Southern Maryland Recycling in
Owings Beach (MD)

The gentleman working at this facility was very helpful in telling us which bin to put certain things,

I have been using this trash service for over a decade, very nice company. Yes, I would recommend.

Great service, always on time and never leave any bits of trash in the bin! Also, anytime i have a issue, the manager Clayton Gantt always is respectful and ensures me the issues will not come about again, i also appreciate how he handles and conducts himself professionally

I have had a great experience with southern Maryland recycling from day one, setting up my services for trash and recycling. My bins arrived with a few days and my pickups started that same week. Whenever I have a question or need to make any changes, Clayton is there to assist me with kindness and solutions. Grateful I found them when we moved to the county!

I've had them collecting my trash for 7 years. They come every week, and take my garbage away. What else do you need?

I’ve tried contacting them at least 3 times in the past two weeks as I am a new customer and had questions. Not only did no one get back to me, but the trash collectors broke my trash can lids off and they don’t work properly anymore, and no one has yet to get back to me. I have been with them for two weeks and my brand new trash cans are already broken.

Incompetent. Disrespectful. Indifferent. Not a good mix…

Edit: I'm beginning to think you're just a trash service who chose a clever name. What do you do with recycled items you pick up? Your website says your a trash service. Do you actually recycle anything you pick up?

Reliable service and very affordable! The driver always pulls into our neighborhood slowly as he knows the kids are always riding their bikes up and down the street. The guy on the back always does a great job, and sets the can right back in the driveway. They even pick up extra stuff outside of the can without complaint. They are friendly and wave if they see us outside.

This company screwed up at every turn. To start, whenever you call, there is no customer service, just some random guy who is not friendly. I paid for my service and initially did not receive my can for over two weeks. After calling multiple times they eventually delivered the can. When I found a better company that was cheaper and offered a can double the size I called to cancel. I waited forever for my refund and again, only after calling multiple times did the refund finally come through. Now I am waiting on them to actually pick up their can which has been sitting in my driveway for about two weeks now. They said they would pick it up two separate times and it has yet to be picked up. Terrible terrible company. Please do not subject yourself to this company.

For this company to faithfully take your money and miss your trash pick up several times is very unprofessional. And my only option is to wait 2 more days. Really. And to blame me saying I did something wrong or that my trash wasn’t out is just wrong. I will be canceling and will never go back. I wouldn’t even recommend this service to ppl who I hate.

Everyone friendly and helpful

I have been home and watched some horrible service from your employees when emptying my recycling. I live in Agricopia in La Plata MD and have witnessed true unprofessionalism. I pay almost 300 dollars every three months for horrible service, which is honestly very frustrating and not acceptable. Your employees will kick whatever box is in front of the recycling bin into the road and dump the bin into the truck- which is not even empty all the way, then toss in back down, lid open with recycling contents surrounding it. I have had to go out and pick up the mess they had made. On the same day they did the same to my neighbors, but this time threw their recycling bin on its side and kicked it in their driveway. This was a windy day and I went out to fix again the mess they made so the bin wouldn’t hit their cars. It appears they are not satisfied with their jobs, don’t have respect for others property, or morals, but regardless, they need to complete their job duties with professionalism. If I had the choice to get rid of your service I would. I will not recommend it to anyone else.

Great company. Quality service

I've read all your reviews and felt the need to write my own. I moved to Chesapeake Beach almost 3 months ago and went with Southern Maryland Recycling based upon on a recommendation. When I first signed up, I admit, it was touch & go. I had to call John to get a pick up on the second week. He was very nice & sent them to my house on an off day, to collect all my boxes & trash from my moving. They cleaned up a lot! They didn't show for the third or forth week and I had to call again. I was actually calling to cancel but got Mrs. Judy on the phone...she fixed it all. She was sweet, and apologetic. That woman moved a mountain! She got the guys back to my house to collect what had been missed. She assured me I would get pick up each from then on out., and I have! This morning I saw the guys who did the pick up, they did not toss my can aside, they emptied them like a normal person. They didn't see me coming up the road while they were collecting & if they had, they would not have known it was my house. As they passed me on they're way out, the driver smiled, put his arm out the window to wave, and said good morning. They were happy & polite. I agree that I shouldn't have had to call several times...but sometimes you just do. The bottom line here is, customer service was great, they were NOT nasty, the guys picking up were polite, and Mrs. Judy got the job done! My experience has been great! I've no plans on canceling my service!

I normally don’t care to write reviews but this place has a problem. From not picking up trash on scheduled times to cussing and bathmouthing customers. Very unprofessional. I understand you take out trash but there’s no sense in making it. There’s times I left my trash can out a day in advance through a day after. Multiple times the trash hasn’t been taken. Calls to the office result in nothing. Better off finding another service till this one gets itself sorted out.

We leave our trash out on scheduled days, but usually twice per month they fail to pick up anyone's garbage. It makes me question what we pay them for...

My sister lives in a small townhouse court, the company they rent from charges them a trash fee..... today Monday (when trash is regularly picked up). The three gentleman in the dump truck cleaned out 3 trash cans and left everyone else’s trash sitting on the curb or still in trash cans. Called the office & was told they were still on harbor street.... which they weren’t hence why I called cause they left without getting any of the trash from the rest of the court. I’m sure it’s because some of the trash isn’t in cans BUT most of the folks in this area are older and struggle with dragging full trash cans out to the curb from their backyard. Utterly ridiculous service. Guy on the phone said he’d check it out.... been 20 minutes and still no one has come to get the trash. This company is garbage

The only nice thing I can say about this company is that they come when they are scheduled to. The employees picking up the trash use foul language loud enough for the children in our neighborhood to hear. The trash cans are usually left in our parking spaces instead of up on the curb/sidewalk where we set them out. Only half of the trash is taken. We properly disposed of a helium tank (removed fill valve, punched a hole in the blow out valve, and clearly marked "EMPTY" with a sharpie) and we found it tossed into our yard. Too bad they don't have the same energy to put the can back on the curb/sidewalk. My 2 year old son brought me glass from broken ornaments that were smashed all over the ground. These are not professional behaviors and far from the great service they claim they provide on this page!

Regularly have to go track down my cans after a pickup. They spill trash everywhere which I need to clean up myself. Cans are rarely emptied completely. Trash employees apparently unaware that home helium balloon tanks with valve removed and blowout ring removed are disposable and decided to take it upon themselves to remove it from my can and throw it on my lawn. Most unprofessional trash service I've ever experienced

Trash not picked up when I got home. Called the 301 #...the person was trying to look into it. Put me on line for >15 min...I waited and waited ..finally hang up the phone. This is mot the first time to miss a day with no heads up or any heads up.

Just plain garbage, pun intended. I came home from work to find my trash can still 1/2 full. I give SMR a call and leave a voicemail. Of course my call is not returned, that's pretty typical SOMD customer service. I call again today and am told "we do not pick up your trash if it has yard clippings". Seriously??!! I can't put grass into my trash can? What a joke!!! Our HOA in Wildewood is very expensive, a good portion of those fees go to SMR. I will be 100% sure to bring this up at the next board meeting. Let's see if we can't get SMR to forfeit a nice contract due to poor customer service. (Same review posted on Yelp.)

If you care about the environment, do not use this company. I was just behind one of their trucks and they do not take care of their equipment, which was causing trash to go all over the road.

Always reliable and great service !

I am writing this horrible review based on an experience I had today. SOMD missed the recycling for our neighborhood yesterday. Needless to say, it rained and there is wet soggy recycling all over the streets. So this morning I called to find out the status on the recycling. The lady on the phone said she would look into it and call me back. Great! She called back about 15 minutes later and told me that we had the recycling picked up last week and we were on a two week cycle. I let her know that it sounded incorrect and that I found it hard to believe the entire neighborhood would have made the same mistake. I asked her to check the dates we had actual pickups in June, so we could confirm that it wasn't a mistake. I wasn't 100% confident myself, so wanted her to validate. She nastily said she would have to look it up and call me back. I said OK, distrusting an actual call back. I was correct - she didn't call me back and I had to call her again. I called the main line, which I am fairly confident has caller ID. Since I have a distinct out of state area code, I didn't trust she would pick up the phone. (This is all conjecture and not proven fact, but my own personal educated guess) Needless to say the phone rang and rang with no answer. I then called the 800 line which was immediately picked up. Surprisingly (insert sarcasm) it was the same cheerful lady that answered the phone. I introduced myself again and told her we spoke earlier and I was asking about the pickup today. She was very nasty with me and said they would be coming to pick it up today. She acted as if I was the a$$hole for questioning the remote possibility they could have made a mistake. It is not the fact that they made a mistake, it was the fact that she was a complete and utter hag about it. I was very nice the entire time and if she told me it was a mistake, I would say no problem. I have so rarely had the trash or recycling company make a mistake anywhere I have lived that I would not be upset in the least about it. In fact, all the guys on the route are very friendly, respectful and professional. This lady was anything but. All she had to do was say something to the effect of "oops - we made a mistake but we will have someone pick up today. Sorry about that." That would have been the end of the conversation. Instead, I am taking time out of my day to hunt her down to get answers and spend time writing this scathing review. I really hope someone from SOMD Recycling reads this and responds accordingly. I will be cross-posting this as well so hopefully she can get a little customer service training and not rip a customer's head off for no reason. I was very calm and nice about the entire thing and didn't deserve her treatment. I could understand if I was a jerk about the whole thing, but I wasn't. Shame on whomever she is and I hope she reads this.