Jan. 9, 2023

This paid piece is sponsored by Novak Sanitary Service.

We could tell you what it’s like for garbage crews to provide service during a winter like this.

But it probably would mean more to show you.

Here’s an example of what Novak Sanitary Service crews encountered last week while trying to collect trash at commercial businesses:

“Snow is the enemy when it comes to doing what we do, and the biggest nemesis is enclosures,” district manager Pat Draisey said. “Enclosures gather snow like no other. It’s very slow, and we fight with being able to access cans every single day.”

Trying to service an enclosure, even with a few inches of snow, is like trying to push a grocery cart through snow on a much bigger scale, he said.

“But it gets worse when our customers aren’t able to access the garbage and recycle containers,” Draisey said.

The more access property managers can provide to an enclosure, the more effective trash service will be, he said.

“We generally run one-person trucks because of staffing, but in these conditions, we’re sending two or three people, including leadership, to manhandle the cans out of enclosures,” Draisey said. “That can work in a one-off situation, but with hundreds of customers, we need the assistance of the properties.”

Residential service presents its own challenges.

“We are primarily at the mercy of the road conditions and the homeowner for how well they clean their driveway,” Draisey said. “Many homeowners do an amazing job, but a few do not, and with snow, the biggest issue is accessibility. Even with minimal snow, trying to pull a 100-pound can from your garage to our truck is next to impossible when you ask our guys to do it 200 to 300 times a day.”

Essentially, if city plows haven’t cleared your street, garbage trucks likely won’t be able to get there to service you. And if your cans aren’t curbside or your driveway isn’t accessible, your trash can’t be picked up.

“We’ve had multiple customers call asking why their trash wasn’t picked up, and the can is on the side of the house buried in a drift. We can’t go get it,” Draisey said. “We do our best, and very rarely do we skip a day, but this has been the roughest three-week span we’ve experienced in recent memory.”

One day, the Sioux Falls Regional Sanitary Landfill was shut down for the holiday, so crews couldn’t work. On the day when wind chills reached 50 degrees below zero, the hydraulics on the trucks quit working, so they couldn’t run. Other days brought snow that crews hadn’t cleared yet.

“As we cancel days, we try to do as much as we can in a shorter period, but we’re also moving slowly because of the conditions, so it’s very difficult to catch up,” Draisey said. “And this is the worst timing you could have had in terms of volume, coming around the holidays. If we had had some days in July when we couldn’t run for whatever reason, there wouldn’t have been all the extra boxes and trash from the holiday season.”

Customers should watch the Novak app, media close lines and their phone for cancellation. Novak sends out prerecorded calls about service changes. To make sure your current number is on file, you can call 605-338-7126.

“When it comes to making decisions, we try to wait as long as we can to make sure conditions don’t end up being OK,” Draisey said. “The vast majority of our customers understand that if they can’t get down their street, they don’t expect the garbage truck will. If you can’t walk up and down the driveway, it’s very tough for us to do it too.”

Commercial customers should remember the same thing: Keep your cans accessible, and clear the area around your roll-off containers.

“Our trucks need a lot of room to back up into these compactors and cans to service them, so be mindful of where the snow piles are made,” Draisey said. “We need access around the container and 50 to 75 feet in front of the can to give ample space to line up and service the container. For the most part, our customers do really well. It’s just communicating to their snow-removal team what the expectation is around the roll-off container.”

Novak’s shredding service largely has been unaffected by the weather, other than businesses clients being closed. Walk-in business for consumer shredding has remained open.

While the Novak team also has dealt with seasonal illness in recent weeks, “for the most part, they’ve been able to get to work despite the weather,” Draisey said. “That hasn’t been the issue. It’s once you hop in the garbage truck that it’s impossible to service some of these customers. At the end of the day, we don’t want to put our folks in a position to be unsafe and hurt themselves or anyone in the community. So we ask our customers to be patient. We’re doing our best, and we’ll get through this.”

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