By: Alyssa Ochss | St. Clair Shores Sentinel | Published June 12, 2026
ST. CLAIR SHORES — At its meeting on June 1, the St. Clair Shores City Council voted 7-0 to use Express Waste Services for waste management services.
The switch came after months of expressed frustrations with the city’s now-former trash hauler, Priority Waste.
The city had used Priority for the last year and a half. Many residents of St. Clair Shores and other communities that have utilized the company’s services had issues with its performance. The list of problems includes late or missed trash pickups, debris on the street and more.
St. Clair Shores City Council members said they fielded hundreds of phone calls and emails about the quality of the service. They also said they contacted representatives from Priority Waste many times over the course of the city’s contract for remedies to issues.
Previous reporting by C & G Newspapers indicated that in 2024, Priority Waste took over operations of 73 communities and 70,000 subscription customers from GFL Environmental. Since then, several communities, including Harrison Township, had switched over to other service providers, while others, including Fraser, have continued to contract with Priority Waste.
Attempts to reach Priority’s management by the Sentinel were unsuccessful.
According to items attached to the agenda of the June 1 meeting, a committee was formed to discuss the trash collection issues. The item states the committee had been working since the summer of 2025 to come up with a solid waste collection contract. The current contract expires on June 30, 2026.
“The subcommittee reviewed the existing agreement and subsequent extensions, which originated in 2013 with Rizzo Environmental Services and later transitioned to GFL Environmental and subsequently Priority Waste,” the agenda item stated.
For this contract, the committee issued a request for qualifications and received responses from Waste Management Inc, Express Waste Services, and Priority Waste LLC.
“After reviewing the submitted materials, it was determined that Waste Management would not be able to service the community under the City’s current collection standards,” the agenda item stated. “As a result, members of the subcommittee met earlier this month with representatives from both Express Waste Services and Priority Waste to further evaluate their proposals.”
St. Clair Shores City Manager Dustin Lent said during the meeting that Waste Management is very specific in how they pick up trash and that the city is not ready for that process. Both Express and Priority Waste stated there would be a continuation or start of services starting on July 1 with no interruptions.
Both proposals included an 18-month pricing period with an increase in the city’s current costs but still came in under market value.
Lent asked both waste providers a litany of questions about their services and what they planned to provide. He mentioned the kind of service the city has received from Priority and what has been in the news about the recent changes with the company. The city has been affected by the changes as they’ve received new personnel to communicate through.
“They’ve been to, in front of our council a litany of times and every time promise, promise, promise and underdeliver, underdeliver, underdeliver,” Lent said.
He noted that Express is more expensive.
“But I feel that committee during the interview process and knowing what our residents have went through over the last year and a half of dealing with Priority, we feel that the recommendation to this board and to this body here is to go with Express,” Lent said.
St. Clair Shore City Councilman Chris Vitale said at the time they started planning, the options were limited. The committee even considered bringing trash collection in house which has significant costs. As more time passed, more options became available.
“Some startups and as well as Waste Management, who took an interest in servicing the city,” Vitale said. “Mr. Lent showed us what was done in Chesterfield Township with an RFQ that they also did. We thought that was a good model and that also gave us the ability to interview correctly.”
Vitale said Express showed a real desire and interest in performing well for the community. He also said it is a new company, but they are not strangers to the business.
“Everyone has decades of trash collection experience,” Vitale said. “I feel pretty good about this.”
St. Clair Shores City Councilwoman Candice Rusie thanked Lent and Assistant City Manager Matthew Baumgartner for their work finding a solution. She also said they’ve looked at a number of alternatives including partnering with another city on trash services.
“But we kept going back to, ‘OK, I think we’re going to realistically have to be with a private company on our own, at least for now,’” Rusie said.
Both Vitale and Rusie said Express came up with multiple new ideas to service the city.
Express promised good communication and Rusie said she would love to never have to contact the waste company, ever.
“I have never ever, ever, ever had to send a single email to a contractor period, let alone the garbage contractor,” Rusie said. “And these people were my, basically, my freaking pen pals at this point because I was emailing them dozens and dozens and dozens, literally, a day of things.”
Councilman Linda Bertges said she crunched the numbers, and it is a 60 cents difference per household per month.
“So 60 cents and maybe all the frustrations that we’ve had over the last over a year will be alleviated,” Bertges said.