Trash Delays Across OC Possible As Strike Threatens Waste Pickup

LAKE FOREST, CA — Orange County residents are seeing delays in trash services as a result of striking landfill workers blocking access to facilities.

County officials are now asking a court to restrict picketing that, according to officials, is obstructing access and threatening public safety, KTLA reported.

CR&R, which handle waste pickup for several Orange County cities, announced on its website that impacts from an ongoing strike were coming throughout the county, but did not specify where.

"CR&R Environmental Services is advising customers that the ongoing Teamsters Local 952 labor strike involving Orange County employees is causing delays to solid waste and recycling collection services throughout Orange County," the statement read. "Limited access to landfill facilities and increased travel times are impacting our collection operations. Our team is working diligently to minimize service disruptions and complete collections as quickly as possible."

CR&R services Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Lake Forest, Rancho Santa Margarita, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel and several more Orange County cities.

The trash delays stem from a strike that originally started last month, where about 500 county workers — some who work in waste and recycling — walked off the job at county-run landfills.

Since then, picketing has delayed trucks and cars bringing debris into the facilities, leaving some drivers waiting in line for hours.

Platinum Bucket Junk Removal, a family-owned hauling and junk removal company located in Lake Forest, is one of the several south Orange County businesses that has started to feel the strike's impact.

Platinum Bucket co-owner and Lake Forest resident Christina Brittos told Patch that since the strike began, she's began to note delays in regular trash pickups and illegal dumping throughout the community.

On a business scale, Brittos said, the impacts have been more severe.

"At this point, we have no reasonably accessible, reliable place to dump our loads in Orange County," Brittos said. She noted that while Olinda Landfill — located in Brea — is one of the few landfills still accepting vehicles, the landfill is only allowing one or two vehicles through per hour.

This severely limits the number of jobs Platinum Bucket can feasibly take, Brittos said — and coupled with the added strain of managing a full payroll, she worries for the toll the strike will take on her business.

"We’re now facing an impossible situation. If we stop taking jobs, we lose the income we need to pay our employees and cover our business expenses," Brittos said. "But if we continue taking jobs without an affordable and accessible disposal location, we risk losing money on the very work that’s supposed to keep us in business"

According to KTLA, county officials filed a lawsuit asking a judge to issue a temporary restraining order that would require the union and its members to stop interfering with traffic.

Teamsters Local 952 spokesperson Eric Jimenez told the news outlet that the union's attorneys are in the process of handling the lawsuit.

"I will say this, from the time we first hit the picket lines to today, there hasn't been one member, one union representative that has been cited for unlawful picketing, for unsafe picketing," Jimenez said. "This is nothing more than the county trying to stop our First Amendment right to lawfully picket."