'It's just a nightmare.' Trash collectors overwhelmed by rising amount of household waste

[riversedge]

Source: cnn.com




Updated 9:44 AM ET, Thu April 9, 2020


Washington, DC (CNN)Barney Shapiro, owner of Tenleytown Trash, never expected that he would turn to the Washington National Opera's costume department to design gear for his employees. But when a member of his staff heard the National Opera was sewing masks for workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic, he jumped at the chance.


Shapiro's staffers haul trash in Washington, DC, and Maryland. Like the entire waste management industry, Shapiro is trying to keep his employees healthy and safe so they can handle the massive influx of household trash that is accumulating as more Americans self-quarantine at home.


"Our residential volumes are drastically increased," Shapiro said. "People are calling in and asking for increased services. We can't do that on a short-term basis. It's just a nightmare."

Tenleytown Trash workers are wearing masks made by the Washington National Opera's costume department.
Tenleytown Trash workers are wearing masks made by the Washington National Opera's costume department.

Republic Services, one of the largest waste management companies in the US, said it expects the volume of residential garbage to increase by as much as 30%. In order to redirect resources and address the growing amount of day-to-day household waste, about 50 communities nationwide have paused curbside recycling pickup and dozens have suspended yard waste collection, according to the Solid Waste Association of America. Other companies are shifting workers to residential routes and away from slower commercial routes where many of the businesses have closed.

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Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/09/economy/trash-collection-coronavirus/?iid=ob_lockedrail_longstory_pool

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Also--related--it the TP shortages. Not just the hording--but folks, kids not using bathrooms at schools, gyms. places of work, sports events, restaurants, etc etc





Rumpke Waste & Recycling has hired new employees in the last week to handle a massive influx in household trash.

Rumpke said he's facing financial losses due to the dramatic drop in commercial and industrial business, but his main concern right now is keeping his employees safe and meeting the increased demand for residential waste pickups. He's prepared to suspend yard waste and bulk trash pickup if necessary.

[AtheistCrusader]

1. There should be a corresponding decrease in corporate and institutional trash generation but

a lot of people cooped up at home are passing the time with housecleaning (I know I am).

I have a huge electronics recycle pile going, and nowhere to take it, and a growing pile of household hazardous waste, which of course needs to go to a special drop-off location.

[Demovictory9]

13. normally i would be generating piles of documents at work,

[riversedge]

22. There is a decrease in work related trash. the article speaks of it.

[jimfields33]

2. Not shocking

this should have been obvious day one

[Igel]

3. And that's an important lesson.

Lots of things should have been obvious.

Hindsight works that way.

I know I recognize that when I screw up. "Should've seen that coming, bad Igel!" Then I tell myself, "But given what you knew then, it wasn't in the top 10 most important or likely things to worry about, so it's understandable."

I look at others and I still say the first thing. I have real trouble with that empathy and compassion thing, getting to that second sentence. Even if it's no less true for the other person, and often even more applicable given what's on that other guy's radar.

[jimfields33]

4. Good points. Definitely thought provoking

[RobinA]

25. Yes, But Are You Employed

in operations or emergency management? If not, no harm no foul. If so, you are supposed to be a couple steps ahead of events, particularly predictable ones. There's no excuse for, "The hurricane took out electrical service, who knew????" More residential trash when more people are home, to me, anyway, is not surprising or unforeseeable. Or shouldn't be to people who have a contract to cart away the trash. Seems like Trash Hauling 101 to me.

I think the real problem with many of the things we see happening is that businesses do the least possible, expending the fewest possible resources. So the minute something goes the least bit haywire stuff starts to break down. In this case things are a lot haywire, so stuff is going very wrong.

[jberryhill]

28. "businesses do the least possible, expending the fewest possible resources"

It's become obvious that a lot of businesses were a mile wide and an inch deep.

Profit maximization doesn't go well with extra capacity "just in case". Everything and everyone are stretched to their limit in the best of time, so there is no resiliency when conditions suddenly change.

[Demovictory9]

11. apartment dumpster are overflowing in so cali..all these people at home

[richdj25]

5. Local governments can hire

private firms to help out with pickups, given they have less to do, because of businesses who are closed during this shutdown.

[Historic NY]

6. Thankfully our town is still picking up..

I can fill a big recycling can in a month. I now sort out my bottle deposits because their are a few people that need the nickles more than me. They disappear w/o them having to dig into the bin. I don't do yard waste. I've noticed it households with lots of deliveries, food, animal, takeout, pizza that have the over flowing cans.

Garbage can also be a health hazard!!!

[Lucinda]

8. I love the BYEDON graphic!

[turbinetree]

7. The Truth About The Toilet Paper Shortage All In MSNBC

?list=PLDIVi-vBsOExDwCvqcjMvaaKPHw-e_3XA

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

12. Thank you for posting that.

Nonetheless, despite this being in part a supply chain problem, a 40% increase in home usage should not have resulted in shelves that are still totally empty a month or more into this. Plus, the pictures within the piece showing people's shopping carts are clear examples of hoarding.

[turbinetree]

14. Yepper spot on....................

[Historic NY]

21. Now they got to figure where to store it in the house. ....

I laughed when Gov. Cuomo said you don't need 100 rolls of toilet paper, think about where your going to have to store it.

He's right I buy one of the big bundles of 45, even then I have to be creative where to store them in the closet.
Good thing I have a grabber.

[Mike 03]

9. Yesterday morning I was walking my dog and the trash cans people had put out were

overfilled (that's actually an understatement). The lids were almost vertical because so much trash was heaped into them. I understand that this means some other cans are empty, but it was so noticeable. This will actually slow down the amount of time it takes the drivers to do the route, because they'll have to actually get out of the truck and maneuver some of these trash "cans" manually because the automatic arm won't be able to grasp the handles as usual.

[smb]

26. Our Trash Service Sent Out A Notice

Basically saying, "if it doesn't fit in the bin, it's not going; our crews are instructed not to leave the vehicle and manually handle bins".

It's possible to request extra bins, but I suspect there's a wait.

[Marthe48]

10. Actually have less at the curb

I noticed some of my neighbors do too.

Rural Ohio.

[Pacifist Patriot]

24. My husband and I have been trying to figure this out.

Even though we're now home with two teenage boys (one was a freshman off at college and the other a junior in high school), our trash bin is going out with less in it twice a week than it did when we were working and the boys were at school. We cannot figure out how that could be possible.

[Marthe48]

37. I haven't changed my habits

So I don't know why I'm down to 1 bag.

I am on my own. My neighbors' college students kids have come home, and so have the grand dogs. They had just moved here recently, and maybe some of their earlier trash pick-up was debris from moving.

[chia]

29. I have less trash also, having stopped all non-necessity shopping. Less packaging to discard, maybe?

I've always been an at-home cook, so nothing's changed in that regard.

[Marthe48]

38. Very possible

I'm not doing any decluttering or paper shredding, but I wasn't doing that lately anyway. It's a mystery

[DeminPennswoods]

15. Not to mention all the disposal plastic PPE

thrown away.

[bucolic_frolic]

16. I buy much less plastic

I avoid plastic bottles, if possible. Stick margarine instead of oil for the most part. Metal olive oil cans. No clear plastic tubs for vegetables. Avoiding frozen foods with plastic trays inside, a few have paper trays. No plastic for baked goods, there are bags and boxes.

[cstanleytech]

17. While I can understand the amount of residential garbage increasing shouldn't

the overall total amount of garbage be the same or even lower with so many businesses closed?

[Tech]

32. A lot of businesses have large bins that use different trucks than curbside residential.

[Blue Owl]

18. Send it all to Trump Properties

A festering, reeking pile of shit-stained paper towels would be a nice "back at 'ya" gesture to Donny Bodybags...

[smb]

27. Who'd Notice The Difference?

Trump's bed-bug infested properties aren't exactly models of hygiene as it is.

[msongs]

19. our condo trash room is way less full than usual nt

[jmbar2]

20. My garbage has gone down quite a bit

When I first went into stay-at-home mode, I cooked a lot of stuff to freeze - soups, spaghetti sauce, enchiladas. Also bought larger sized foods - 18 eggs instead of 12, block cheese that I shred at home. Homemade cookies.

It has significantly reduced my garbage to avoid convenience foods. Once you get a backlog of frozen homemade food, you just make a little extra and keep adding to the store.

Sewed up a bunch of masks to donate, helping me to improve sewing skills. Now going to try making a pair of pants since I hate shopping for them.

Some of this change will stick with me.

Thoughts and prayers to all those who are sick, and those who are caring for them.

[riversedge]

23. good on you. really.

[LakeArenal]

30. All essential workers should get Medals.

The more hazardous the bigger the medal.

[titaniumsalute]

31. This makes no sense to me

Ever see a neighborhood or city block with lots of restaurants and the amount of trash they have daily or weekly?

That has mostly dried up. I can't imagine the net trash increase from people cleaning out houses has gone up more than what has been diminished from restaurant and retail.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

33. The equipment (trucks) used to pick up my neighborhood trash cans is different ...

... than the trucks used to pick up restaurant dumpsters. Side-loading can grabbers vs front-loading fork tines. So I imagine a lot of trucks are idled by closed restaurants, and they can't be used for neighborhood trash.

What is this "cleaning houses" that you mention?

[Brainfodder]

34. Why not just do what we pay for without comment?

Things adults are suppose to be able to handle, trash is one of them?



Not sympathetic at all on this one, our trash co is that one, and they cut us to 1 per week down from 2 less than 2 years ago, meanwhile, no lower cost to us!!!!!!

[Bengus81]

35. Damn,that's the cleanest trash truck I've ever seen......

Must be for a promo for the Company. Damn......

[Marrah_Goodman]

36. This makes sense

More people at home, less people at businesses.

[zentrum]

39. Outrageous that the government is not

......automatically protecting them.

The other name for CoVid 19 is Capitalism 2020.