- and we directed to Republic to make our complaints. Where is the city council now- Was it not the council that approved this shady contract? They should be held accountable!