Richard’s Disposal

This is New Orleans, LA. It is the city I was born in and that I am in love with for so many reasons. I would be filing for a divorce if that love was based on so called City Services.
My friends I will keep this short and to the point.
Garbage pickup is for the large bags placed in the bin that can be grabbed and thrown into the garbage truck. Any loose garbage or small bags like cat litter are just left in the bin. So instead of using garbage bags and keeping things as neat as possible just fill the bin with loose garage forcing the workers to at least bring the bin to the truck to empty.
And even worst is the recycle pickup. They take what they want when they want to. And when they don’t take it all you have two choices. One is to haul it back to the yard and try again next week. Or just leave it on the street for the next day garbage pickup.
Do remember there are rules and certain things are not recyclable. In my second refusal to collect the recyclables in three pick up cycles it was cardboard. Did have a lot I placed in large plastic bags but that was because of a very bad storm that brought about high winds and rain. And some of the cardboard was in plastic bags that they don’t accept. I will give them that one but they still left cardboard that was not in any plastic bags (hope to post pictures of the two separate recent incidents). Left for the next day for the garbage pickup.
So much for attempting to be a good citizen. Now if only the S&WB will come back and fixed the busted up pavement in from of my home that they promised to repair the day they busted it up. That was over a year ago.
If you are wondering both city services mentioned above were written to, called, and begged a little to no avail.

If arbitrary policy paired with spurious decision-​making is your game then these guys are for you!
On a Friday morning I placed in cans some yard debris (branch clippings, cut down to manageable sizes), and my cans were passed over for pick up. When I called to complain the conversation went like so:
1) Was I using my own cans or theirs? Theirs
2) How could I use 4 cans? I live in a 4plex. But is it like that on the tax assessor? Yes
3) Yard debris? OH!!! It’s yard debris WELLL that has to be bundled and in no more than 6 bundles (no definition provided of what dimension a bundle might be)
4) So if I bundle my yard debris RIGHT NOW they’ll come back to retrieve it? No, you have to wait another entire week
5) And because I have 4 bills I can pile 24 bundles right because 4×6 = 24, yes? (LONG PAUSE and begrudging) yes
The tolerated behavior of this ‘service’ is beyond ridiculous. They are paid whether they do a job — whether it’s their job or not — and we get to jump through policy hoops to package refuse to their specifications
IT’S GARBAGE, IT’S IN YOUR CAN, PICK IT UP!!!
Engage the tiny minds of bureaucracy all you want; you will never win. And you will still be forced to pay them to not do their job.

I am regularly harassed by this company’s garbage truck driver’s around the Freret area. Most recently, they deliberately blocked an intersection while I was biking home from work. I know it was deliberate because the driver was watching me as he drove the truck 20 feet and stopped it across an intersection. Then he and the other workers mocked me by making faces and noises and catcalling me. I immediately called the company and complained about truck #732 (it’s painted really big above the hatch on the back of the truck). I’m posting here so others know not to choose this company for services and so other women know to call the company if they are harassed as well.

Horrible service… they wouldn’t pick up our recycling because «there was too much in the trash»! Reporting them to the city!

I’ve never had so many issues with a trash service before. You’d think it’d be simple, leave the trash in a bag, put it in the can and leave the can at the curb right? NOPE!
More often then not they skip my can which makes us miss a trash day. So I call them and they’re all we’ll get it on the next trash day! Which would be fine except they’ll only pick up what is actually in the can and now it doesn’t all fit. So I’ll have to wait for the next bulky trash day to get it all picked up which then sure enough they skip my can again!
So so tired of this shit. Just pick up the trash already!
I never thought I’d say this but I miss when trash pickup was city-​run.

I have never had so much trouble getting my trash picked up in any other city. This service is horrible. It can’t be that difficult to pick up a trash can.

Unfortunately, our fair city has a pretty poor track record in rewarding contracts to sub-​par vendors. Richard’s is no exception. We recently finished renovating a blighted property in Mid-​City. We ordered two cans when construction began. It took months to receive them. Once we did, they were promptly stolen by some upstanding citizen no doubt. I filed a police report, and put in another can request almost a year ago with Richard’s. A year later we still have not received cans. Since moving in, garbage pick up has been spotty at best. But, at least our bill for such services is always on time. That’s one thing New Orleanians can always count on.

I called 3 times on Friday because there is a HUGE gash in our car from the recycle truck which comes on Fridays. In addition there was recycling all over the street. We are at Audubon & Green St. but our car was parked on Audubon St. There was a white Audi directly across from our car that was parked a foot away from the curb but their car was untouched. Ours however is scraped along the entire driver side.
I was told a supervisor would come out to see it. That never happened. Then I was told the supervisor would call me back and that never happened either.

One of two subcontracts for city trash removal. If their number is on your city issued trashcan then they’re your contract.
The garbageman takes all of our cans (and sometimes we have a lot) and don’t leave trash in the street… such an improvement post-​K. And the one time they missed our entire block, I called and trash was picked up the next morning.