City Changes Trash Pickup – Some Not Happy
June 8, 2010 by Ken Elmore · 2 Comments
For the first time in nearly 25 year the city of Tampa is changing its trash pickup schedule. If the number of various trash, recycle and yard waste cans on island streets are an indication, I would say not everyone has gotten the word about the new residential trash pick up schedule.
The new schedule went into effect on June 7 – Monday. Normally this would have been a regular pickup day for household, recycle and yard waste. Not anymore. The new schedule is Tuesday and Friday for trash pickup, and Friday for recycle and yard waste. The change comes at a time when the city needs to find ways to save money, so says councilman and island representative John Dingfelder. He took the opportunity to address the Davis Island Facebook fans that were lamenting about the change. “The City anticipates saving almost a million dollars by reorganizing the garbage routes and schedules. In these tough tiimes, this greater efficiency and financial savings is critical and it clearly offsets any minor inconvenience that might arise. If anyone has any questions, pls ask them to call my ofc. at 813-274-8133.
If you are like me, my recycle bin is overflowing and by the time the city comes by with its new trash pickup schedule, it will have been 18 days since they stopped by for their last recycle pick up on May 24th. There was a slight problem created in all of this being that Memorial Day falls on a Monday – the same day as trash pickup. With the new holiday schedule, the city no longer just moves to the next day… they move to the next regularly scheduled pickup. Which would have been June 7 for yard waste and recycle, but the new plan pushes that to June 11. Davis Islands Facebook fans let it be known all was not well. Here are a few comments.
- So for recycling the gap in pickup is from May 24th (last pickup) until June 11th? Brilliant.
- Thanks, Nora! How stupid about the Fri – yard waste. Most people do their yards on weekends. I am fortunate to have a yard man that comes on Fridays. So, I guess I’ll have it sitting around the yard for a week. Another brilliant idea.
- I think Rose Ferlita should run for Mayor. There seems a lack of brains around town now. Friend her on facebook.
- Recycle and yard waste on friday does not make sense to me, but I am sure there is more to it than what seems logical.
- With you on that Wendy. Here is the city’s link to the info. http://www.tampagov.net/dept_Solid_Waste/
- It is what it is. We had a good run while it lasted. Now it’s someone elses turn.
- I wish they would have waited another week. My recycle bins are overflowing since there was no pick up last week due to the holiday.
- Wow, that mean almost two weeks without recycling pickup. Where can I get another bin?
- Our bins are overflowing too…blah! will they pick up a trash bag of recycle?
- Use paper bags and they will pick up the recylcling.
- I was confused to why all the recycling bins around DI sat uncollectedfor this week but I suppose this explains it.
- Really dislike waiting until Friday for yard waste to be picked up. I think most people still do their yard work on the weekends so it’s going to hang around almost a week.
- Yes……..the trash will hang around all week…….who planned this>
- Brilliant planning that they do this shift the week after Memorial Day…So our recycling bins are now completely overflowing and we have two weekends of yard waste. Seriously…when planning, it’s the little things that are forgotten.
The reason for the change include: unbalanced routes (number of homes per collection vehicle); expansion in the types of services offered; and greater efficiency through increased collection efforts designed to focus on one area of the city at a time.
The benefits we will realize include: improved customer service and response time for all core collection services; expansion of yard waste recycling services from 45% to 100% of households; 10% decrease in the number of vehicles on the road daily; and carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 500,000 pounds annually.
The city is now split into quadrants using Columbus and Himes Avenues as the dividing lines.
So it is now 5:12 PM on Friday June 11 and I have neither seen nor heard a recycling truck today. My guess is that the 18-day gap has resulted in such a massive volume of recyclable material that the pick-ups have been very, very slow today. Will the trucks run into the evening hours? If not, will there be a “make-up” collection on Monday? If not collected until NEXT Friday, the recycle bins will be even more over-flowing than they already are (and, as is evident to anyone on DI, they truly ALREADY ARE!). Brilliant planning, I’d say, to schedule the switch-over just the week after Memorial Day.
Tampa is the ONLY City in Florida I’ve ever lived in, or visited, that would make such a big change in scheduled services without putting the plan out for public comment first. I applaud the City for taking steps to save money, but their process has been completely closed. It is very inconvenient to have trash and recycling on Fridays, and without any details, we don’t have any idea whether there could be alternatives to this schedule. This is not how government is supposed to work. I encourage fellow citizens to contact the Mayor’s office.