Teller County residents frustrated by delays in trash pickup as new business holds ‘monopoly’

TELLER COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - Residents in Teller County are frustrated about a new alleged 'monopoly' over trash pickup and waste management services in the area, saying two existing businesses were bought by another company.

Homeowners have been navigating a transition of services since the summer of 2024, when Apex Waste Solutions bought the assets from the popular international company Waste Management, with its green and yellow branding, as well as locally owned Teller County Waste Management, to create one singular business for residents to rely on for weekly trash pickups.

Vice President of Apex Waste Solutions, Evan Sharp, told KRDO13 Investigates that the acquired the trucks, client lists, routes and a transfer facility in Divide from Waste Management. It was a similar care after purchasing Teller County Waste.

Now, as Apex rolled out its large-scale re-routing plan for its drivers and clients, residents across Teller County say they're seeing delays from one week to multiple weeks, before seeing any of their trash picked up.

"We would take two totes to the top of our driveway. They would only pick up one tote and leave a tote full of trash that the bears would get into." exaplined James Butler, who lives in Divide headed towards Cripple Creek.

Bishop stresses the importance of the trashes impact on luring in bears. He says that he's already seen more bears in his driveway in three months than he has in four years, while he's lived at his home in Divide. The homeowner worries that if bears get used to food being expected in that area, they will become a nuisance, and will have to be euthanized.

"if it doesn't get picked up within a timely manner, the bears are going to get into it and they spread the trash for a quarter mile down the road. It's ridiculous." adds Bishop.

He also says that he has had to pay about $360 more dollars over a three month span since Apex officially took over for his two 96 gallon trash totes. It's a price he's never had to pay when he had Teller County Waste for roughly four years before Apex's acquisition this summer. A fact that frustrated him further, due to the fact the trash services are not even being provided.

"It puts you in a bind when they're stealing from us. It's just it's plain and simple. I mean, they're over-billing us. They're not providing the services that they have agreed to provide us. And it's it's getting it's been frustrating and it's getting worse." lamented Bishop.

In a phone call with KRDO13 Investigates, Sharp says he apologizes to all the customers experiencing poor service. He explains that the issue lies in the large volume of data they had to take in after purchasing the assets of both services in July, and that there was a portion of data that was lost in the shuffle. Sharp also says that his business had rather unfortunate timing, as they began their new re-routing plan, a few weeks back.

He says that in the first week, the Highland Lakes Wildfire broke out, impacting a large swath of homes in their service area. Then, in Week 2 of the re-routing rollout, there was a snow storm, where over two and a half feet of snow fell in parts of the county. Sharp says it wasn't until the third week that they realized there were gaps in their coverage, due to that missing data.

He says that realization was largely due to residents reaching out and dialing into their call center. Since then, Sharp says they've bolstered their call center employees and extended hours to take in as much feedback as they can.

As for the higher bills that many are reporting, Sharp explained that it will vary depending on where someone lives. If they are in a more dense neighborhood that has several or more homes, then the service fee will likely be lower. However, if you live in a more remote area that is, for example, over an hour from their home base, then it will drive the price up for trash removal.

In Bishops case, he conceded that he lives on a large plot of land, in a more spread out residential area.

Sharp was in Teller County on Thursday, working with the Terry Vaughn, the General Manager for Apex's new headquarters in Woodland Park. Sharp says starting on Monday, they had continued to get in contact with their customers, and straightening out the issues that have developed over the last month.

Sharp assured that they would be in much better shape by early next week, before the holiday.
Meanwhile Vaughn, who was also present for the phone call, added that he has been through acquisitions and re-route plans for waste management companies before, and affirmed that it usually takes a month to smooth out the bumps, such as the case here.

The Vice President stated that what is happening is not the service level that he expects of his business, which is one that provides waste management services within Denver, Colorado Springs, Cañon City, Trinidad, Vail Valley, Steamboat Springs, and Chaffee County.