Hillsborough County To Make Move To Automated Waste Collection By Matt Wiley Changes are on the way for the collection of trash and recycling in New Tampa, as Hillsborough County gets ready to roll out (literally) a new way of collecting solid waste. Beginning on August 1, single-family residences in New Tampa will begin to receive large green and blue rolling containers for storing solid waste and recycling, part of the County’s new “automated collection service,” a system City of Tampa residents in New Tampa already know. On collection days, residents roll the bins down to the street where garbage or recycling trucks with mechanical arms that are controlled by the driver lift and empty the containers into the truck. The new system is scheduled to go into effect on October 1. Until then, residents can still continue to take out the trash and recycling using the current methods. “When residents get their carts, they’ll actually have instructions on how to use them, their collection days and when to start using that cart,” explains Kim Buyer, transition manager of Hillsborough County Public Utilities. “The only thing that will really change is the way the garbage and recycling is collected. Yard waste will stay the same.” However, another factor that actually will change when residents receive their 95-gallon green cart for trash and 65-gallon blue cart for recycling is the variety of items that now can be recycled. Instead of the current system that allows only plastics 1 and 2 to be collected, the new bins allow for plastics 1-7, as well as all aluminum, steel cans, plastic bags and drink cartons, a process called single-stream recycling. “The (recycling) program is expanding,” Buyer says. “The County will even receive proceeds from the sale of those recycled materials.” Hillsborough County still is in the process of conducting a rate study, Buyer explains, but the County expects reduced rates that are estimated to result in $7.5million in annual savings for the County, a 22-percent reduction from the current sys-
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tem. Rates could drop as much as $20 for residential customers. No deposit is required for the new bins and billing still would appear on taxes as a yearly fee, rather than as a monthly payment. Buyer says that the County has opted to keep the same collection schedule that residents are used to: trash twice per week, recycling once per week and yard waste once per week. The collection schedule, “2-1-1,” she says, was one of the deciding factors when deciding which companies to use to collect the County’s solid waste. Hillsborough also looked into “2-1-1 manual waste,” which is similar to what is currently used, and “1-1-1 automated,” but decided to switch to “2-1-1 automated,” due to the amount of money it would eventually save the County. The County officially opened the bidding for waste collection in October of last year. Six companies put in bids across the collection schedule spectrum, but the County decided to use Waste Services, Inc. (WSI), Republic Services and Waste Management (WM) to take care of collection in five different collection areas, or districts. New Tampa falls into both District 2 (Tampa Palms, Tampa Palms North and New Tampa to the west of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.) and District 3, which includes northeastern Hillsborough County to the north and east of I-75 and BBD. District 2 will be serviced by WSI, while Republic Services will service District 3. Seven meetings were held about the change to solid waste collection, one in each District, one County wide phone-in meeting and one meeting at the request of the “Fish Bowl” community, located in Temple Terrace. The meeting for District 2 was held on December 4 at the Jimmy B. Keel Regional Library on W. Bearss Ave., while the meeting for District 3 was held at Strawberry Crest High on December 5. However, the County also employed public forums for public comments about the new waste collection system using an email address, voicemail and a website, as well as radio and TV public service announcements.
“We did a lot to get the word out,” says Willie Puz with the Hillsborough County Communications department. “We were pretty thorough in ways residents could reply.” According to the HillsboroughCounty.Gov, the current waste collection contracts expire in September and have been in effect for the past 17 years. When considering the different bids, the County opted for the automated system not only for its lower cost and improved service, but also for safety reasons. “If they can drive, the ‘slingers,’ or guys on the back of the trucks during manual collection, will be trained to operate the automated trucks,” Buyer says. “We anticipate very little job loss due to the turnover rate of that job. The automated system is much safer for the drivers because solid waste collection is such a dangerous job. There are so many distracted drivers and they’re out on busy streets picking up trash behind a garbage truck. Now they’re in the truck.” For more info, including an extensive list of “Frequently Asked Questions” and a District map, please visit HillsboroughCounty.org and click on the “Trash/Garbage” tab. The site also includes all of the important information for local businesses, as the process of obtaining bins for commercial collection is different than for residents.
For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 21, Issue 11 • May 25, 2013 • www.NTNeighborhoodNews.com
Like the City of Tampa, Hillsborough County will soon have automoted waste collection using large, rolling containers.