Lots of excitement in Wallyhood because of the missed garbage, recycling, and yard waste pickups last week. I just got off the phone talking to SPU and here is the scoop for Wallingford.
Residents whose garbage pickup was missed last week can put out double this week on their normal garbage collection day, which is Friday, Jan. 27 for Wallingford.
Residents whose yard waste pickup was missed last week can put out double this week on their normal yard waste collection day, which is Friday, Jan. 27 for Wallingford.
Residents whose recycling pickup was missed last week can put out double NEXT week on their normal alternate week recycling collection day, which is Friday, Feb. 3 for Wallingford.
SPU knows this entire route was skipped last week – you do not need to call SPU to tell them that pickup at your house was missed.
Extra garbage should be placed in plastic bags or your own garbage can (up to 32 gallons), and put next to your regular garbage.
Extra recycling that doesn’t fit in the city-provided container should be placed in sturdy bins or boxes next to your recycling cart. Remember to flatten empty cardboard boxes and do not put recyclables inside of bags. If you use paper bags, do not put them outside until your collection day so they can stay as dry as possible.
Recyclable items can be brought to the transfer station at no charge. You qualify for the “recyclables only” line of drivers so it makes for a quick trip.
Extra yard waste that does not fit in the city-supplied cart should be set out in one of the following ways:
- A 32-gallon can with handles. Label your can “yard waste,” and fill it loosely, so that it will empty easily when turned upside down.
- Bundles, tied with fiber twine, up to 4-feet long by 2-feet in diameter. Do not use wire, nylon cording, or plastic banding to tie these bundles.
- Kraft paper bags, available at many home and garden retailers
- Reusable yard waste bags, made of polyethylene.
No food waste is allowed in these extra yard waste units.
Recycling or food and yard waste containers containing garbage will not be collected.
Please place all containers within three feet of the curb by 7 a.m. on your regular collection day and bring them back in as soon as they are emptied.
Click here to look up your collection day.
Oh recycling guru: Why are we not supposed to put our recycling in bags? Any bags or plastic bags? I usually collect my newspapers inside a paper bag. Should I stop doing this? Thank you!
I think the lack of garbage pick up by Waste Management is a load of garbage and so is the “double” allottment. Putting out plastic bags is going to make a huge mess when the crows, cats and critters get into it. If they could pick up apartment build garbage they could collect everyone’s. WM is too cheap to pay the overtime required. I disagree with Wallywood, we all should call SPU and complain and ask for credits on your bills.
@Kimberly C – Paper bags are fine as long as the weather is dry. The concern is that the paper bags will fall apart when they are wet. Cardboard boxes (or the old recycling crates) hold up better in the rain.
@Mike – I confess I am mystified as to why waiting an extra week for garbage pickup is such a problem. My family could easily go 3 weeks before filling up our mini-can. If you or anyone else in Wallingford would like to learn how to reduce the amount of the garbage you generate, I would be happy to help. Email me at [email protected]
You GO Barb! Everybody should have mini-can! No pun intended.
And, if you put your food scraps in the compost, the critters tend to leave your trash alone.
Our trash isn’t the problem, it’s the recyclables! Why would they not just pick up this week? I saw trucks driving around Saturday skipping all of the curbside cans. This is just ridiculous.
Parts of Bainbridge that had no mail service Wednesday-Friday nonetheless had their garbage picked up on Saturday.
Thanks for the offer Barb. Our family manages our micro can pretty well. Unfortunately our small food waste/ yard bin is full and so is our recyclables. I just wish SPU/Waste Mgmt would find solutions that are customer-centric not what is easiest for them to administer or convenient for them which their double up and we’ll get it next approach is based upon.
I agree with Susie. Recycling is the issue this delay means we are going a full month without recycling pick up.
I spoke with a WM staffer yesterday and learned a bit more. As far as recycling – WM’s first priority is picking up recycling dumpsters – which use different trucks than those that pick up the recycling carts. For everyone who recycles, it’s all about reducing volume – flatten everything to get the most into your cart. The good thing about recycling is that it should be pretty much odor-free (if you rinse out your containers) so it shouldn’t matter if it sits around any longer. If you consistently need more room in your recycling cart, you can request a 96 gallon size (standard is 64 gallon.) Call 684-3000 or go to http://www.seattle.gov/util/Services/Recycling/Recycle_at_Your_House/ManageyourRecyclingService/index.htm
Thanks for the info, Barb. While you are in touch with SPU will you remind them that there are requests in place that the trucks Not Speed down our streets on their way to the Transfer Station on non-pick-up days? We witness it, feel it, hear it weekly, usually early in the week (our pickup day is Friday and speeding is not a problem then). (Same goes for the yellow buses but I guess that is another page.)
More info from SPU:
For the past seven years, Seattle has steadily been moving organics out of the garbage and into compost. As the amount of putrescent waste shrinks from the garbage stream, this will one day allow us to switch from collecting garbage weekly to every-other-week.
The current barrier to switching to weekly recycling is expense, as it would add approximately $6 million to the city’s annual collection costs. To mitigate the increased recycling, we will be switching residents’ 64-gallon recycling carts with 96-gallon recycling carts as they reach the end of their lifecycle.
Will we be billed for the missed pickup?
Andy, yes you will be billed for the missed pickup and as the SPU employee told me “if you don’t like it call the Mayor.”
@Mike I wonder if my charitable contribution is tax deductible.
@Andy, you can always call the Mayor : )
Ok, before you call the mayor demanding a refund, please consider:
1. The trash still has to get picked up. Yes, they missed a week. But the garbage collectors will still be lifting and hauling away the same amount of garbage. And much of it won’t be in cans, which means extra labor gathering and lifting. Which means slower routes. Which means longer days. I can’t imagine the either WM or their collectors would prefer that to working a normal day.
2. Which means that if they had thought it was safe and do-able, WM probably would have collected our garbage last week.
3. All of that garbage which you continued to generate despite the snow still has to be disposed of. You are not just paying for the collection, you are paying to have it dealt with after it leaves your house. Including having it shipped off to its permanent resting place in Oregon.
4. If you are going to demand a refund, I think you should only put out the amount of garbage you generated since last Friday.
5. You still pay for all sorts of services that you don’t use when there’s a snow day. For example, our family still had to pay for the preschool that we couldn’t attend, and other families still had to pay for daycare and nannies that they couldn’t use (this has been widely discussed on the Greenlake Moms list). People still have to eat and they have no control over weather events. If you want services to exist when you need them, you have to buy into the social contract and pay into them.
6. Would you really have wanted garbage trucks careening down our unplowed snowy and icy streets? The ones your car was parked on? The ones your kids may or may not have been sledding down? If I were WM I would not want that liability. It’s not a big leap to surmise that someone that would get upset at having to pay for the trash service that has been delayed due to snow would be the first person to demand compensation for a car damaged by a skidding trash truck or sue the pants off of them if there was a personal injury.
Please stop thinking only about your own inconvenience and take a look at the bigger picture.
~Kimberly
The big picture should include the fact that Waste Management (NYSE: WM) has a market cap of almost $16B and makes about $1B/year profit. Last Friday either it or the city profited handsomely by not picking up the garbage. Neither deserves my sympathy without good reason.
I might feel differently if I hadn’t seen the sun shining on Saturday, or if they had decided to pick up recycling this Friday.
I am curious to know where your information comes from.
You mean on WM? Try http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=WM
@Andy, Thanks for the link.
I’m still not understanding why you think that missing a week would lead to increased profits. They will still have to process and ship off to Oregon that same tonnage of garbage, so that cost won’t change. The routes will be slower and the will be paying their garbage collectors overtime, so at best they may break even on labor. There will be more trip to the transfer station because of the increased volume of garbage this week, so they won’t be saving much in gasoline. I sincerely doubt that they “profited handsomely” by missing garbage collection days. And I do believe that they were collecting garbage on Saturday, just not in Wallingford. Other neighborhoods missed collection days from the snow days that preceded Friday and probably started making noise about that.
The city doesn’t own Waste Management, they contract with them. So it’s unlikely that the city profits from missed garbage collection days.
For more than just the bare financial perspective, check out the San Diego District Attorney’s report on fraud, environmental problems and connections to organized crime, or the SEC actions against founder and officers of Waste Management Inc in a fraud case that cost investors $6 billon. Of course that stuff was years ago, I bet it’s run by saints now – otherwise City of Seattle wouldn’t have any dealings with them.
@Kimberly I think you are arguing that the pickup after the storm will cost 2x a normal pickup. I really doubt the costs are so linear but I don’t really know. I think some one is making some money here, and they did it by doing the opposite of work. This feels different to me than the situation with daycare, perhaps because Waste Management is involved (Donn– I *think* your last sentence is sarcastic?).
The other thing which is left off the table here is the time value of these services. Otherwise maybe they should just skip every other week more often? Why not pick up recycling just once a year?