How Cicero and Clay’s Garbage Man digs out after falling behind the Garbage Collectors

Joe Buffa says it was a perfect storm of trash, snow and disease — and one that left trash cans and piles on curbs too long in Clay and Cicero last week.

“Anything that could have gone wrong, it went wrong at once,” said Buffa, who operates Superior Waste Removal in Warners and collects trash in Clay and Cicero.

First came the expected post-Christmas trash. Then winter came and two snowstorms hit the area.

But a garbage bag on top of the problems? Disease.

In recent days, more than one-third of his employees have come down with the flu, Covid, stomach ailments and colds, Buffa said. (It didn’t help that Buff got sick himself and missed two days of work.)

All of this led to last week, when trash and recyclables collectors fell behind by as much as two to three days in Clay and Cicero.

Superior typically runs 10 to 15 trucks a day, with two people per truck. Diseases have reduced that to one per truck, he said. It was easy to fall behind.

“It’s never been this bad before,” Buffa said. “I’m sorry. I know this was a huge inconvenience for people.”

In addition, Superior signed a new contract with Clay starting in January. Learning these new routes added to the problem, Buffa said.

To catch up, the carrier hired more workers and pulled in qualified commercially licensed drivers wherever it could, Buffa said.

They worked longer hours, from 5 a.m. until dark, he said. They worked on the weekend. They focused on getting the trash out first and then coming back for the recyclables, he said.

OCRRA also agreed to keep a transfer station open a few hours later on Saturday to help them, Buffa said.

As of Monday, all the collections were done and things were back to normal, he said.

One of the residents who emailed syracuse.com | The Post-Standard said it appreciated the extra effort.

“These men/women worked extra hours and did a great job. Holidays, bad weather and whatever else got in the way, they went the extra mile,” he said. “I hope they get a chance to stay this weekend, spend some time with their families and watch some football.”