The way bulk trash gets collected in Marysville is changing.
Beginning Jan. 4, bulk trash will be collected daily along with the regular trash.
“Instead of calling ahead and having bulk items collected one day a week, they will just pick it up each day as they do their routes,” Marysville Project Manager Marc Dilsaver told the city Public Service/Public Safety Committee recently.
Dilsaver defined bulk trash as, “anything that does not fit within the resident’s toter… that’s provided.” He said that could be anything from a couch, to boxes to extra bags of garbage.
He added, “a large majority of bulk pick up are not large items.”
Currently, if a resident has bulk trash to be collected, they contact the city, either by phone or email, and let officials know. Each Friday a list of homes with bulk trash is compiled and sent to Republic for collection Monday.
Dilsaver said that beginning the first week of January, “we are going to have Republic pick up bulk as they see it on a daily basis.”
He added that, “the residents will no longer need to make a request.”
He said everything else, including eligible items, recycling, routes, collection days and monthly rates will stay the same.
“It really will simplify the process, we feel,” Dilsaver said.
He explained that he and former public service director Mike Andrako pushed for the move several years ago, but at the time Republic had side load trucks that could not handle larger items. As the fleet has been replaced with front loading trucks, the idea became a possibility.
Dilsaver said that if an item is too big to be collected during the initial route, the crew will circle back and collect it later that day.
Dilsaver said that by having bulk items collected daily, it will “continuously keep the city clean.”
Committee member Alan Seymour, who also serves on council, said bulk trash is so noticeable, it makes the city look bad when it sits outside.
Dilsaver said that while Republic employees are expected to work the same number of hours per week, though the time will be spread over one less day.
Seymour asked if that meant trash collectors would be working later into the evening.
Dilsaver said that is possible, but other committee members said they felt the convenience of not having a special day for bulk pick up or needing to call ahead would offset any possible inconveniences created by needing to wait longer to pull toters off the street.
“I don’t see anyone upset about this adjustment,” City Manager Terry Emery said.
“I really feel like this is a win-win-win,” Dilsaver said. “It is a win for Republic, it is a win for the city and, most importantly, it is a win for the residents.”
Dilsaver said the city has accommodated 9,800 bulk pick up requests through the first 48 weeks of the year. He said the average is about 205 a week, but that number pushes to about 300 requests a week during the summer. Dilsaver said a request that comes in through email takes several minutes to respond to and a phone call request takes even longer to respond to.
“This saves a ton of time, not only for residents, it saves a ton of time for city staff,” Dilsaver said.
Emery said the city will work to get the message spread through a variety of methods, including the Journal-Tribune, the city’s website and a note on the trash bill.
“If they miss all that, when they call in to schedule bulk pick-up, we will just tell them to put it out with their regular pick up,” Emery said.