Trash Haulers Catching Up Now That Strike Is Over

Orange County’s trash haulers were back out in full force Saturday, catching up on a backlog of commercial customers and preparing for Monday, when full residential service is scheduled to resume countywide.

“It’s back to business as usual,” said Bob Coyle, vice president for Waste Management Inc. and a spokesman for the five companies affected by last week’s five-day strike. “I’m in here today planning for Monday, making sure we get extra help on the trucks and making sure that the supervisors are ready.”

Waste Management, which serves large portions of north Orange County, had 100 trash collectors working Saturday instead of the usual 80. They were targeting restaurants, hospitals and other high-volume commercial customers.

Taormina Industries, which serves Anaheim and seven other cities, had some of the 200 supervisors and nonunion drivers it brought in from out of town working Saturday along with union drivers, said regional operations manager Jim Rankin.

Transfer stations that were open for customer drop-offs during the week will be closed today, Coyle said.

Rainbow Disposal set up two more drop-off sites Saturday at Huntington Beach city parks for residents who didn’t want to wait for regular service to resume. But after three hours, only a handful of people came by and the company decided to close the sites.