HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — UPDATE 02/02/2022: The Solid Waste Disposal Authority of the City of Huntsville (SWDA) and its curbside recycling program, Recycling Alliance of North Alabama (RANA), announced today that the City of Huntsville Public Works Department and Madison County Commission Waste Control Department will temporarily assist with curbside recycling collections that are behind schedule.
RANA asks that residents leave their recycling bins on their curb and wait for them to be collected.
Several Huntsville community members have taken to Reddit to ask why their recycling is still sitting on the curb. The answer is simpler than you might think: Issues with the supply chain.
"Specifically, it is trying to get parts in to get trucks up and running," said Recycling Alliance of North Alabama (RANA) Executive Director John "Doc" Holladay.
RANA has six trucks used to collect recycling from nearly 1,000 homes a day. With such a big task, it's important to keep the trucks up and running, but that's hard to do when parts aren't available.
"We were able to get a couple of them back up and running, but we're still short a couple trucks, but you're waiting on parts," said Holladay.
Currently, RANA is down by two trucks, placing an additional load on the remaining four, and now that we've gotten past Christmas, there is a lot more recycling that needs to be picked up.
RANA is backed up by nearly four days due to these issues, and Holladay says there's no clear deadline on when the problem will be fixed. They say the best thing to do at this time is just remaining patient. RANA's staff is working late nights to try to catch up and if you have any questions or concerns, you can call them directly at 256-801-2278.
In a statement, RANA explained:
"This is to update you and ask for your help in sharing the news that there has been and will continue to be RANA service delays due to uncontrollable factors affecting RANA’s collection contractor. There are intermittent mechanical issues with trucks and health issues with employees that seriously impact the timeliness of collections.
"While this is unfortunate and inconvenient for RANA customers, it is important that our residents understand RANA is working as hard as possible under the circumstances to return to normal schedules. We need your help in communicating this message to our residents as soon as possible.
"We are asking RANA customers to leave their cart(s) on the curb to allow additional time for crews to collect their recyclables. The collections times, unfortunately, cannot be guaranteed at this time.
"Please place your cart(s) out for service on your regular collection day (prior to 7 a.m.). We ask that you leave your cart(s) out until they are collected.
"We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding as we diligently work to resolve the delayed collection issues and return to our normal schedule."