West Bloomfield Twp seeks to refund residents for 'abysmal' GFL trash pickup

A community fed up with lackluster trash service is taking action against GFL, hoping to get refunds for nearly 20,000 households.

West Bloomfield Township is hoping to secure at minimum $20 refunds for all former GFL customers based on what they call 'abysmal' service in the month of June.

It’s been the talk of the summer for many metro Detroit communities. As one trash company took over another, the trash stopped getting collected.

“Yeah, it was kind of the talk of the Facebook page of the neighborhood," said West Bloomfield Township resident Sheldon Eustice. "The first week came along and they didn't pick it up so no one really thought anything about it, then it happened the second week and questions were asked.”

"It was probably a couple of weeks they didn't pick the regular trash and over a month they didn't pick the refuge garbage,” said another resident John Skarakis. "We had garbage all over the place, many times.”

Skarakis notes this all happened in the midst of summer.

“If that happens when we have snow it’s not that bad, but when it’s hot? We had a few hot days, its not pleasant," said Skarakis.

“It did start stinking a little bit," Eustice said. "It was kind of in the peak of summer. Hot times so it wasn't great.”

Township Supervisor Steve Kaplan says they’re now hoping to reimburse residents using a $1.5 million performance bond with GFL.

“The service provided to West Bloomfield Township and other townships was abysmal,” Kaplan said. "They would leave garbage behind, they would toss cans in the ditch, recycling was not picked up, yard waste was left behind.”

Their attorneys are working the case now hoping to secure at least $20 per customer, which Kaplan says is about the cost for a month of service.

"It's a novel approach, we don't know of any other municipalities that have sought redress by way of performance bond,” Kaplan said. "We feel we have a good case because their service was abysmal, or nonservice. Our residents did suffer and that's the purpose of a performance bond, to ensure good service.”

While the case is far from final, residents are thankful but aren’t holding their breath.

“It's really not a whole lot of money," Eustice said. "If it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen, but I understand why... you're paying for a service that’s no longer coming and doing their service.”

“I think they should because there was an agreement, something was paid for, and service didn’t happen,” said Skarakis.

The township says this money, if collected, would likely be added as a credit to upcoming bills with Priority Waste. We did reach out to GFL but have not received a response.