West Seattle trash-pickup update: The official news release

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As mentioned at the bottom of the previous post, after our conversation with Seattle Public Utilities, they were working on an official update to put the new information into news-release format — so here it is, in its entirety, just out of the WSB inbox, cut-and-paste of the Word doc they sent (we’ll add the link when it appears on the city website, which SPU’s Andy Ryan says will be late tonight or early tomorrow):

Seattle Garbage Collections Back on Near-normal Schedule
Missed Garbage, Recycling to Be Picked This Week; Yard Waste Will Be Delayed
SEATTLE — Seattle Public Utilities’ (SPU) garbage and recycling contractors resumed full garbage collections today, along with extra recycling service. Weather permitting, SPU hopes to be caught up with garbage service by this Saturday, Jan. 3.

Yard waste service — including Christmas tree pickup — will be resumed next week on a near-normal schedule for residential customers. Check your schedule for your next yard waste pickup date.

This week, garbage and recycling will be collected from all Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday customers on their regular day. Contractors will also send out additional crews on Thursday, New Year’s Day, to collect any missed locations. Customers missed this Monday through Wednesday should leave their waste out through Thursday, January 1.

Collections regularly scheduled for Thursday and Friday (Jan. 1 and 2) of this week will be delayed by one day due to the New Year’s holiday.

Garbage and recycling that has not been collected by Saturday, Jan. 3, should be reported to Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), at 206-684-3000.

“Volumes will be big, but contractors are planning to collect all of Seattle’s garbage this week without substantial misses,” said Hans Van Dusen, solid waste contracts manager for the city. “But even though contractors will be bringing on special crews, they can’t physically handle all uncollected garbage and recycling without making temporary adjustments in the yard waste schedule.”

All commercial routes serving businesses and apartments are being operated today [Monday], collecting missed and scheduled accounts. Contractors are using extra staff to access and move blocked containers.

Customers whose collections have been delayed may set out their extra garbage at no additional charge. When setting out extra waste, customers are encouraged to place perishable food items in their collection containers and set bagged non-perishable items next to the containers.

Customers who have had their collections missed can also take their waste to Seattle’s Recycling and Disposal stations, where it will be accepted at no charge through December 31st. The stations will be closed on New Year’s Day, Thursday, Jan. 1.

We’ll put up an “open thread”-type post in the morning for discussion of trash-truck sightings and any other info that comes in during the day, if you’re interested in checking in on the progress. 10:30 PM ADDENDUM: Via Facebook (where we are WS Blog), Krystal said there was some recycling pickup today “on the west side of Fauntleroy.”

Rhonda Porter December 28, 2008 (10:11 pm)

It would be nice if they would give us some extra time w/picking up our Christmas trees…

Sue December 28, 2008 (10:12 pm)

The yard waste delay is unacceptable. My last yard waste pickup was 12/1. I am due (normally) to have it picked up tomorrow – if they don’t come (as this statement indicates), that means I have to wait from 12/1 to 1/12 – 6 weeks – for yard waste? I have rotting food waste in there for almost a month. Despite what they say, I will be calling them in the morning.

MargL December 28, 2008 (10:17 pm)

Looking forward to the whirlwinds of trash and recyclables from that major windstorm Cliff Mass is predicting this week!

Irukandji December 28, 2008 (10:23 pm)

Woo hoo! Free trip to the dump. Let’s go kids!

Joe December 28, 2008 (10:32 pm)

The official word on their automated line from Friday was that those of us who had missed collections on this past Thursday and Friday were expected to be picked up by the end of the weekend. That didn’t happen. Take this new information with a grain of salt.

Mike December 28, 2008 (10:46 pm)

Who’s spoofing who, here! Per earlier statements, we should have been picked up Saturday. Our street was clear with no risk or impediment to truck access. Now we are supposed to accommodate 3 weeks garbage and 4 weeks recycling. I love the suggestion that we put perishables in our garbage can, and bag the nonperishables – is the Mayor suggesting that we sift thru it now? And I really love the promise that we will not be billed for additional garbage and recycling. Give me a break. Of course we won’t. And we expect a rebate for the missed pickups.

WSB December 28, 2008 (10:52 pm)

SPU reiterated to us this weekend that there will be no credit/rebate. I am working on gathering feedback channels into one post but in the short run – anyone who is writing to their elected leaders with feedback about what’s happened and not happened the past few weeks, City Council President Richard Conlin heads the Environment, Emergency Management, and Utilities Committee, so both emergency management in general, and utilities, are under his umbrella:
http://seattle.gov/council/Committees/environment_comm.htm
He, in addition to the mayor, would be a good person to address any concerns/ideas to.
richard.conlin@seattle.gov
I am sending a note to ask what his preliminary thoughts are about hearings, etc., to be held to discuss lessons to be learned from this storm – TR

Fred-E December 28, 2008 (10:55 pm)

We had garbage pickup pretty early this morning (~7:20) but no recycling.

Forest December 28, 2008 (11:26 pm)

Are SPU customers going to find in another month that SPU agreed to pay contractors their standard fees for all missed pickup days PLUS double or triple time for any make-up collections on New Year’s and weekends?

HighlandParkster December 28, 2008 (11:32 pm)

I hope that SPU realizes that I will be taking my own credit for the missed pick up. When THEY had me “in their system” as having the “wrong can” they charged me every week until THEY fixed their own error. Again, I really have to ask WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS CITY? The Mayor is truly insane. How can he STILL be SO out of touch with what’s going on in his own city? I just don’t get it. Is he even in town? WSB, if you can catch the Mayor in Cancun, you could retire next week! Now THAT would be a story. ;-) A month without recycling (which is free), but a month without yard waste is comin’ off the bill as are two weeks of missed trash pick ups.

Krystal December 28, 2008 (11:40 pm)

Hi all. Yes, we were fortunate to have recycling pick up for us, who are on the west side of Fauntleroy Way, but our neighbors who we share an alley with (addresses on 40th) still have their recycling overflowing. Interesting….

WSB December 28, 2008 (11:47 pm)

HP, the last public appearance I saw was the December 24 media availability, the one where he gave the overall storm response a “B.” I just searched Google News and nothing resembling a newer quote or appearance came up.

chas redmond December 28, 2008 (11:55 pm)

It’s not just the city who should be thinking about lessons learned. What did we learn from this? I went 10 days without using my car and made several trips to both Thriftway and QFC for food. This means I was somewhat prepared to venture out on foot in icy, cold, windy, blowing snowy weather. On that front I was prepared. On the snow shovel and ice pick/shovel front, I was not prepared and will be better off whenever I can find a store with these tools. I was lucky enough to have cleaned my gutters but still have frozen gutters and leaks inside the house. I’ll be better with clearing snow off the gutters in the future. We were lucky this time – we all had power still. Next time might be different. I think we all should be looking at this as a sustainability and self-sufficiency lesson. I sure learned a lot.

WSB December 29, 2008 (12:19 am)

That exact discussion in fact is under way in the WSB Forums:
https://westseattleblog.com/blog/forum/topic.php?id=3246
As for me – first move, shoes/boots in which I can walk several miles with excellent traction. If we’d had to walk to cover a major West Seattle story in the storm, I would have been in major trouble because even my semi-stomper shoes turned out to fail badly on ice.

beef December 29, 2008 (2:00 am)

i for one will be leaving my trash/recycling out all week why should i have 3 weeks worth of waste in my garage.

m2 December 29, 2008 (7:20 am)

Thanks for the positive comments, Chas and WSB. I also missed days of work and have overflowing bins, but I’m getting very sick of all this whining.

sam December 29, 2008 (8:53 am)

are diapers perishable or non-perishable?
:)
good thing we’ve also used some ‘G-diapers’ here and there in the past 3 weeks- those can be tossed in our compost bin (don’t worry- we don’t throw them in the yard waste bin)
gdiapers.com

MB December 29, 2008 (10:29 am)

If you’re sick of the whining…then stop reading the comments, duh. People are frustrated and venting. Better for them to be able to do it here than out in the world on other people.

Rhonda Porter December 29, 2008 (11:09 am)

We’ve left as much garbage as “neatly” as we can for pick up on the street. Partly because with all the snow it would have been near impossible to roll the cans back down. And I don’t want all that garbage near or in our garage attracting rodents.

As of 11:00, our garbage has not been picked up yet. I hope they show up!