City of Liberty Lake sees temporary shortage of recycling, garbage cans due to increased requests during pandemic

New residents signing up for service and increased levels of trash and yard waste have led to a shortage of trash cans for Waste Management customers in Liberty Lake, but the company expects to have carts to most customers by the end of the week.

In a notice to customers last week, residents without trash cans were told to simply put their bagged trash on the curb. “Due to COVID and more people working from home this year, requests for residential recycling and garbage cans have skyrocketed,” the notice read. “Waste Management has been unable to keep carts in stock. Inventories are depleted and carts are on backorder.”

Waste Management Pacific Northwest Communications Manager Gary Chittim said 356 customers have been waiting for carts. “Yard waste volumes have been higher than usual because people are gardening and taking on outdoor projects,” he said. “Higher volumes at the curb mean extra work for our teams, and this has impacted the cart delivery process. Cities with substantial growth and new housing starts like Liberty Lake have also greatly increased demand for carts.”

Though it was originally anticipated that the cart shortage would persist into 2021, the local Waste Management office just received a shipment of carts from a different Waste Management district in Washington, Chittim said. Staff should be able to deliver most of them this week, he said.

Customers with questions can contact Waste Management at (877) 466-4668.

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Nina Culver can be reached at nculver47@gmail.com