Dearborn Inks New Contract with Republic Waste
The Dearborn City Council last night approved a new seven year, $33 million contact with Republic Waste Services for residential trash service, recycling compost and leaf collection.
The approval, much to the dismay of some city leaders, means the end of work for Waste Management, whose contract expires June 30. Republic was the lowest bidder for the contact.
Below is the official press release from the City of Dearborn:
A new contract for the pick up of residential trash and recyclable materials will introduce a more efficient curbside collection system, encourage even more recycling, reduce blowing litter and improve the overall look of neighborhoods on “trash day”.
The City approved a seven-year contract with Republic Waste Services for curbside trash, recycling and yard waste collection on Monday. The contract and the new automated collection system are effective in July.
All materials currently picked up will still be collected at the curb under the new contract.
All Dearborn households will receive two containers: gray for trash, green for recycling.
And, as part of the improvements, all Dearborn households will receive two containers for the storage and curbside pickup of their trash and recyclable materials. The trash container will be gray and the recycling container will be dark green.
These 96-gallon containers, known as carts, have wheels and handles so they can be easily maneuvered from storage areas to the curbside and back. They also have attached hinged lids to keep out pests, reduce odors and prevent blowing litter.
These two carts will be delivered to every Dearborn households beginning in mid-May, with all households receiving them by the end of June. Delivery will be to about 1,000 homes a day and take six weeks.
Curbside collection using the new carts will begin the week of July 5. The carts cannot be used for trash/recycling storage until then.
Under the new system, residents will be instructed to recycle every other week. This will be more convenient than taking recyclable bins back and forth each week. Recycling schedules will be included in a comprehensive information packet to be delivered with the carts.
The larger 96-gallon carts will make it easier for residents to recycle in other ways. They will no longer need to sort or bundle recyclable materials. All qualified materials can be placed loose inside the 96-gallon cart as part of a system known as single-stream recycling.
Residents shouldn’t be concerned to see their recycling cart emptied into a truck without any sorting. The sorting of the materials takes place at the recycling facility.
The City’s contract with Republic will help contain costs for trash and recycling collection moving into the future, because the company uses an efficient, automated system for pickup.
Residents will be instructed on how to place the carts on the easement in front of their homes and behind the curb so that Republic’s trucks can pick up the carts. The carts should be placed so the handles face the house. An electronic arm on the trash and recycling trucks can grab and empty the carts easily and set them back on the easements.
The carts should not be placed in the street. That rule is the same as exists now.
Although many residents will experience some minor changes with the new system that begins in July, Dearborn has been operating a similar program in a pilot area in neighborhoods in the northeast end of the City since the fall of 2008.
The pilot area has experienced less litter, fewer rodent and pest problems and a marked increase in participation in the curbside recycling program.
Under the new contract with Republic, curbside yard waste collection will essentially stay the same. Just as now, residents can put yard waste in paper landscaping bags or in their own containers, specially marked for yard waste collection, and follow all of the city’s existing rules.
Find out more information at www.cityofdearborn.org
April 20th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
That is all fine and dandy, but in the winter time, how is a little, senior citizen woman supposed to get that huge waste basket on snow plowed curb? They are not supposed to be in the street, so that means that if the plows come by and the snow is substantially high, how do you lift that monster of a basket up and place it in a position that will allow the one man truck operation to pick it up? My mom lives alone and can’t possibly lift that garbage can.
April 21st, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Who are these two guys w/the trash-cans, Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels? Is this a 33 million dollar joke?
I smell a rat.
April 21st, 2010 at 3:58 pm
They could just be talking trash……….
April 21st, 2010 at 11:08 pm
will trash be limited to what fits in the can?
also: anything new for yard waste?
April 21st, 2010 at 11:13 pm
i’d also like to throw in my two cents that this weekly public service day thing is highly inconvenient and aggravating. our streets are repeatedly (and needlessly) swept, but we have to beg to keep pools open?
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:02 am
I think that the streets should continue to be swept but think that it could be once a month or even bi-monthly. There is a lot of dirt that collects at the curb and living off of Ford I do see a difference after they come through. If we want to cut why dont’ we take a look at the seniors department. Have you ever been over there? For every question there are 2 people there to answer it. I think we should have programs for our seniors but we also need to look at attracting NEW young families. We can’t put all of our apples in one basket!
April 22nd, 2010 at 10:14 am
Here is something new and novel. Why don’t residents go out and sweep the street in front of their own homes? I do. And if the city if going to insist on sweeping streets; then the city better load those sweepers with water and have the machinery run at full efficiency instead of creating a one person dust storm while accomplishing nothing.
April 22nd, 2010 at 6:37 pm
I was just noticing how many additional ‘junk trucks’ that are coming around the night before trash pickup. They must save the city some money with all the stuff they have in their trucks.
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:44 pm
I met a brand new street sweeper over the weekend….and I hear it’s coming back THIS weekend! It’s called….RAIN. And sewers. I know, it’s amazing.
I do know that Westland uses Republic Waste for at least their recycling. I work there and watched the truck go by yesterday!
April 23rd, 2010 at 6:35 am
Looking out my window (in my area its Public Service Day) – it is 7:25 am and the city has just started to ‘sweep’ my street – they just sprayed down the water, 7:35 and the water is starting to evaporate and still no sweeper trucks wonder what happened to them? Better question would be, why are they starting to sweep the streets at 7:25 when the cars don’t have to be moved until 8:00 am?????????? there are still cars parked on the street. Another “great idea”
April 23rd, 2010 at 6:47 am
Bill I think it is a great idea to get the residents to sweep their streets, but how? I have renters on my street where the police or repo man is there every other month. They don’t give a hoot about the neighborhood they live in. They fight on the front lawn, they blast music (crazy thumping) from their cars and sit on the front porch, from what I hear they have an enormous rat problem and you think we’re gonna get them to sweep their streets? It sounds good but isn’t going to happen. Not to mention the rentals but the vacancies as well. Unfortunately we need to keep it up as a city or it won’t get done. The only thing that might work is to fine and I am all in favor of that. We can fine them out! We need to tighten our rules and let those that don’t want to keep it clean complain and throw a fit while we watch them move out!
April 23rd, 2010 at 2:35 pm
We found in the former condo association I lived in, that if you have problem neighbors, whether they’re renters or owners, if you constantly stay on top of them, call them to hearings and fine and punish them heavily, the landlords either remove the problem renters or simply sell the property. With problem absentee owners and renters, the city has to constantly stay on top of this, or else the problem gets worse. If they know Dearborn does not welcome problem renters, nor does it welcome absentee landlords that do not take care of their properties or renter issues, they take their business elsewhere. Vigilant observation and enforcement with heavy punishment for offenders is proven to work.
April 23rd, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Michael D. Albano, it may be proven to work, true, but the Administration does not have the will to actually do it. Once people get ticketed and call the Mayor’s office to complain, especially in large numbers, the elected and appointed officials lose their spines and call it off, and nothing ever changes. The powers that be don’t have the stomach or the spine to actually do what is necessary and proven, and until that changes, the city will continue its decline and will look more and more like Detroit.
April 24th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
You may be right Dearborn Watcher, but if the city initiates this program and doesn’t enforce it stringently with the scofflaws then there will be no reason to have the program and the city will pay a heavy price for it, as you mention.
April 27th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Ok, MAYBE if the idiots who live here would put their trash IN BAGS before they throw it to the curb, there wouldn’t be so much CRAP for the street sweepers to sweep! I do NOT remember the street cleaners from when I was a kid coming EVERY week! There is so much garbage blowing around, clogging my bushes and fences I am sick to death of it