Backyard trash pick-up. Should this continue?

[Barbara Michel]

Thanks for the photos Jim!

The trucks are the latest and greatest – “sexyâ€

[Will Brown]

Where I have seen this system in San Diego, the homes all have a double-wide driveway, and the homeowners leave the cans on the apron, but there is still space for them to get their cars past the cans. I guess in Lakewood, we would all just park on the street, or be trapped in our driveways until the collectors come, or possibly you would wheel your cans into the street, then pull your car out, then wheel the cans back onto the apron, and repeat the opposite maneuver when you got home. If you are getting the idea I think this scheme won't work in a congested area like Lakewood, you are right.

Even with it's advantages, the system is hardly fully automated in San Diego; a crew walks beside the truck to muscle the occasional misplaced cans.

I agree with the poster who questioned why we need separate trucks for the various categories of material. I believe a full truck goes directly to the disposal site, while a replacement truck picks up the route from the point where the load was completed. But I would think there should be some way a single vehicle could be able to handle all varieties of material.

As to neighborhood pick up units, with a dramatic decrease in the number of employees, the parking lot behind city hall would seem to be a great site; we could all just dump our refuse there, and the city could put it into trucks with a front-end loader. Another alternative would be that we all dump our trash off Lakewood Park as fill for the polyp that all the dreamers seem to think is the solution to our money problems.

[Gary Rice]

Good Grief...

WHAT are we thinking about?

If anyone REMOTELY thinks that those huge containers can, or SHOULD be muscled down an icy wintry driveway by ANYONE, much less put onto a curb loaded with snowplowed residue from Lakewood streets...(REMEMBER what those plows do to your driveway aprons alone? )

...they have got to be either out of their minds, or as callous as h-e-double hockey sticks, regarding the needs of our residents.

This is Lakewood, not San Diego. We have SNOW here. PARKING ISSUES here, WIDOWS, WIDOWERS, ELDERLY and DISABLED issues here...

I don't care if there would be exceptions allowed for people unable to move those disgusting things. There will STILL be people who will try and move them who should not, as they don't want to get the city "mad" at them.

This HAS to be stopped now, before someone gets hurt trying to move more than they should.

Good Grief people. Wake up.

[dl meckes]

Don't let logic get in the way of a neat idea.

[Brian Pedaci]

Gary, your compassion knows no bounds, but what do you reckon the elderly in every other snow-bound northern city do about their garbage? It would be a far sight easier to roll one of these guys down the driveway than heave a 32-gal can full of trash over the snow. If a driveway is piled with unshoveled snow, what do the cushmans do?

I figure that residents should be expected to make their best good-faith effort to get the cans in the reach of the machines, but that the garbagemen may need to move the cans to a more advantageous position for loading, then wheel the can back. It's still less overall effort than they spend now. I also think that those with real need of assistance should be able to petition for back-yard service - in this case it would mean the garbageman wheeling the cart from the backyard to the front instead of zooming up the driveway in a cushman.

[Gary Rice]

Compassion comsmashion.

The bell tolls for THEE, as Donne's well known prose states.

Just remember this, and mark my words here well.

Eventually wisdom comes to us all.

Never all at once, of course, but insight inevitably follows application.

Sooner or later, all of you will eventually either become elderly, get sick, develop a bad back, broken finger, arm, or whatever.

I've had disabilities from birth, and oh, how I've suffered with them. Worst of all was from the heard-hearted and callous thoughtlessness that I've had to endure in my childhood from so many of YOU back then.

But you see, in that suffering, I've been blessed beyond measure. I can be that canary in the coal mine, warning the rest of you of that pain and suffering sure to come in your own lives as the trials take their toll.

My sufferings could have caused sociopathic rage. Instead, they caused me to go into Special Education, and help many youngsters that still are far too often forced to endure the unmitigated bullshooting of so many of you oh-so-superior beings.

You wanna MOVE these pathetic refrigerators while you are hale and healthy, so be it!

For the price of saving a few pieces of silver...

Just remember...

You own turn for health issues will surely come, as surely as the sun rises, (reflecting on another Hemmingway allusion)...

[Missy Limkemann]

Ok, so today is Wednesday, my garbage day is tomorrow. Because of the holiday and hosting a huge dinner, and the rescue thing, I now have 4 FILLED garbage cans. Oh and I sitll have to do today's garbage. (again the rescue is 2 bags a day)
So what happens when we over fill these huge garbage cans? That is what I want to know. What about the huge contractor bags of stuff we have from tearing down a wall here and there? I will not put that in my car and ruin it. I dont mind taking it to the curb, but if it doesnt fit in the can then what?
I still think there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. I think a SOLID plan needs to be in place.

[Shelley Hurd]

I was in attendance of the demostration. And had my concerns about this reinforced.
The first few trys the can fell over because it was not in the exact right spot. Once positioned exactly properly the Arm worked like a charm.

And yes a longer Arm would definitely be a must.

Also from what I could tell, 2 guys would be needed to operate the truck. One to drive and one to position cans then climb back in to use the control (control was located on the passenger side of the cab)

And winter use of this method is another concern. With high snow banks from both shoveling sidewalks and snow trucks, having a place to put these cans seems like it will be extremly challanging.
Not to mention the parking of cars on city streetss, particularly after a street has been plowed, make more then a few of them one way. This coupled with high snow banks seem like a rather large challange to over come.

And I belive this automation was looked into back in 2005 and deemed not fesable for Lakewood. Lakewood has challanges that other cities do not which have implimented this type of rubbish removal.

If saving money is the prime motive I just do not see it.

The investment of the 2.5-2.8 million seems it could better spent on something that would have a for sure and definite positive finacial impact.

[Jim O'Bryan]

I was in attendance of the demostration. And had my concerns about this reinforced.
The first few trys the can fell over because it was not in the exact right spot. Once positioned exactly properly the Arm worked like a charm.

And yes a longer Arm would definitely be a must.

Also from what I could tell, 2 guys would be needed to operate the truck. One to drive and one to position cans then climb back in to use the control (control was located on the passenger side of the cab)

And winter use of this method is another concern. With high snow banks from both shoveling sidewalks and snow trucks, having a place to put these cans seems like it will be extremly challanging.
Not to mention the parking of cars on city streetss, particularly after a street has been plowed, make more then a few of them one way. This coupled with high snow banks seem like a rather large challange to over come.

And I belive this automation was looked into back in 2005 and deemed not fesable for Lakewood. Lakewood has challanges that other cities do not which have implimented this type of rubbish removal.

If saving money is the prime motive I just do not see it.

The investment of the 2.5-2.8 million seems it could better spent on something that would have a for sure and definite positive finacial impact.

Shelley

Thanks for joining the Observer, and thanks for the note.

I have to say that I think the reason the arm failed those two times was the lightness of the empty container. Of course how easy would it be to position had it been full as Missy's must be. Also how hard would it be for Missy to get it at the very edge of the curb?

I also was disappointed to see those hard plastic hollow wheels, that always fall off, or fail.

Dennis Devito, Shop Steward I believe for the trash collectors, and damn fine musician, commented that on 32 streets, the trucks would have to back up the entire length. He also mentioned that he thought, it would be best to scrap the cushmans and let two guys do trash with the old trucks. One thing he said was the lip on the old trucks is about knee high, and made it easier to pick up then lifting out of the cushmans, and that they could blow through a city.

FWIW


.

[Missy Limkemann]

I found a way to take the can to the curb. Batman. I am going to tie the can to him and Lucy and have them drag down for me. LOL. Batman is at least 75 pounds, Lucy is about 105 pounds so I figure this might work.
Hey I spend my days working for them, they can at least return the favor once a week for me.
I crack myself up some days.

[Gary Rice]

Now it's time for me to almost spill my iced tea all over the computer!

Missy, I think you're onto something here!

Ya' know...if we bring back all those pit bulls...we could come up with some dandy rubbish hauling teams...

We could even have RACES with those bins....

They have, after all, two wheels, like chariots.

It could be like Ben Hur.

Jim in one of them, mushing those dogs along....

Maybe Ken in another? It could be like Sgt. Preston and the Yukon.

Of course, we'd need some sort of object for the pit bulls to chase..

Perhaps they could chase something, or some ONE affixed to the mechanical arm of that truck?

This could truly make Lakewood Days memorable again.

[Jim DeVito]

So how long before these new robot arms gain consciousness and violate the Asimov laws? Is that not the end game of all robots?

In all seriousness, I am with my Mr. Devito. (not because we have the same name, because it is a good idea) Move all you crap to the curb and have two guys / gals and one old truck come pick it up. Like some most of out western neighbors.

I can see how there can be other savings with the trash robots. It was brought up the other night a bella dubby by... (sorry it was loud and a I was a couple beers in. I did not catch you name.) Perhaps the truck will pay for themselves in reduced workers comp insurance.

[Jim DeVito]

Also, if in the end it does come to robots where can I buy one of those cushmans?

[Charlie Page]

Thanks for the pics Jim. The new trucks look nice but the arm doesn’t look as big as the one in the “Green Refuse Initiativeâ€

[c. dawson]

I'm wondering if anyone is doing any benchmarking to see if this process is used in other cities with high population density. Certainly Lakewood is not the only city in the nation with houses close together, small yards, narrow driveways and narrow treelawns ... so there have to be some other cities using a similar system ... how do they deal with the concerns brought up here? How have they managed? Or have they been unable to utilize a system like this?

That'd be valuable information to have, rather than just speculating on whether something will work or not, and how has the demonstration gone.