INC NEWS - yard waste issues

[RW Pickle]

To sort of address your comments:

on item 1: The staff is different for all three services collecting on a
single day; they always have had different staff (and trucks) so doing it
on different days would not matter. As far as the concern I had about all
of the traffic of big trucks being a bother, it has never materialized.
They seem to have a schedule that allows them each to arrive 2.5 hours
apart. So the congestion we thought would happen, has not.

On item 2: I have seen no difference in service from any three of the
services of household waste, yard waste, or recyclables; if something is
missed in pickup, it would seem that it was just missed. If one hides a
bin, then it is easy to see why it is missed. I put the recyclables on the
other side of the driveway, away from the yard waste and household waste
cans; that makes it easier to see and harder to miss.

On item 3: OSHA has completed a study as it relates to lifiting and
loading trash and recyclables. One of the suggestions they came up with
was switching personel out to different jobs so as not to have the same
person doing the same job all the time. In some parts of the City they are
trying automated pickup (by a mechanical arm on a truck). Something along
this idea will one day become the norm because of OSHA requirements. As
far as being able to either use a green can for household trash or yard
waste, I'm sort of with you there. I could use my extra green can this
week as both of my brown cans are already full (and it'll be Tuesday
before they are emptied). But their reasoning made sense. Contamination of
the waste stream is a big issue and I'm sure it was confusing to truck
operators as to which cans had yard waste or which had household waste.

I'm currently working on a solution to this "multi container" problem that
will do away with colored containers and recycle bins altogether. It'll be
an "any container" solution. It'll be 2009 before it'll do you any good if
it works out, but waste problems are not overnight solutions. In talking
to solid waste this week, they are currently understaffed. This goes
beyond their need for a new director; it seems to ba an across the board
problem problem with that department. From the top to the guys who ride on
the trucks, they are short handed.

Randy Pickle
Forest Hills

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
There are a  number of reasons why I believe there needs to be a different
day for pick up of yard waste from when the trash and recycling is
collected.


1.	There would be fewer days with staff, large, slow moving trucks out on
the roads at the same time.

  2.  With there only only large can out on the street on a particular day
the people picking up the recycling bin will be able to see the bins.

  3.  I would hope that people could than put the yard waste in both the
green and brown cans.  This would mean that not as many yard waste bags
would be used and there would be less manual lifting by the staff and
residents.

Laura Drey