[OldNorth] New Trash Can System

[Valerie Vann]

This morning we had our first pickup day with the new
95 gallon trash cans and the one man truck with pickup arm.

At 7 am there were only about 6 new cans out, 5 in the street
against the curb as prescribed, one still up on the planting
strip. 2 facing the wrong direction. A couple of cans
were out on 7th Street, along with one old style can on the
planting strip (apparently didn't get the message.)

The truck came about 7:30. It doesn't look to me like the
grabbing arm could quite reach the can if it were against
the curb and a parked car between the truck and the can,
even if the car were 3 feet from the can side. But that
didn't really get demonstrated, because at the only case of
that situation, the driver got out because the can was facing
the wrong way, plus he had to retrieve one down off the
planting strip.

What surprised me was that all the COMMERCIAL customers,
even though they have (and have had for some time) the same
big 95 gallon cans, get their cans retrieved from wherever
they keep them. I asked the driver about that, and he said
it slowed him down, but that's the way commercial service
works. I presume that's to keep those cans from being put
out 1 or 2 days in advance; but then residential customers
do that anyway on weekends quite a lot on this block.

This led to the truck using the arm to pick up a 
residential can from an alley apartment set out front,
and then the driver getting out of the truck to retrieve
multiple cans from back beside the businesses on the
the same parcel, and maneuvering them down over the
curb so the arm could pick them up. (My driveway allows
the driver to roll my commercial neighbors cans out 
to the street.)

So I'm wondering now if the fact that there were fewer
cans than I expected means that some of the rental
apartments are handled under a commercial license, and
don't have to put theirs out front in the gutter.

I was also amazed that one household of 2 persons and
2 cats, in one week managed to fill their 95 gallon can full
to overflowing (the lid wouldn't close), so that it spilled
stuff while being emptied. The driver did get out of
the truck and pick up what spilled, but maybe he saw
me watching.

Makes me wonder too how much stuff will get scattered 
around when it's windy, especially after the change to
the new recycle cans, which haven't been delivered yet.

You're not supposed to mix plastic and paper in those,
but I don't think I'd want to put shredded paper in
the can unbagged. My brother, who's been using a similar
trash system for years says he still bags his shredded
stuff and puts it in the regular trash. One of the
businesses here puts out a lot of shredded paper in
their can, and that, along with packing peanuts, regularly
scatters all over on windy days.

By 5:30pm there was only one can still out, and it was
up on the planting street, not in the gutter. That is a
better "put away" rate than has been typical in the past.
Whether it's the novelty, or the potential interference
with parking remains to be seen.

Valerie Vann
valerie at vanngroup.com