COJ Recycle Trucks Become Obsolete Overnight!

[Dog Walker]

It seems that the new guidelines that have expanded the materials that can be recycled have increased the amount being recycled that the recycling trucks cannot handle the additional material.

In the COJ pickup areas, the City Solid Waste Division is now using regular garbage trucks to pick up recycle materials because the original recycle trucks cannot handle the additional material.  There is now no curbside sorting of the materials.

I think this is good news!  People have responded to the new guidelines and are putting much less material in the garbage and more in the blue bins.  Great!

Wonder what the City can do with the now obsolete recycle trucks?  Nice problem to have.

[Charles Hunter]

In one of the private service areas, the little blue bins have been replaced with 96 gallon jobs that are collected every other week.  The waste hauler (sorry, I don't remember the company name) also provided 96 gallon garbage cans.  They collect them with a robot arm on the side of the truck - only needs a driver, not a crew to handle the cans.  Currently in Arlington and parts of Southside and (I think) Highlands.  Expanding to more of the city this fall - the rest of Southside/Mandarin.

[buckethead]

They took our JOBS!

[BridgeTroll]

It seems that the new guidelines that have expanded the materials that can be recycled have increased the amount being recycled that the recycling trucks cannot handle the additional material.

In the COJ pickup areas, the City Solid Waste Division is now using regular garbage trucks to pick up recycle materials because the original recycle trucks cannot handle the additional material.  There is now no curbside sorting of the materials.

I think this is good news!  People have responded to the new guidelines and are putting much less material in the garbage and more in the blue bins.  Great!

Wonder what the City can do with the now obsolete recycle trucks?  Nice problem to have.

What is the source for this?  I suppose they may be doing this in some neigborhoods as more folks are recycling... but in my area they are still using the recycle trucks and still sorting.  I fill two blue bins a week...

[sandyshoes]

Wonder what the City can do with the now obsolete recycle trucks?  Nice problem to have.

From the sound of it, they'd better retrofit them with mosquito sprayers.  We're going to need them soon!!

[Bridges]

Soooo, do I need to separate anymore?

Two years ago I met with Republic Services to contract my dumpster at work.  They mentioned they were getting some kind of amazing machine that they throw all trash and recycling into and it separates recycling from trash.  So there would be no distinction.

[Dog Walker]

Recycle materials still need to be separated from garbage, but the range of materials that is now being recycled is much expanded.

[BridgeTroll]

Recycle materials still need to be separated from garbage, but the range of materials that is now being recycled is much expanded.

No doubt... but the trucks are certainly not obsolete as they are still using them.  Of course they based the size of their fleet based on our previous pathetic recycling habits...  Now that the range of material has expanded along with progressively more folks finally getting onboard they probably are adding a few regular trucks to supplement the current fleet...

[Dog Walker]

It probably varies from route to route, but here in Riverside the City has switched to regular garbage trucks since the recycle trucks couldn't handle the loads.  We recycle a LOT of beer and wine bottles in Riverside.

We personally are now putting out a greater amount of recycle than garbage since they items that can be recycled have expanded.

[Overstreet]

In my neighborhood a contractor was picking up the recycling. So the trucks don't belong to the city.

[Josh]

Are the recyclable materials being picked up heading to recycling facilities again and not Trail Ridge?

[Starbuck]

The solid waste division website link with maps is at http://www.coj.net/departments/public-works/solid-waste.aspx

Southland Waste Systems (SWS) is using the blue 95 gallon bins with "single stream" recycling processing (search Wiki). There is a laser eye that detects reflectivity to sort the material type, and apparently some hand sorting on a conveyor belt. I'm uncertain how much actually gets recycled and how much is residual waste, but practically everything coming out a houshold except 1) hazardous waste 2) previously recycled material and 3) meat or egg products can go either into the garden compost or into the single stream recycling process.

[Dog Walker]

I think the City is taking its recycle to Southland too which is why the greater number of things that are eligible.