WASHINGTON, Pa. — Last fall, Channel 11 spoke with homeowners in the city of Washington, who said they were paying for weekly trash pickup through Big’s Sanitation. But in many of those cases, garbage hadn’t been collected for more than a month.
On Wednesday, Mayor Jojo Burgess said those delayed pick-ups are still a consistent problem. A spokesperson for Big’s said the company is on schedule 95 percent of the time, leaving both sides at odds.
Burgess said he’s been getting calls at City Hall for the last week after another round of missed trash pick-ups. He sent Channel 11 pictures after hearing from customers in several Washington neighborhoods.
“This trash, sitting out for days, is now attracting wildlife that normally wouldn’t be in the area. That becomes dangerous to our kids and our other pets that we may have that may go outside,” Burgess said. “We had times where it’s been almost a month, month-and-a-half.”
On Wednesday afternoon, we saw Big’s garbage trucks on Zachary Sonson’s street.
“They were supposed to be here Monday, and then I brought my trash in yesterday. Then, I heard them going down the street as I was working from home and quickly brought it out,” Sonson said.
Burgess is encouraging residents to call City Hall if they’re dealing with or have had delayed pick-ups. He’s called a special meeting for residents to voice their concerns to Big’s. It will be held June 1st at 5 p.m.
“We continue to try to work with the owners of Big’s to try to find a solution, but it continues to happen,” Burgess said.
A spokesperson for Big’s Sanitation sent Channel 11 the following statement:
“Big’s Sanitation currently services more than 4,700 customers in the City of Washington and has provided service in the region since January 2024. During that time, we have maintained greater than a 95% on-schedule pickup rate. While there have been occasional missed pickups, the vast majority have been recovered within 24 hours.
On January 8, we attended a city council meeting to address concerns presented by the mayor, council, and city administrators regarding service. No specific actions were requested by the city at that meeting. We continue to upgrade our resources, including the addition of drivers and route supervisors to improve our service to the city.
Throughout our time servicing the city, we have met all contractual obligations and have remained fully compliant in our agreement with the City of Washington.
If any resident believes they have experienced an extended delay in service, we encourage them to contact our office directly so we can ensure they are added to our recovery schedule promptly.
We appreciate the opportunity to serve the City of Washington and remain committed to providing reliable best in class service to the community.”
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