CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Recycling services in Charlotte have been delayed several times in October, and city officials say it's due to a worsening labor shortage.
"We’re trying to play catch up,” Eric DeLaPena, deputy director of operations for Charlotte's Solid Waste Services, said.
He said his department is down 20 drivers and the lack of qualified applicants has progressively gotten worse in the last year.
The staffing shortage has forced them to focus on covering garbage pickup, delaying yard waste and recycling services.
"When you have fewer people doing the job it does create some long hours for our employees,” DeLaPena added.
Meanwhile, Charlotte neighborhoods that use K&S Sanitation for recycling saw a delay in service for more than a week in the beginning of October.
“I was going bring all my stuff in, but everyone kept theirs out, so I didn’t know what to do with it,” Jacklyn Doolittle said as she kneeled down to pick up her recycling bin.
Doolittle found out from neighbors that K&S Sanitation wasn’t coming to pick up her recycling and had advised the town home community to combine it with their trash.
In the email, K&S Sanitation said the recycling plant its trucks go to temporarily closed due to staffing shortages – forcing K&S to suspend its recycling services on Oct. 4.
"We want to do our part and recycle as much as we can properly, so it is unfortunate that we have to put our recycling in the trash,” Doolittle's neighbor Justin Sommermann said.
K&S told WCNC Charlotte that the plant, owned by another company, reopened on Oct. 12 and it's back to a normal pickup schedule.
The City of Charlotte said it’s using third party contractors to help fill the gaps of drivers. It also hosts hiring events like open interviews, and is offering referral bonuses to address the shortage.
As residents figure out the best way to recycle, WCNC Charlotte has also learned that Mecklenburg County is moving away from using unmanned drop-off locations.
The county closed its Uptown recycling location on Monday due to issues with dumpster fires and homeless encampments, and is encouraging residents to use the Compost Central Center on Valleydale Road instead.
Contact Julia Kauffman at jkauffman@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.