The Observation Deck

I just got a notice in my water bill today saying that yard waste in the old garbage cans will no longer be accepted. They claim it is because of employee injuries. If there are injuries it is probably because of people overfilling the cans. They can simply put a weight limit on the cans and NOT pick up the ones that are too heavy and fine people for leaving cans out more than 2 days past pick up. Simple solution.

The funniest part of this is that the main part of the letter is talking about how recycling is important and how many tree's we have saved through the mandatory recycling efforts. Now they expect everyone to just buy paper yard bags? What a waste.

The city will still take garbage in the cans but not yard waste. This seems crazy.

I have called Joe Beno and am awaiting a call back. According to the refuse department it was his decision. He can be reached at 216.521.7580.

I thought the notice said that it was because of reduced efficiency. Maybe I read it wrong ...

Paul,

They mention 3 reasons in the letter but when I called the refuse department they said the main reason was the weight of the cans and injury.

The 3 reasons listed in the letter are:

1. Slows Collection
2. Creates more treelawn clutter
3. Causes employees injuries

My big beef with this is that it is causing more waste and costing the citizens more money. There are other solutions to this that have not been tried.

It says:

"When we told Lakewood residents they could use their old garbage cans for yard waste we didn't realize how many residents would use garbage cans or how much they would affect our operation! We've discovered through experience that collecting yard waste from garbage cans slows collections, creates more treelawn clutter, and causes employees injuries from dragging, carrying, lifting, and emptying large numbers of heavy garbage cans.

It is with regret that the Division of Refuse and Recycling must discontinue collection of yard waste from garbage cans, and the collection of contained leaves during the Streets Division's Fall Leaf Collection season. We are sorry for any inconvenience these changes may cause and hope residents understand the necessity, both in the interest of collection efficiency and employee safety."

Ryan Salo wrote:I just got a notice in my water bill today saying that yard waste in the old garbage cans will no longer be accepted.

Ryan Salo wrote:The funniest part of this is that the main part of the letter is talking about how recycling is important and how many tree's we have saved through the mandatory recycling efforts. Now they expect everyone to just buy paper yard bags? What a waste.

So, they sent you a notice on paper to emphasize that the saving of trees?

How about limiting the size of the garbage container to 40 gallons?

What happened to all of the old garbage trucks? Thanks

Or would it be feasible for the City of of Lakewood to issue another one arm bandit friendly container (blue) for recyclables? Or does it take an entire week for the city to pick up regular trash? How many one arm bandits does the city own?

Funniest part is they still have to pick up the yard waste bags. My wife and I got rather large chuckle out of that entire letter.
Whatever they want, I'll do but I shot so many holes in the reasoning it was like swiss cheese when I was done!

Stephen

The trucks are no more. Much like the Community Circulators, to complete the process you
have to make it too expensive to go back to the old days.

I fear as we have read here time and time again, that we will find that we still have too
manyissues with injuries, trucks maintenance, contracts, etc. that we have no other option
but to privatize collection.

Hence the term slippery slope many of us use when discussing changes.

FWIW


.

What if I put my yard waste bag in my yard waste can? Can I do that? Because I know how much fun my yard waste bag is when it rains and no one picks it up and then I have to re-bag it all again. I wonder if i can just burn all my yard waste in my fire pit?

Ryan--- I agree that buying a yard waste bag for the purpose of throwing it away is contradictory, I want to point out that Joe Beno isn't totally wacko---- just a little misguided. For instance, early this morning, 4:00 AM there were two Streets trucks out with some brand new hot asphalt doing patches on Madison. Good time to do it, and paying attention to details.
I can sympathize with Missy's comments about soggy paper bags. There has to be a good middle ground.
Stan

Hey guess what, we always had injuries! How is it that we suddenly have more? Are people putting out substantially more yard waste than they already were? Or all of the sudden they just decided to exceed all the weight standards? NOPE. Once again, the idiocy of City Hall abounds. So much for Fitz being God's gift to local government. Maybe his special three person city council "team" will save the day for the citizens they are supposed to represent. Don't hold your breath...

I just spoke with Joe from city hall. He clarified the reasoning and gave me some numbers.

Prior to the front yard pickup, when people didn't have extra cans sitting around, most people used the paper bags. Joe stated that the number of people using the cans now had gone up tremendously. The downside of the cans is that they are filled too heavy and they cannot just be tossed into the back of the truck they have to be nicely put back on the yard. This has increased collection time by at least 1 hour a day he stated. They also had 4 injuries between August 2009 and Oct 2009 that were blamed on the cans. A representative from workman's comp followed the crews around and this was one of their recommendations to limit injury risk.

They currently have a weight limit restriction but people are not obeying it and it takes a lot of man hours to cite them and then go back out and pick it up again. So they felt that more enforcement of that rule would not fix the problem.

He also pointed out that of 8 communities in the area only 2 allow yard waste in cans, most require the paper bags.

The last thing he mentioned was that the city dump is always an option for people that want to put yard waste in a can and transport it there.

Thank you Joe for your response.

Excuses, excuses, city hall can generate them for just about anything. Give it about two years and Waste Management will be picking up our yard waste cans. I also love the idea that we will create laws and regulations, but not enforce them. So I think I am going to go put my trash on my treelawn right now as it is more convenient for me than after 6pm. Maybe I should have put it out yesterday! You see where this is going?