Once a week trash pickup

[Double A]

quote:Originally posted by recyclemichael

There is a pilot program going on in five neighborhoods of about 1900 homes.

The TARE board is going before the city council to ask for more time. I think it will show up on the committee agenda for next Tuesday.

If the council is OK with extending the program, it is just a matter of time before it is proposed to go citywide.

It will take a while to implement, adding three thousand homes a month will take about two and a half years to complete.

I'm on it and really like it. It's very convenient and It also means that when I recycle now, I am not putting money in Spincycle's pockets. Bonus.

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by Double A

quote:Originally posted by recyclemichael

There is a pilot program going on in five neighborhoods of about 1900 homes.

The TARE board is going before the city council to ask for more time. I think it will show up on the committee agenda for next Tuesday.

If the council is OK with extending the program, it is just a matter of time before it is proposed to go citywide.

It will take a while to implement, adding three thousand homes a month will take about two and a half years to complete.

I'm on it and really like it. It's very convenient and It also means that when I recycle now, I am not putting money in Spincycle's pockets. Bonus.

I do curbside recycling and it doesn't go to the MET. It goes to a random pickup with a bailing wire trailer. However, curbside doesn't pick up as much as the MET does. No junkmail/office paper, no cardboard, etc.

[RecycleMichael]

I know doubleA...you attack me in almost every thread...it sure is getting old.

We also take items like batteries, eyeglasses, motor oil, anti-freeze.  We are also open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Many people do a combination of curbside and drop-off. The curbside option is great for most things, but sometimes you have too much and don't want to wait till the next pickup.

The M.e.t. also has lots of customers who have small businesses or live in an apartment.

The M.e.t. also employs over 100 workers with disabilities. Many of our loyal recyclers choose the drop-off centers because they want to employ these type of workers.

[sgrizzle]

One day we will find out the DoubleA secretly has a crush on RM..

[inteller]

half the service, half the fee.  and we need to get real with the recycling program here.  If you are going to pick up trash once a week you better DAMN well have free recycling.  Someone is making money off of my recycled goods and I shouldn't have to PAY for the priviledge.

why we don't have a pay as you throw system here is beyond me.  When I moved here from Fayeteville I was like pancakes is UP with the trash system here.

This is what happens when you don't have a city manager and instead have a bunch of idiots just looking out for themselves.  Our trash situation here is the DEFINITION of government waste.

Somebody, ANYBODY, needs to drive 2 hours east to Fayetteville and see how they handle trash....it is LIGHT YEARS ahead of what we have here.


bottom line, this "pilot program" is a ****ing joke, and it is like putting a bandaid on a severed leg.  who the **** comes up with these ideas?

[RecycleMichael]

I can take some of the blame, inteller. I have failed to convince leaders to do more. We have had lots of issues, including paying off $180 million debt to the burn plant that has kept us from progressing.

People love their Tulsa trash hauler and think the price is fair. The monthly complaints levels are less than 3 tenths of one per cent of the customers.

By the way, it isn't half the service. It still allows unlimited trash disposal. Tulsa is charging $12.52 per month for the pilot program and allows extra bags of household waste at no charge.

Fayetteville is charging $18.27 for the same level of service per month (50% more than Tulsa) and charges $6 for every bag that doesn't fit in the polycart.

We have to take baby steps in Tulsa because change is hard when no one complains. Once we get everybody on the same one and one cart and recycling bin system, we can implement better billing options like pay-as-you-throw.

[tulsa1603]

In AUstin, recylcing is free, and you get a cart, though it's much much smaller than we have here.  Trash pick up is only once a week.  If you have more trash than fits in the cart, you have to buy special tags or bags at the grocery store for like $3.00 per bag for anything additional.  Lawn clippings and leaves are also required to be in these large paper bags that you buy at the grocery store, I don't think there is a limit on the # of those type of bags.  This encourages recycling and composting IMHO, though my Austin friends ***** about it.  Just try to throw a soda can away down there - "Hey man, that's gotta be recycled, otherwise I might have to pay for it!!"

[RecycleMichael]

The city of Austin charges $17.25 a month for the 95 gallon trash cart serviced once a week and "free" recycling. Each bag that does not fit into your cart is charged $2 as well.

Austin also charges $2.60 per month on all electric customers to pay for litter cleanup, dead animal pickup and household hazardous waste collections. Tulsa does these things without charging more.

Tulsa could do all the things that every other city does, but here everybody wants the cheapest trash rates possible.

[pmcalk]

One thing they did in Virginia that I miss is the leaf pick up.  Once or twice a season, you could rake your leaves to the curb.  The city came by with this huge vacuum to suck up & mulch all of the leaves.  You were only allowed to rake the leaves 24 hours ahead of time, to prevent them from clogging the sewers.  It was wonderful--I don't mind raking leaves, but I hate bagging or mulching them.  I usually end up with way too many leaves for my compost pile, but I hate just throwing them away.

[Conan71]

RM, is there any savings in collection costs via less fuel and maintenance on the trucks or is that nil since it still doesn't reduce the overall amount of trash nor increase the capacity of the trucks?

I like the idea, I'm on Monday/Thurs. and over the last two months they have been picking up the Monday trash before 7am.  So if I forget to curb it by Sunday night it sits till Thurs. anyhow.  More convenient recycling is appealing as well.  Since I'm only a block north of one of the test areas I hope we are next.

[RecycleMichael]

Yes, there are savings to the contract haulers for getting the trash in one pass rather than coming back another day in the week.

That is why this pilot program came from them. They are the ones who are going to see any savings. The city won't see any reduction in expenses by changing collection schedules. It will however see less damage to roads, air quality, etc.

The contract pays them a pretty fair price and they do a good job. Their costs have been rising dramatically for employees, insurance and fuel.

The only way we will keep rates low is to allow them to offer suggestions like this. The change in trash collection is what allows the city to offer free recycling bins to every home.

[tulsa1603]

quote:Originally posted by pmcalk

One thing they did in Virginia that I miss is the leaf pick up.  Once or twice a season, you could rake your leaves to the curb.  The city came by with this huge vacuum to suck up & mulch all of the leaves.  You were only allowed to rake the leaves 24 hours ahead of time, to prevent them from clogging the sewers.  It was wonderful--I don't mind raking leaves, but I hate bagging or mulching them.  I usually end up with way too many leaves for my compost pile, but I hate just throwing them away.

Oh that would be sweet!  One day I was raking leaves, and I usually rake them to the curb then into bags...purely by coincidence, it just so happened that the streetsweeper was coming down my street.  Talk about perfect timing.  THe streetsweeper guy just smiled and waved as my leaves got sucked up  :-)

[tulsa1603]

quote:Originally posted by recyclemichael

The city of Austin charges $17.25 a month for the 95 gallon trash cart serviced once a week and "free" recycling. Each bag that does not fit into your cart is charged $2 as well.

Austin also charges $2.60 per month on all electric customers to pay for litter cleanup, dead animal pickup and household hazardous waste collections. Tulsa does these things without charging more.

Tulsa could do all the things that every other city does, but here everybody wants the cheapest trash rates possible.

I'd be surprised if Austin's carts were even 95 gallons, they look much smaller than anything I've seen around here.  I like our trash service - it is simply amazing how much we get for the price we pay.  I'm perfectly content going to once a week for the same price, though.

[RecycleMichael]

Austin does offer three different size bins...a 35 gallon, a 65 gallon and a 95 gallon.

You must have chosen a smaller one. 95 gallon is the industry norm, but cities that offer a choice have a better system.

I know we will get there some day.

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by recyclemichael

I can take some of the blame, inteller. I have failed to convince leaders to do more. We have had lots of issues, including paying off $180 million debt to the burn plant that has kept us from progressing.

People love their Tulsa trash hauler and think the price is fair. The monthly complaints levels are less than 3 tenths of one per cent of the customers.

By the way, it isn't half the service. It still allows unlimited trash disposal. Tulsa is charging $12.52 per month for the pilot program and allows extra bags of household waste at no charge.

Fayetteville is charging $18.27 for the same level of service per month (50% more than Tulsa) and charges $6 for every bag that doesn't fit in the polycart.

We have to take baby steps in Tulsa because change is hard when no one complains. Once we get everybody on the same one and one cart and recycling bin system, we can implement better billing options like pay-as-you-throw.

we need to buy back the TTE plant for a song and stop filling up landfills. period.  we also need to charge $6 a bag so people are less likely to go stuffing whatever the hell they want in the trash bin.
fayetteville's method is not bad because someone always has some extra bags at the end of the year that they don't need and you can just get them.  it creates a little grey market for the bags but no big deal.