When a storm hits

Longwood, Florida-based Waste Pro USA manages about 2,000 waste and recycling collection routes in Florida.

When Hurricane Ian hit Florida last fall, Waste Pro Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President Keith Banasiak says about 145 of those 2,000 routes were affected by the storm. Ian was one of the deadliest storms to hit Florida, with many news outlets reporting more than 100 deaths caused by the hurricane.

“This storm is likely going to be the most disastrous storm in the state of Florida, period,” Banasiak says. “There’s widespread damage. … When a hurricane or natural disaster like this hits, your first thoughts are about your employees, your facilities, your vehicles. Are my employees safe? If so, are they able to provide full service?”

Hurricane Ian hit several southwest Florida communities hard, particularly those in Lee County. Banasiak says Waste Pro made several changes to its waste and recycling collection services in areas that were hit hardest by the storm.

He adds that Hurricane Ian wasn’t the first natural disaster he or Waste Pro has navigated. He says he recalls how Waste Pro responded to Hurricane Charley in 2004 and several other storms since then. He says the company has continued to improve its approach to preparing for storms and changing routes, as needed, in their aftermath over the years.

Before the storm

Waste Pro requires that each of its locations maintains a disaster plan that can be used in case of hurricanes, tornadoes or other tropical storms. Banasiak says each location’s plan varies and that local employees adjust the plan periodically.

When Waste Pro learns that a hurricane or tropical storm has formed, Banasiak says the company checks what locations might be in the storm’s projected path. He says Waste Pro asks supervisors in those locations to review their disaster plans and follow the plan’s checklist.

Ahead of a storm’s projected landfall, Banasiak says Waste Pro hosts a call with some members of its executive team, as well as supervisors and managers whose operations might be affected by the storm. Everyone on that call reviews each location’s disaster plan.

“Everybody plays an integral part,” he says. “We have these calls every other day until a storm hits.”

Ahead of a storm, Waste Pro’s safety director and other safety team members share safety reminders with drivers, such as how to navigate downed power lines, trees and poles on routes.

Additionally, Waste Pro’s vice president of fleet maintenance checks whether the company has spare roll-off trucks, clamshells and collection vehicles that can be moved to areas that need them after the storm. The vice president of fleet maintenance also communicates with vendors ahead of the storm to make sure they can deliver parts as needed to maintain the company’s fleet.

About five days ahead of a storm, Banasiak says Waste Pro’s corporate procurement director ensures the company has all equipment and supplies it might need following a storm. This director also brings several semitrailers full of supplies—such as generators, portable beds and gas cans—for employees and their families to use at a Waste Pro location near where a storm might hit.

“He’ll also make sure we’re on a direct line with the power company, so we know who the point of contact is,” Banasiak says.

When prepping for a storm, Waste Pro’s human resources department makes sure it has all employees’ cellphone numbers and addresses to contact them in case of emergency during and after a storm.

“One of the great tools we have as a company is the ability to text employees regionally or by division,” Banasiak says. “We can text a group of employees to, ‘Please respond ‘yes’ if safe’ on a hurricane prep text message we send out after the storm.”

He adds that if some employees don’t respond to the message, a Waste Pro employee will check that employees who did not respond to the message are OK. The text chain also informs workers when it’s safe to return to work after the storm and provides employees a point of contact if they need to reach out for help.

“It’s a wonderful tool, and it takes pressure off supervisors to reach out to everybody on their team individually,” Banasiak says.

Scheduling changes

In the aftermath of a storm, Waste Pro prioritizes employee safety.

“Employee engagement is No. 1; making sure employees know you are there to work with them and for them,” Banasiak says. “Have them know what to expect post-storm. The post-storm experience is completely unlike the pre-storm experience. It will be different. You’re going to have obstacles.”

After Hurricane Ian, Banasiak says 18 of 240 employees on Waste Pro’s Fort Myers, Florida, team experienced damage to their homes. He says Waste Pro offered help to those 18 employees in finding short-term housing alternatives and getting the fuel they needed to drive to and from work.

The company also offers hot meals for workers and their families in the aftermath of a storm.

“We’ll bring out a large cooker and have employees who cook for us, things like barbecue chicken, hot dogs and hamburgers to make sure when employees get off a route they get a good meal,” Banasiak says. “There [were] days we allowed them to take hot food home to their families in addition to dry goods and supplies.”

Depending on the severity of a storm’s damage, Banasiak says Waste Pro also may scale back some of its collection services afterwards to focus on other operations.

In the first week after Hurricane Ian, Waste Pro suspended yard waste and recycling collection services in various service areas throughout Florida that were affected by the storm to focus on getting waste collection under control. Banasiak says waste volumes were up 50 to 70 percent the first two weeks after Hurricane Ian as people cleaned out their properties. With variation depending on the area, recycling collection services and yard waste collection services were suspended, generally, for several weeks.

The first week after a storm hits, Banasiak says contractors begin to collect storm debris in communities affected by a hurricane. While contractors are collecting storm debris, he says Waste Pro focuses on ensuring municipal waste collection continues.

After a storm, he adds that supervisors should encourage their drivers to maintain a steady pace on their routes but not rush the work, reminding them that it’s OK if routes aren’t always completed.

Although Waste Pro started to resume recycling collection service for some areas where it had suspended that service about three weeks after Hurricane Ian hit, Banasiak says contamination levels were high right after resuming that service.

“The first iteration of recycling that week, a lot of it was heavily contaminated,” he says.

As of four weeks after the storm, Banasiak says recycling contamination levels dipped a bit.

Although Waste Pro resumed all its collection services for affected parts of Florida by mid-December, Banasiak says conditions in those affected areas weren’t expected to reach a sense of normalcy for a while. He says, “This is a five- to seven-year deal before we get a sense of normalcy. It’s a five- to seven-year rebuild—a longstanding, continuing project.”

Dealing with damages

Banasiak says the storm did not damage any of Waste Pro’s facilities or vehicles; however, the same cannot be said for the firm’s carts and containers. Because so many went missing or were damaged during the storm, he says thousands of customers called asking for cart replacements.

“There are carts floating in the Gulf [of Mexico] and places we won’t ever be able to reach. Dumpsters have floated away. Cart and container search and rescue is a job,” he says.

As of late November 2022, Waste Pro was missing approximately 10,400 carts and needed to replace 320 damaged or missing containers because of Hurricane Ian. Banasiak says Waste Pro supervisors will try to retrieve carts found in unusual areas or call a tow truck to retrieve missing containers.

Banasiak says it costs about $1 million to replace that many carts and containers. He adds that in this instance, insurance will not cover these losses, so he says Waste Pro plans to work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to seek reimbursement for the carts and containers it replaced due to Hurricane Ian.

Banasiak recommends that haulers regularly review their contract agreements to understand what they are responsible for related to carts and containers.

The author is associate editor for the Recycling Today Media Group. She can be reached at msmalley@gie.net.