Trash haulers are seeing a significant increase in household trash, even as commercial business is in decline.
As might be expected when more people are staying home, residential pick ups have increased in volume, Matt Peard of Monadnock Disposal Services said, while with some businesses not in operation, commercial business has slowed significantly. For those in the trash hauling business, he said, the differences have mainly balanced out.
Glinda Horrall, secretary with MD’s Trash Removal in Milford, which serves towns across southern New Hampshire, said Monday that their residential trash hauling “has gone crazy.”
Particularly, she said, people interested in dumpster rentals for home clean-outs.
“We can’t even keep the dumpsters in stock,” she said. “Everyone’s home, and they’re cleaning out. The amounts of trash is crazy. The amount is twice as much.”
On the commercial side, Horrall said, customers such as restaurants have reduced trash pickup to once per month in some cases. But with about 70 percent of their 2,500 customer base made up of residential homes, she said the increases elsewhere is making up for any of that loss.
Residents aren’t just throwing out more trash, Horrall said. They’re also using their services more for recycling.
MDS, which operates about 30 trucks and has 40 employees, said nationwide, the issue of trash hauling has become a sensitive one. In a time when many municipal recycling centers have announced they are not taking certain items due to the potential spread of the coronavirus, private trash haulers have continued mostly business as usual, Peard said.
“People are afraid,” Peard said. “The less they touch the stuff, the happier they are.”
MD’s Trash Removal accepts recycling, but their employees do not sort it themselves, Horrall said. Instead, the recycling is transferred to a larger facility for sorting. So with multiple local recycling centers limiting the recycling they’re accepting, more are opting to pay for the service privately.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.