Our feature OKI Wanna Know provides the answers to your questions, which may not change the world, but should scratch that mental itch you've had. This week, we take a look at our garbage collection.
Sam Peters of Hyde Park is wondering about garbage collection days and the holidays. How do they work?
"My roommate and I were taking out the trash, and we were just trying to figure out every time there's a holiday and the schedule is pushed back one day, how does that impact the sanitation workers?" she asks. "Are they then working extra hours at night? Are they working on double shifts? Are they going into the weekend?"
Molly Yeager is the communications manager for Rumpke. She says they only observe two holidays throughout the year: Christmas Day, and New Year's Day.
"This year Christmas and New Year's both fall on a Wednesday. So those customers who have regular Wednesday collection will be collected on Thursday. Our Thursday customers will be collected on Friday, and our Friday customers will be collected on Saturday," she says. "So there will be a shift for all the customers at the end of the week."
Keith Mallory is the general manager of Republic Services, another company that picks up the trash from homes locally. They also do the shift, but with one more holiday: Thanksgiving.
"Residentially, we don't run seven days a week. We run five days a week, some areas, six days a week, so for us we just move a day behind."
Mallory says that means even if they're off for a holiday, crews are still putting in the same hours every week.
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"Coming into the industry, that's one of the things that's the con of working in trash, right? People have to have their trash picked up," he says. "Fortunately we do allow our associates to be off on those holidays, spending time with their families."
Yeager at Rumpke says their workers also get time at home to celebrate. She says when they are working, they start early, so they can end early.
"Typically, they are rolling out of here about 4 a.m. It varies based on where they're picking up," she says. "Obviously there are some cities who have sound ordinances that we can't get into quite as early, so they leave here a bit later."
Yeager says they plan their routes based on density, so crews can't work ahead on the day before the holiday, and it's not easy to work twice as fast the day after.
The city of Cincinnati empties garbage cans too, and they also shift everything by one day. City workers have 10 holidays through the year when there's no collection.
Speaking of the holidays, this is the busy season in the sanitation and recycling worlds. Yeager says things really pick up after Thanksgiving.
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"This time of year, because of all the holiday celebrations, whether you have holiday parties at your house, or if you're just preparing for the upcoming holidays, think of all those Amazon boxes you're seeing at your doorstep right now," Yeager says. "Think about the extra cans you may have opened preparing for Thanksgiving meals, or preparing any holiday celebrations you have going on."
Keith Mallory with Republic says it's the day after Christmas that's the busiest for them.
"In a nutshell it is, just due to the volume of trash that's being put out. You have Christmas trees, you have packaging, you have sometimes furniture if some people bought furniture," he says. "It impacts us for about two weeks."
Helping your garbage crew might be a good holiday gift to give this year.
Mallory says one way to help is by getting a head start.
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"If you know Christmas is going to be a busy time for you, and you tend to do a deep clean around Christmas, start putting it out a week before, or wait a week after if you can, if there are things that are not food-related that you can have stored a little bit longer," he says. "For us, we're used to it. We staff pretty adequately around that time."
Yeager says you can cut down on the amount of trash by diverting what you can to recycling.
"Make sure you're checking that acceptable items list. I'm thinking of all the cardboard boxes I know I have at my house right now. Breaking those up, putting them inside your recycling bin or your recycling cart. The ideal situation is to have everything contained inside that cart," she says. "That ensures that the recycling container is picked up by the recycling truck and there's no confusion at the curb, like 'Was that supposed to be for trash? Was that supposed to be for recycling?' "
Yeager says there's also a lot of things that shouldn't go in your trash, like used cooking oil and batteries, especially lithium ion batteries. Hamilton County Environmental Services tracks local businesses, companies, and locations that accept used batteries, including alkaline, nickel cadmium, 9 volt, and lithium ion.
The city of Cincinnati has a list of what can be and cannot be recycled and how to prepare it for collection. Rumpke has their own rules and version of the list, and so does Republic Services.
