Local

Homeowners drop off garbage as republic services strike in so-cal continues

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Eastside homeowners line up to drop off their own garbage, as the sanitation workers strike out of Southern California continues to wreak havoc here.

That strike against Republic Services is affecting garbage pick-up here, some 1,200 miles north.

Sunday the company gave frustrated homeowners the opportunity to drop off their own trash at its Bellevue facility.

People there were pretty eager to take advantage of this.

The line was long all day and then a lot of disappointed people showed up after it all ended at 3 o’clock.

There were many people with a lot of garbage that Republic Services workers here won’t pick up here because of a strike hundreds of miles away.

The line was long outside the Republic Services facility here in Bellevue, vehicles filled with frustrated homeowners and their own garbage and trash.

“Just some trash in the trunk of my car,” Beni Ajumogobia said.

“I’m very grateful that they’re doing this, actually,” said Tia Babu of Bellevue. “We have two kids at home. And we have a lot of boxes to recycle.”

Still, for most, this was a first and, they hope, the last time they will have to dispose of their own refuse.

“Hopefully it won’t go on for long,” said Nitin Gupta, also of Bellevue, “because it’s a weekly kind of a thing and the trash keeps piling.”

Indeed, that has been evident across the Puget Sound region that Republic Services covers in Seattle, Bellevue, Kent and Lynnwood. Uncollected garbage is creating a smelly mess in several neighborhoods.

It’s the fallout from a strike Republic Services workers started 29 days ago in Southern California. Now they have set up picket lines here that their fellow union members will not cross.

It is a tactic that proved pretty successful just two years ago for striking workers in the Boston, Massachusetts, area.

And many here are sympathetic to those on strike, as some SoCal municipalities threaten to sue Republic Services.

“Good for them,” said Beni Ajumogobia who lives in Bellevue, when asked if he supports the workers. “Heck, yeah, yeah.”

And he says he did not mind waiting in a long line. “It’s not even an inconvenience. I’m heated, driving, listening to a podcast,” he said. “Nothing to complain about.”

No one knows just when this strike against Republic Services will end.

On its website, the company is saying customers should put out their trash, garbage and recycling for the next scheduled pick-up day.