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SHELBY TOWNSHIP — Priority Waste will continue to provide trash service in Shelby Township under a new five-year contract that begins July 1.
Priority Waste has been serving as the township’s trash contractor since last July, after acquiring all the residential contracts from the township’s previous provider, Green For Life Environmental.
The seemingly abrupt switch drew complaints about poor service from residents and municipal leaders, while Priority pleaded for patience as it transitioned to an expanded service area of 72 communities and 70,000 subscription customers.
Matt Allen, Priority Waste’s director of public relations and government affairs, told C & G Newspapers in 2024 that part of the issue was a lack of serviceable trucks. There was an expectation, he said, that 380 trucks would be coming into Priority’s fleet from GFL, but over half of that fleet was “non-road-ready, non-serviceable and would not meet MDOT (Michigan Department of Transportation) minimum requirements for operation or safety.”
Nearly a year later, Shelby Township Supervisor Rick Stathakis said Shelby Township is still not receiving satisfactory service from Priority.
“Our job is to make sure that we deliver, that Priority meets or exceeds the needs of our residents, and I think, many times, they are falling short of that,” he said.
“Many residents are not happy. They’re not receiving the adequate service we deserve,” he said.
Assistant Township Supervisor Lynde Oddo said the Supervisor’s Office alone typically receives five to 10 calls per day from residents complaining about the trash contractor.
Delays in trash pickup are a common grievance.
“Many residents are telling township officials that their trash is not getting picked up on their trash day — it’s a day later, and in some cases, maybe it’s two days later,” Stathakis said. “Many, many routes are behind. Lynde, our assistant supervisor, showed me a map (describing how pickup is going) of all the yellow — it’s a lot. It’s more than half.”
Another issue is a lack of timely communication from Priority, especially when questions or concerns arise.
“Our residents are left on hold, and then they are told — after being left on hold for many, many minutes — you need to talk to a different person. That’s not the way we do business,” Stathakis said.
Callers have also reported Priority’s garbage trucks are leaking hydraulic fluid throughout the township.
“The trucks are going down the street and they are dripping hydraulic fluid. I get calls and, unfortunately, we have to remind (Priority) to go back and use their absorbent in the street, and also to come back and sweep it up, so we’re getting more involved than we should,” Stathakis said. “But I have to do my job too, and my job is to make sure that our residents are getting what they’re paying for, and currently, some are not.”
Last winter, with a growing list of criticism from residents and the township’s trash contract nearing an end on June 30, the Shelby Township Solid Waste and Recycling Committee recommended that the township’s Board of Trustees solicit bids for waste hauling service, instead of extending the contract with Priority Waste.
At that time, only two companies turned in a proposal to provide trash services in the township.
Stathakis said Priority Waste was the only vendor with the capacity to service Shelby Township’s 23,000 households at a cost of about $23 million for five years.
The other proposal, Stathakis said, was $9 million more than Priority Waste and was from Emterra Environmental USA in Flint, which he said had no experience and did not have the capability to collect waste in a community of the township’s size.
“We didn’t take the Priority Waste proposal just because it was $9 million cheaper; we took it because it was $9 million cheaper and the other company was deemed unqualified,” Stathakis said.
Following the approval of the new contract, the Board of Trustees instructed the township attorney to ensure the new contract provided leverage for Shelby Township to demand “satisfactory service” — resulting in a two-month delay between board approval and formal signing of the contract in March.
Township officials, Stathakis said, are pushing Priority Waste to upgrade its service to Shelby Township residents.
“We’re hoping that things get better, but it’s a monopoly that we’re dealing with at this point,” he said.
Priority Waste, Allen said, is doing everything in its power to provide the best service possible to Shelby Township residents.
He admitted the waste contractor was a day behind for pickup in Shelby Township for 16 days in May, but said that springtime is the busiest time of the year for trash collection.
“Some of it was due to weather — we had to cut the service day short due to inclement weather — but the other days it was because of the volume,” he said. “This is important for the public to know — 40% of all the compost that we have the entire year is picked up basically from the month of May to the first week of June. Springtime is the heaviest load of the year, so it does sometimes create delays. We did have a period of three days in the middle of that, just before Memorial Day, where we had several trucks go down in Shelby on their route for that single day, and it did put us back, but we had that problem resolved by the following week.”
The company, he said, has since invested in new trucks and equipment to replace “the horribly old and damaged fleet that GFL had,” but it typically takes 14-18 months for delivery. Until then, he said, Priority has a process in place to address any leakages.
“We have been just squeaking by with these old, old trucks that we bought off of GFL, and it creates problems,” he said. “We did have a subdivision where we had a truck do a major blowout and the operator did not stop. We addressed that issue last week with the oil dry, so we came out there and did the soak up, and it had to stay down for a few days, and then when that was done, on (Tuesday, June 17), we came through there with a commercial street sweeper and cleaned the entire subdivision. I know the subdivision, and I know the area where people were complaining, and we addressed it in a timely fashion, in the proper procedure to do that, and solved the problem.”
At press time, seven new trucks had been delivered and were out on the roads.
“Seven are here now, 21 more will be here next week, and the remainder will be here within three weeks, so we will have 50 new trucks out here on the road in Macomb (County) to replace the rattiest of the GFL trucks that we bought during the transition, which we are going to retire,” he shared last week.
In regard to customer service complaints, Allen said the heaviest call volume is from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., but he said Priority’s team typically responds to any issues or calls within 24 hours. He wants residents to keep in mind that June is a peak time for calls, since many townships — including Shelby — require quarterly bills, temporarily increasing call volume.
“The call volume is dropping because most of the quarterly bills have been paid, so that peak period is already passing,” he said. “Everyone has their billing and we’re calling people back within 24 hours, if they leave a message.”
To help lighten the call volume, Allen said the township could amend its charter to move away from a quarterly billing cycle.
“If the townships will convert the quarterly billing — right now, we have to bill everybody direct — and instead, put it on the tax or the water bill, this billing issue would go away, just like it did in Clinton Township over 30 years ago. They are the largest township in the state, and they have no billing issues whatsoever because they put it on the tax bill,” he said.
The new waste contract will kick in on July 1 and Stathakis said the township is doing everything it can to hold Priority accountable to the terms.
Under the new contract, township residents will pay $241.56 a year, or $60.39 a quarter in 2025-26, compared to the $198 a year, or $49.50 a quarter they paid in 2024-25. The yearly price will increase to $248.76 in 2026-27, $256.32 in 2027-28, $264 in 2028-29 and $271.92 the final year of the contract.
Seniors 60 and older, who confirm their age with Priority Waste, will receive a 10% service discount.
“There was some information that came out from Priority Waste that said the senior discount was for 65 and older, but our contract says it’s 60 and over. So there is some confusion with the residents of what that age is. It’s 60 and older in Shelby Township,” Community Relations Director Brad Bates said.
Shelby Township residents will also continue to be eligible for Priority Waste’s annual payment discount, which provides one month of free service — a savings of approximately $20 — when an entire year is prepaid. Because of delays associated with invoicing Shelby Township residents, Priority Waste has extended its deadline for its annual prepayment discount from June 30 to July 15, 2025.
The new contract limits bulk item collection to five items per week, and damaged carts must be reported to Priority Waste within one week of the damage for a possible free replacement if the damage is determined to be the fault of Priority Waste.
Residents with concerns are encouraged to contact Priority Waste at (586) 228-1200 or email ShelbytownshipLDC@Prioritywaste.com. Residents can also submit a waste collection complaint at shelbytwp.org/waste.
“If you don’t get what you deserve, please call our DPW (Department of Public Works) or call my office — I’m actively involved in this too. I should not be, but my office is,” Stathakis added.
For more information on billing, payment options or to prepay and receive the discount, contact Priority Waste at (586) 228-1200, (855) 927-8365 or via email at ShelbyTownshipLDC@Prioritywaste.com.
Staff Writer Dean Vaglia contributed to this report.
