61 Replies to "TRASH/RECYCLING PICKUP UPDATE: Monday customers here will have to wait until next week"

• Christopher Boffoli February 7, 2017 (11:58 am)

  Grrrr.

• Mike February 7, 2017 (12:05 pm)

  Obviously we’ll be reimbursed for services not rendered, right? 

  • WSB February 7, 2017 (12:07 pm)

    They’ll take double pickup next week and I believe that in the past that has been considered services rendered. But certainly, call SPU ASAP if you want to talk to them about a credit.

    • SGG February 7, 2017 (12:10 pm)

      So if yesterday was our scheduled bi-weekly recycle pickup, will they pickup recycling next Monday, even though they wouldn’t normally?  Or will they make us hang onto this crap for another two weeks, making for one recycling pickup in 4 weeks?

      • Jason February 7, 2017 (1:07 pm)

        Great question. I have two full recycling bins out already and really want them emptied. Now I get to drag them back in tonight. yeaaaaaahhhhh

        Oh well, the snow day was fun!!!

  • Brian February 7, 2017 (12:24 pm)

    It snowed. BFD.

    Why do you feel entitled to anything other than having your garbage picked up?

• Amy February 7, 2017 (12:09 pm)

  Thank you for the notice!

• Alison February 7, 2017 (12:11 pm)

  The raccoons in the neighborhood are going to have the best week ever. 

• Trickycoolj February 7, 2017 (12:23 pm)

  Does this apply to High Point? Impact property services hasn’t said a word but I think they contract SPU to do our recycling? 

• old timer February 7, 2017 (12:28 pm)

  Good Lord, cut them some slack.

  I sure wouldn’t want to be driving a collection  truck yesterday.

  And yes, Scrooge, look for reimbursement if that makes your day better.

  • Aaaaa February 7, 2017 (2:06 pm)

    Agreed. Well-stated!

  • Ric February 7, 2017 (2:35 pm)

    Name caller!

  • SBC February 7, 2017 (5:04 pm)

    How about today, Tuesday? The notice is no collection in West Seattle for Tuesday due to icy conditions. No, no break will be given to people who do not do their job and then give a bogus and obvious faux reason as to why they won’t do their job. What icy conditions? All King County Metro busses were running on Tuesday. Those busses carry human beings. 

    • By the book February 7, 2017 (8:48 pm)

      Metro buses run on routes that are serviced by the plowing/sanding trucks, the waste pick-up vehicles use any and all side streets and alleys which are not snow-maintained by the city.

      Would you really want one of their trucks sliding out of control into your parked car or a member of your family?!

      It’s best they stayed off the ice, just as the school buses stayed in their lot; too much potential for problems when it REALLY ISN’T NECESSARY to send them out.

      I don’t like having to hold onto my full containers any more than the next dude/dudette, but its a lot less hassle than dealing with a dented car or body.

      Take a chill-pill  (pun intended)

       

      Peace 

       

• M February 7, 2017 (12:45 pm)

  So does that mean our recycling has to wait another two weeks for the next scheduled pick up?

• Pedro February 7, 2017 (12:45 pm)

   Am I correct that recycling will not be picked up until the “next scheduled collection day” – meaning two weeks from now (since recycling is every other week)?

  If so, the notion of a once a month pickup for recycling is ridiculous, even with the adverse weather.

   

   

  • WSB February 7, 2017 (1:04 pm)

    I’m asking.

• Alki Resident February 7, 2017 (1:01 pm)

  Get your neighbors together and load a pickup for the dump. I’d rather do that than see our hard worker garbage man get injured or his truck slide into our vehicles. 

• Michael February 7, 2017 (1:28 pm)

  Can we use bags for recycling even though we are normally not supposed to? Where do we put recycling one bin is full?

• dsa February 7, 2017 (1:38 pm)

  Not where I live, but everyone north of SW Seattle St is also north of I-90, just saying.

• sam-c February 7, 2017 (1:47 pm)

  If they don’t take recycling next Monday, you can take recycling to the transfer station for free if your recycling pile is too much to hang onto.  (you can take it for free anytime- just recycling. garbage, compost, paint etc is not free at the transfer station)

• nw February 7, 2017 (2:05 pm)

  Good time to bring this up with all the coverage of coyotes is the area and I recent local news the growing rat infestation in Seattle. We freeze our left over chicken and other meats in our freezer keep a container in it and set out the frozen bones and other waste collection day. I feel it’s more responsible to do that than have rotting meats left in the container days on end. Other food waste is contained outside and dumped into clean green. It’s and easy practice and alot more hygenic. 

  • Carole A Allen February 7, 2017 (2:27 pm)

    For those of us in small apartments, with modest refrigerators, there is no room to keep frozen meat along with our regular frozen items.  Not that I’d want old leftover meat sitting next to uncooked frozen meat and produce.

• AMD February 7, 2017 (3:01 pm)

  I’m fairly confident these service revisions were not some elaborate scheme cooked up between SPU and the Union of Raccoons, Rats, and Coyotes Local 206.  They want their drivers to be safe first and foremost.  So we are inconvenienced once in a decade by a weather-related service revision.  I don’t think it’s too much to ask to wait a week and be a little creative with the waste to keep the critters out.

  Also, it’s freezing outside, so those “rotting meats” are actually frozen inside a container (your yard waste bin) after all.  It’s not the buffet you think it is.

• H February 7, 2017 (3:18 pm)

  My neighbor, who’s been illegally dumping his garbage and recycling into my condos bins, will be so disappointed that he can’t throw his crap into our bins this week. Or he’ll just leave it on the ground for the Racoons to eat. 

• Ted February 7, 2017 (3:26 pm)

  Typical with Waste Management. Last snow storm – we ended up waiting 2 weeks after Christmas while my wife and I had to pick up paper and cardboard that was blowing all over the place.

  Contacted WM via twitter, email, their hotline, etc. All told me different stories and just grew frustration.

  Now I understand why people get mad about monopolies. 

  • Don February 7, 2017 (4:05 pm)

    We should all pay .75 of our next bill. 

    Can Lisa Herbold help us here??

• Margaritavillle February 7, 2017 (4:18 pm)

  I am not moving those recycling cans from the curb. Four weeks for curbside recycling? As others have indicated, the container is full – and heavy.

  • WSB February 7, 2017 (4:27 pm)

    FWIW I have not heard back from SPU’s media liaisons. So anyone looking for the answer to the recycling pickup-or-not question might just try the SPU customer-service line, if you haven’t already.

  • Jon Wright February 7, 2017 (5:06 pm)

    Way to stick it to The Man!

• McFail February 7, 2017 (4:29 pm)

   Just make sure you don’t try to stuff two weeks of garbage in  your can.  Last time I did that, and they did not collect because the can was overweight.

  • WSB February 7, 2017 (4:42 pm)

    And JUST in from SPU, in response to our question:

    “For West Seattle residential customers with Monday pickup, please put out containers on your next regularly scheduled pickup day. This includes recycling even if next Monday isn’t your regular recycling day. Customers missed this week will be allowed to set out double their normal amount of garbage, recycling and yard waste at no additional charge, on their next scheduled collection day. Please use extra bags or boxes for the additional materials.”

    • McFail February 7, 2017 (9:03 pm)

      Yes.  Twice as much garbage, but even though it will fit in your can – there is still a weight limit.  Not sure if it’s some union collective bargaining (safety)…  I thought they used to just charge you extra for overweight containers, now they just don’t pick it up and ask you to take garbage out. 

• miws February 7, 2017 (4:46 pm)

  FWIW,  around 4:40 pm Tuesday,  and recycle is now being picked up at my apartment building in the alley between 16th/17th/Barton/Henderson, in South Delridge. 

  Not sure if this is our normal pick up day for it, as I’m “always” hearing garbage trucks out there. 

  Mike

  • waist February 7, 2017 (7:16 pm)

    I think apartments are commercial customers. I saw a garbage truck today servicing commercial customers south of I-90.

• SBC February 7, 2017 (4:57 pm)

  So weird. All of King County Metro busses, which carry human beings, didn’t have any delays or cancellations today due to icy conditions. Called SPU twice and no one can follow that logic. 

  This is why people say the government is broken and needs to be fixed. No accountability. 

  • Jon Wright February 7, 2017 (5:47 pm)

    That’s a brilliant analogy. Maybe if Metro buses had to go criss-crossing all over town, on narrow neighborhood streets, through alleys, in cul-de-sacs, they might have had some difficulty, too. This is symptomatic of why politics and discourse is so broken: many ignorant people who comment online somehow have the misguided notion that they are subject matter experts with valid opinions.

    • Raised in WS February 7, 2017 (6:19 pm)

      Spot-on.

  • Uncle Loco February 7, 2017 (5:55 pm)

    Maybe you could convince SDOT to run the snowplows on every side street and ally way. 

  • Alki Resident February 7, 2017 (6:03 pm)

    What do buses have to do with anything. Did you see the jackknifed semi on Genessee today? Or the ambulance sliding down a side street? Garbage trucks aren’t strictly on plowed arterials all day you know. They’re in alleys, hills and side streets. Good lord, what would you do if a real disaster struck and we didn’t get a pickup for a month or more?

• Colette February 7, 2017 (5:25 pm)

  How about if neighbors help move containers for other neighbors who have difficulty doing so?  I’m in my 60’s but still able to move my containers out to the curb and back and am willing to help others.  My only issue with leaving them out at the curb for another week is the people who dump their dog  poop into them.  My can is already full.

  • West Coast Nomad February 7, 2017 (9:18 pm)

    I hear you about people putting their dog waste in cans on the curb. It’s even worse when they do this in an emptied can because you’re stuck with their filth for another full week. This practice is disgusting and disrespectful of one’s neighbors. I don’t know why these folks don’t use public waste cans or take it home to their own garbage cans. 

    • sb2780 February 8, 2017 (10:06 am)

      Agreed. I had a broken yard waste can that I called and emailed SPU about. It took them 2 weeks to pick up the broken can. I put it out at the curb as SPU requested, and in that time it apparently became the unofficial neighborhood dog crap receptacle. I’m not sure if that’s worse or better than just leaving dog crap all over the sidewalk? Trying to walk or run a three mile loop anymore has become an obstacle course in dodging dog crap all over the sidewalks.

• Jon Wright February 7, 2017 (5:48 pm)

  Called SPU and they claim no credits for missed service, just the 2X allowance next week.

• SGG February 7, 2017 (5:56 pm)

  Thanks so much for confirming that next Monday will include 2x normal garbage AND recycling, even if that is not our normal recycling pick up date.  I’ll be particularly impressed if they actually do what they say.    

  Thank you WSB!!!  

• Mark February 7, 2017 (6:31 pm)

  There was no excuse not to pick up today Tuesday.  Why not allow the option of credit against your account, aka refund for not providing service.  Yes I understand Monday but today streets were very drivable thus no excuse not to provide service.  SPU is quick to charge if you have extra bag of garbage, why not allow credit?

  • WSB February 7, 2017 (7:05 pm)

    Yes, there was an excuse. The trucks are big and clunky and go through alleys and down side streets, and many were slushy/crunchy this morning (even tonight, the ones we’ve seen in the south end still are). Our archives include trucks tangling with wires, with trees … Anyone with a good memory who was here in the December 2008 snowstorms … West Seattle has unique topographic challenges and went for quite some time without pickup then. Going back through the archives, we published many updates in ’08, and SPU even came up here at one point for a Q&A (sadly we lost the video in the blip.tv shutdown). But somebody asked whether they should contact CM Herbold … you certainly could because SPU is part of what’s overseen by the committee she chairs. – TR

• Mark February 7, 2017 (7:24 pm)

  TR there may be some parts in WS that are tough, but the majority is not, no excuse not to pick up where there is no issue.  A credit against your account is fair and should be an option.

• KBear February 7, 2017 (9:06 pm)

  Good grief, people! How often can you even remember this happening? What actual hardship is this causing you? First World Problems. 

• New Thinking Needed February 7, 2017 (9:16 pm)

  WSB mentions garbage trucks getting tangled up with wires over the streets…..anyone notice all the really low hanging wires because the snow or ice must have caused the sagging? And I saw plenty of wires that were on the street in the last couple of days…..I remember one truck caused a power outage in Arbor Heights a few years back because of a sagging line.  

  Maybe if citizens didn’t make so much garbage!!! Someone asked on another thread why the homeless have so much garbage. Well, what about home owners, or apartment dwellers, who can’t miss a week of pick up?  Try creating less garbage.

  • West Coast Nomad February 7, 2017 (9:35 pm)

    I griped about mandatory composting at first, but have to agree between recycling, yard waste and compost, it’s possible to put cans out only once a month. 

• West Coast Nomad February 7, 2017 (9:29 pm)

  I’m no big fan of SPU for a host of reasons but even I can see why it wasn’t safe for them to have those unwieldy trucks out yesterday. An inconvenience for sure to be stuck with garbage an extra week, but it was a pretty unusual circumstance to have such a messy snowstorm. SPU could have done more harm than good by blocking streets, getting stuck or potentially colliding with other vehicles on tight streets with cars parked on both sides. 

• SMH February 7, 2017 (11:12 pm)

  People wanting refunds: Do you know how much more it would cost SPU (aka the rate-payers aka the rest of us!) to program/process your measly credit? Anyone who has so much trash and recycling that you can’t skip a week: Please seriously reconsider your level of consumption and waste. Folks expressing understanding or exhibiting patience in exceptional circumstances: Thank you!

• chemist February 8, 2017 (1:36 am)

  I don’t fault Waste Management for focusing on the north half of the city and being able to drive a little slower/more cautiously when they encounter slush, etc on their routes, but I’m not thrilled that we were told a different plan on Monday that was then modified mid-way through the collection day Tuesday.

  I’ll be able to live through this just fine.

• SGG February 13, 2017 (6:28 pm)

  Still no trash pickup at 6:30pm Monday the 13th.  They did get the recycling though.

• Meg February 13, 2017 (6:58 pm)

  Same here. It’s 6:56 pm and no trash pick up. I’ll call SPU but I can’t wait another week. 

• valvashon February 13, 2017 (7:18 pm)

  “I hear you about people putting their dog waste in cans on the curb.
  It’s even worse when they do this in an emptied can because you’re stuck
  with their filth for another full week. This practice is disgusting and
  disrespectful of one’s neighbors. I don’t know why these folks don’t
  use public waste cans or take it home to their own garbage cans.”

  You aren’t stuck with it- try my ever popular method of turning your garbage can upside down and dumping the dog poop on the street or sidewalk.  It’s not your poop- problem solved!

• valvashon February 13, 2017 (7:41 pm)

  Still no trash pickup as of 1920 on Monday night.  They did get the yard waste and recycling, but my garbage can is the the small square one and was full last week.  I don’t have another place to put the bag of trash that I was holding on to in the kitchen garbage can.  I took it out today and put it on top of the small square one- but now I have to go get it so the little animals don’t tear it apart tonight.  Even if they collect my garbage tomorrow they won’t get the bag on top- so I won’t actually ever have two weeks picked up at once.  Since the inside of my house becomes a holding site for garbage credit for a week would be appropriate.

• HappyOnAlki February 13, 2017 (7:45 pm)

  Hang in there, SGG — ours was picked up a little while ago. Those guys are working lo-o-o-ng days today . . . .

• McFail February 13, 2017 (8:11 pm)

  They didn’t pick up my extra trash.  It was moved 5 feet back from where I placed it.  5 feet the other way and it’s in the truck…

• Diedre Bloom February 15, 2017 (11:06 am)

  No recycle pick-up on Monday or Tuesday and so far not today.   No yard clipping pick up on Monday.  Basically only trash was picked up.  People are giving up and moving cans off the street.  This is not what we were told was going to happen.

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