Stifel, St. Louis, published a report in conjunction with Waste360 on May 3 tracking how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected solid waste service companies.
The results were generated from a survey sent between April 17-24, which covered the last two weeks of March and the first two weeks of April.
Of the 144 respondents, 67 percent were involved in waste and/or recycling collection, 28 percent were involved in landfill operations, 20 percent were involved in operating material recovery facilities, and 26 percent responded as “other.” For account type allocation, respondents stated that 46 percent of work was commercial, 37 percent residential, 9 percent permanent roll-off and 8 percent temporary roll-off.
For a question on residential volume changes post-COVID-19, 67 percent said it increased, 23 percent said it remained the same and 11 percent said it decreased. Eleven percent said it increased 30 percent or more, 23 percent said it increased 20-29 percent, 23 percent said it increased 10-19 percent, 8 percent said it increased 1-9 percent, 23 percent said it remained flat, and 11 percent said it decreased. Only 26 percent of respondents said they were being compensated for these residential increases.
For a question on commercial volume changes post-COVID-19, 69 percent said volume decreased, 22 percent said it remained the same and 9 percent said it increased. Regarding percentage changes in commercial collections, 7 percent said it increased, 22 percent said it remained the same, 25 percent said it decreased 1-24 percent, 20 percent said it decreased 25-49 percent, 15 percent said it decreased 50-74 percent, and 11 percent said it decreased 75 percent or more.
Pertaining to commercial requests for changes to service, 62 percent said there have been no changes, 29 percent said there are service-on-hold requests, and 9 percent cancellations.
For changes in permanent roll-off service, 56 percent said there have been service decreases, 32 percent said it has remained the same, and 12 percent said it has increased. For permanent roll-off changes to service, 71 percent said there has been no change, 24 percent said there are service-on-hold requests, and 5 percent cancellations.
Sixty-six percent of respondents said there has been a decline in temporary roll-off service post COVID-19. Thirteen percent said the decrease has been between 1-19 percent, 17 percent said the decreased has been between 20-29 percent, 24 percent said the decrease has been between 30-39 percent, 4 percent said it has been between 40-49 percent, 8 percent said it has been between 50-59 percent, 13 percent said it has been between 60-69 percent, 13 percent said it has been between 70-79 percent, and 8 percent said it has decreased 80 percent or more.
In terms of changes to 2020 capital spending, 48 percent said spending has been delayed, 37 percent said it is unaffected, 22 percent said it has been cut. For the areas these planned investments have been impacted, 65 percent said truck investments were delayed, 63 percent said investments were cut; 41 percent said container investments were delayed, 68 percent said investments were cut; 12 percent said landfill equipment investments were delayed, 16 percent said investments were cut; 6 percent said landfill cell developments were delayed, 5 percent said investments were cut; 47 percent said there were cuts or delays in other areas.
Sixty-six percent of respondents said collection productivity has improved due to less traffic, while 61 percent said their total report incident rate has declined since COVID-19.
The full report from Stifel is available online.