Title
Solid Waste Contained Collections Citywide Reroute
Description
This report provides information to the Community and Cultural Investment Subcommittee on efforts to reroute Citywide residential solid waste contained collections.
THIS ITEM IS FOR INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION.
Report
Summary
Over time, the population growth and corresponding increase in solid waste utility customers can create an imbalance with the routes for refuse and recycle collection services. The last assessment and adjustment to the City's refuse and recycle services to address such an imbalance was in 2009 and resulted in updated service boundaries and additional trucks and staff to account for customer growth. Since 2009, there has been more than 10 years of population growth, including an influx of approximately 27,000 single-family residences added primarily in the North and Southwest areas of the City. This growth necessitates a complete reroute and service region rebalance to ensure equitable workloads for operators, optimization of current resources and consistent collection services for more than 418,000 fee-paying customers.
Staff from multiple sections within Public Works are collaborating to identify operational efficiencies using current resources. The Citywide reroute will allow the Department to defer purchase of additional trucks for the next two years. It will also create service boundaries closer to established service regions. New boundaries will result in a broader range of service coverage to better serve customers with current resource levels.
The target implementation date for a new solid waste contained collections schedule is Oct. 3, 2022. This reroute effort will result in a day-of-collection change for approximately 80 percent of fee-paying customers but will not impact the City’s current quarterly bulk trash collection program.
Public Outreach
A Citywide communication plan for future service changes will be offered in English and Spanish to all fee-paying customers. Timely notifications will be made periodically leading up to the target implementation date. Public Works staff will individually contact residents with non-standard collection service. Other communication efforts include advertising through social media, television interviews, newsletters, and City services bills and websites.
The Public Works Department anticipates customers will need time to adjust to service changes and is prepared to collect any missed collections resulting from day-of-collection changes. Additionally, customers will be educated on designated placement times to ensure missed collections are not repeated.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Manager Karen Peters and the Public Works Department.