RED BUD, Ill. – The recycling bins are overflowing outside St. John’s Lutheran Church and School in Red Bud, Illinois.
“The last pickup that we know of is November,” said Senior Pastor Mark Nebel.
Nebel said they’ve never experienced this issue before. He said the school secretary called Royal Oak Recycling in December to see what was going on.
“That was a rather rude response at the time to our secretary, and since then we’ve had no answer to a phone call,” Nebel said. “No response to an email.”
Since then, they’ve learned they’re not the only place in town experiencing this problem.
“We know that our local Roman Catholic school in town has had the same experience,” Nebel said. “The local public school has had the same experience, so it’s rather community wide for us here in Red Bud.”
Sure enough, when FOX 2’s Contact 2 team stopped by St. John the Baptist Catholic School and Red Bud High School, the recycling bins were packed with paper.
“They get a lot of use, and people have been very frustrated when they’ve come by and see those bins full,” Nebel said. “Can’t put anymore paper in there and ask us when we’re going to have them picked up. It’s really been out of our hands.”
Royal Oak Recycling is based in Michigan but has an office in Wood River, Illinois. Nebel said he finally got through to speak with the new general manager at the Wood River office.
“He was apologetic that they had not been here. He said he took over this about four or five months ago, and it was a mess,” Nebel said.
Contact 2 spoke with the general manager as well. He said the company has struggled to find people to work, but just hired a second driver. He said the recycle bins will be emptied in the next couple of days, and that moving forward, they will be serviced every other week.
“We hope for the good of not only our school, and local schools and other businesses in the area that this gets taken care of,” Nebel said.