Trash Service feedback from a citizen

While our Trash service is mostly baked for 2011, I would like to capture some helpful feedback when/if we consider front yard pickup.


Cortney
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I do not know how things stand in regards to the size of acceptable trash containers. In speaking with Rumpke employees about the matter, needless to say, they do NOT like the current size can/limit of what gets used here in the Village. They ultimately must wheel one of their 95-gallon totes down each person's driveway, take that trash and dump it into their tote and then wheel their own tote out to the curb. Or, if the resident's trash is already at the curb, they much empty and lift each individual trash container, which as you might imagine gets quite heavy and cumbersome for them.

I don't know if the Village could realize any potential savings if we were to switch over and permit the 95-gallon totes that most other Rumpke customers use, but is it something that we could look into?? That is, instead of wasting additional Rumpke labor hours on individual containers, if each household had a tote, it would make everyone's--literally, everyone's--lives a lot simpler. One container, on wheels, with a secure, strong lid that could easily be maneuvered by the residents. And one stop, one pick-up for the Rumpke employee that would simply need to wheel the tote onto the mechanical arm that would dump the trash for them. The hours saved on labor through Rumpke could be something to consider.

To me, it would also be a cleaner, more unified and more simplistic approach to trash pick-up in the Village. My street (East) has residents that have all kinds of different colored and sized trash receptacles. To me, it looks like everything is trash when the residents haul everything out to the curb each Monday night. A clean, sleek, uniform-sized tote for trash to accompany the uniform-looking red recycling bins is ultimately what the Village needs in regards to trash pick-up. It is the same reason there is verbiage in the Mariemont by-laws ordering that trash NOT be placed at the curb but instead at the rear of the household: To keep things clean. To keep things neat.

The 45-50 gallon size containers being discussed currently in council chambers are not typically of the build quality of the 95-gallon tote that Rumpke offers. I have lived here 6 years and have had to replace my trash cans once already. The bottoms get worn through from having to drag them across my driveway and from Rumpke at times dragging them down the driveway. At the cost of 2 new 40-gallon-ish sized trash cans, I could have almost purchased a heavy duty, sturdy, lid-locking, 95-gallon tote through Rumpke.

If a 95-gallon tote through the Village/Rumpke relationship is out of the question, I may still pursue getting my own 95-gallon tote. If I need to slap 2 stickers on it, then so be it. I know that the Rumpke employees would greatly appreciate it. Their backs would appreciate it. I also know that I wouldn't have to bungee cord my trash cans all together or have duct tape holding my lids together because I would have a product that made sense for everyone involved -- the consumer (me) and the company providing the service (Rumpke). I cannot tell you how many times I have had to clean up after the raccoons and that's AFTER doing everything I just mentioned a couple of lines above. A 95-gallon tote with a locking lid makes ALL of those problems go away.