By The Public Communications Office
In this episode of “What’s Up, College Station?” Marketing Coordinator Grace Hallowell and Solid Waste Division Manager Caroline Ask discuss recycling, truck fires, Saturday’s Household Hazardous Waste Collection event – and talk a lot of trash.
Transcript
Grace Hallowell:
What’s up College Station? I’m Grace Hallowell, and today I’m joined with Caroline Ask, our Solid Waste Division Manager, and we are going to talk about trash today.
Caroline Ask:
We are going to talk some trash. Thanks for having me, Grace.
Grace Hallowell:
You’re welcome. So starting things off, we’ve had a few instances of some things that are getting thrown away in the regular collection that shouldn’t be and are causing fires in our trucks.
Caroline Ask:
Yes. We’ve had a little bit of an eventful year. We’ve had about five truck fires in the last 13 to 14 months.
Grace Hallowell:
Wow.
Caroline Ask:
Yes. It’s been an interesting time. So, I feel like I’m a little on edge. Same with the rest of our admin staff in public works. Are we going to get a phone call or email from the fire marshal’s office letting us know, “Hey, one of your trucks is on fire. Come on out.” So it’s been an interesting year.
Some of the things that we’re seeing in collections, or things that shouldn’t be placed out at the curb, is a lot of household chemicals that are placed out, whether they’re directly out on the curb for bulk and brush or hidden in lawn and leaf bags and whatnot. So we just wanted to chat with you, and our customers, and talk about how to identify those chemicals and what to do with them after the fact.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. I know it’s important and sometimes you just throw before you think. What are some of those guidelines? What can be thrown in your normal garbage as opposed to what shouldn’t be put in there?
Caroline Ask:
Absolutely. First, you need to be able to identify what is considered municipal solid waste or household garbage, like normally what would go into your kitchen trash versus what is hazardous waste.
Some of those items that you can see as hazardous waste would be; is there any label or identifier on the bottle or container that says caution or danger? Is it combustible? Is there some type of placard that says, “Hey, this is not a normal product?” That’s probably a good identifier that it shouldn’t be placed out for our crews to pick up, mainly because it’s unsafe for them to be handling. We’re not permitted by the state’s version of the EPA, which is called Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. We’re not permitted to haul those types of items. As well as it places a significant safety issue with our first responders having to come out and service us versus being able to be ready to service the rest of our clientele and the citizens within the city. So we would rather not utilize their services.
That’s one big thing, being sure to identify what materials are out there versus what is your typical kitchen trash. So what would you throw away in your general kitchen trash?
Grace Hallowell:
Right. I would throw away coffee grounds, banana peels, things like that. Maybe I would question, “Oh, my can of hairspray; what do I do with that?” Or, “I have some old batteries that don’t work anymore. Should they go in there or not?”
Caroline Ask:
Absolutely. Those are some of the things. If you have any items where, like you said that you’re questioning, you’re more than welcome to give us a call. That’s what we’re here for. Especially in our Solid Waste Division or public works in general, we’re always here to help you, whether it’s you or any of our other citizens, give us a call or look on our webpage cstx.gov/recycle.
Some of the other items, or tips and tricks, in terms of disposing of chemicals is make sure you’re not mixing any of the chemicals. You can inadvertently cause a reaction. We’ve seen that, and we’ve had some customers call in about accidentally causing reactions within their kitchen sinks and items like that. You also want to make sure that you’re keeping your chemicals in their original containers because as the labels fade, you may forget what’s in there, but you can kind of tell by the actual container. And then you want to follow those respective labels, and what are also called safety data sheets, which have 16 different sections that tell you how to dispose of things.
Grace Hallowell:
How to store them.
Caroline Ask:
Yes. How to store them, handling. Should you be wearing gloves while you’re utilizing these different types of chemicals? But they’re really important.
So if you’re wanting to know how to dispose of these types of hazardous waste, the Household Hazardous Waste Event is coming up. It’s operated and managed by BVSWMA, the Brazos Valley Solid Waste Management Agency. They are fabulous. They do this twice a year. It’s on April 22nd at the University Services building, which is right after Veterans Park entrance on Harvey Road. They’ll be open from 7 a.m.-2 p.m. on April 22. Very exciting. It is very streamlined.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes.
Caroline Ask:
Have you attended?
Grace Hallowell:
I haven’t yet. I’m still new to the area and I don’t have a whole lot of things that need to be disposed of.
Caroline Ask:
Girl, we’ll give you some from our house. You can take them in.
Grace Hallowell:
Okay.
Caroline Ask:
So yeah, what happens is you just drive in with your personal vehicle. You can keep them in your trunk or wherever. You don’t even have to get out. This is how convenient it is. You pop open your trunk. They will take it out. They separate it out into the certain types of chemicals or e-waste, whatever you’re looking for, and they will take it on. It is free.
Free.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. Let’s repeat that. We love free.
Caroline Ask:
We do. Some of the items that we want to talk about on their behalf of what’s accepted, so those general household chemicals that we talked about a little bit earlier; herbicides, pesticides, automotive fluids. Paint is a big one. We get a lot of questions about what to do with our excess paint, because we can’t take liquid paint. It’s still considered a hazardous waste for us.
You mentioned batteries.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes.
Caroline Ask:
Batteries are a big one, especially for lithium ion batteries, because they can spontaneously combust. So don’t put them out for collection. Those, like I said, they can combust. They can cause truck fires. We see them cause fires over at the recycling facility as well. So if you have those, take them to HHW.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes.
Caroline Ask:
There’s a few other items. Pool chemicals are a big one. Pool chemicals are what we’re seeing are causing the truck fires a lot. We’ve been working with you guys with public communications and giving out some educational materials on what to do with pool chemicals when you’re done, even with the containers.
Grace Hallowell:
I do not have a pool. I have seen people question what to do with them. You don’t really think about, “Well, when I’m done with this, what do I do with it?”
Caroline Ask:
Right. Stick it out of the curb. We’ll come get it.
It causes some problems for us. The rule of thumb with pool chemicals is you always put pool chemicals into the pool or into that water. You never put water onto the chemical because it reacts.
How a solid waste vehicle works is basically it can hold about 12 to 13 tons worth of waste, which is hundreds of homes that we’re servicing. All of that waste is going into the back of one collection vehicle and it crushes everything together. At some point, there’s going to be a liquid that ends up onto that chemical and then that’s what causes the reaction.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. And don’t ever pour any of this stuff down your drains either. That is a no-no, because that could also cause a reaction and be very hard on your pipes. Don’t pour down the storm drains either, because that is a whole other can of worms that our public works and our water services people have to deal with.
Caroline Ask:
Yes, that’s absolutely correct. You don’t want to put them down your kitchen sink or the storm drains, anything like that.
Grace Hallowell:
Or your toilet or anything like that.
Caroline Ask:
Yes. They are corrosive. So you don’t want to cause any problems with your infrastructure at your home.
Besides the items that are accepted at the HHW Event, there are some items that are not accepted. So I just want to give everyone an idea of what that looks like.
There’s no household garbage. That’s what we are here for. Any appliances with Freon units, they will not accept. If you’re needing to get rid of Freon units out of say, like a deep freezer or a refrigerator, you can call a local HVAC company that can handle that for you. No tires, sharps, no ammunition, or 55-gallon drums. Again, this is the Household Hazardous Waste Event, so this is solely for single-family residences and our residents in general. This is not for any commercial or a business entity.
Grace Hallowell:
Right.
Caroline Ask:
Yeah.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. So it’s a lot of stuff, but it’s important.
Caroline Ask:
It is important.
Grace Hallowell:
Before we continue, if people have questions, where can they find more information?
Caroline Ask:
Ours is cstx.gov/recycle. But, if you’re looking for BVSWMA’s webpage, you can go to twinoakshhw.com, and all their information, including an entrance and exit map, anything that you need, their contact information is there with a full list of accepted as well as what’s not accepted at that event on April 22.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. So, April 22, don’t forget. Mark your calendars. Even if you are college students, it’s close to campus, easy for you guys. Their garbage is just as important. You might not think like, “Oh, what do I do with my computer battery? I’m just going to toss it in my apartment complex’s dumpster.”
Caroline Ask:
Yes, that is a great point I forgot to mention. HHW is also for e-waste. So they will accept computers or any type of e-waste that’s related to electronics. They will accept those as well.
Grace Hallowell:
Right. They also collect things that aren’t garbage as a donation, right? So books, blankets-
Caroline Ask:
Yes. There’s Books & A Blanket. And so if you have anything related to that, they would happily accept those as donations. Yeah.
Grace Hallowell:
Yeah, so trash and donations.
Caroline Ask:
Yes.
Grace Hallowell:
Okay. Another exciting thing that you guys have going on coming up soon is Public Works Week.
Caroline Ask:
Yes. Public Works Week is May 22-26. We’re going to do something a little bit different this year than what we’ve done in the past. As public communications some of the other city departments know, we just held the Citzens University for Public Works. We had a fabulous time. I feel like I can talk about solid waste all day, every day, as much as anyone will allow me to talk about it.
What we’re going to do this year for Public Works Week is each day we are going to highlight one of our divisions. Public Works is one of the unsung heroes for the city. There’s a lot that our department does. It’s fun for us to be able to highlight all the good things we do for our citizens in the community, as well as the other functions that we provide on behalf of the other departments.
So can you guess some of the divisions that are in our department?
Grace Hallowell:
Sure. I want to say maybe Fleet Maintenance.
Caroline Ask:
Yes. Fleet Maintenance is huge, and especially for us in Solid Waste, they’re our backbones. So as long as they’re functioning, we’re functioning, and they’re really the heartbeat for us for most of our departments.
Fleet maintains all of our trucks, vehicles, heavy equipment, light equipment, everything for us. So that’s one of the divisions within Public Works that we’re going to highlight this year, as well as our colleagues over at Traffic Engineering and Traffic Systems. We have all of our admin staff, as well as GIS and asset management. And then, of course, one of our other divisions is Street Drainage, Landscape and Irrigation. It’s fun for us to be able to highlight the department and some of the good stuff that we’re doing for the community.
Grace Hallowell:
Yeah, because when you think the term “public works”, it kind of is an all-encompassing thing for many different areas. I didn’t know much before I started working for the city about what category everybody fell under. So it’s a good opportunity to learn about your city and what we can do for you.
Caroline Ask:
Yes. This’ll be just kind of a micro version of Citizens University. We’re excited to bring some information and some clips and stuff to you guys, so you get to see what we get to do on a daily basis. It’s a great group of people, a wonderful department, and we’re really excited to highlight them.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes, I’m excited too.
Okay. It is coming close to the end of the semester here. Everybody is getting ready to graduate or move out, which also comes with a lot of trash.
Caroline Ask:
Yes. This is the heavy season for solid waste. We just finished up with the Texas Trash-Off with Keep Brazos Beautiful. We had a big event and now we’re moving into our heavy season with move in, move out. So we have, as everyone knows, a very fluid population within College Station, which comes with a lot of, “I’m going to take everything out of my apartment unit and put it on the curb so I don’t have to deal with movers” and stuff like that.
Just some move-in, move-out tips is make sure any piles that you’re placing out are away from any stationary objects so that we’re not hitting any mailboxes or parallel parked cars. Usually what happens at that point is if there’s something that’s dangerous for us or we may potentially cause property damage, is we’re going to tag those piles or your can, whatever, so that we can make sure that we’re keeping you guys safe, your property safe, and as well as us safe. So please make sure that you’re following those collection guidelines.
They’re also published on our city’s webpage at cstx.gov/recycle. There is an entire pamphlet that says Move In, Move Out on the carousel of photos that’s at the top of our page. Take a look at that. If you have any questions and you’re moving in and out, let us know. Give us a call. Public Works phone number is (979) 764-3690, and we would be happy to help you.
Grace Hallowell:
A lot of move out trash would be considered bulky items, so like furniture or old shelves or something like that. You can’t bag that and put it into your can, so that would be with the brush and bulky collection, correct?
Caroline Ask:
Yes, ma’am. So if you’re looking at any type of furniture, mattresses, old appliances, again with no Freon, you’re more than welcome to put them out on your bulk day. So where you can find your bulk day is again, you can utilize our webpage. There is a collection scheduled portal that’s there. You just type in your specific address, it’ll populate for you. Or what you can do is utilize the city’s free collections app. It has a little maroon garbage truck. It’s called College Station Curbside. It’s free for both Android and Apple users. We also put in tips, tricks, notifications, anything that we would like our citizens to know. It’s published there for you. But that’s a great comment. So if you put out bulk on your general cart day, we won’t collect it because sometimes the collection days are a little bit different and sporadic there.
So again, make sure that they’re away from any stationary objects. And this is for a single family. If you guys live in a multi-family or a complex, get with your complex’s management company or those representatives that work at the front office for you guys, and they will show you a specific location where we can collect. What you don’t want to do in a multi-family home is place any of your bulk items in front of any of the dumpsters or collection enclosures because that causes blockage to where our actual general collections trucks can’t pick up the actual bag trash that’s in the dumpsters. So, like I said, get with your management company. They should have a designated location where we can collect your bulk items.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes, and that brings up a good point too, that I’m sure not many people would think of unless they’re watching as their garbage is being picked up. Our trucks are fully automated. There’s not a person throwing the trash into the back of the truck. So that’s why that area needs to be clear, because if that arm gets damaged or there’s something in the way, they can’t pick up your trash.
Caroline Ask:
Yes, that’s a great point. For front end load collections, which usually what you see is your standard dumpsters at your multi-family complexes, is they are automated. There’s usually one operator. They operate the vehicle to be able to service what’s inside the dumpster and that’s it. They don’t get out to service any of the bulk items. That’s actually a separate collection.
We have eight different types of vehicles and various types of collection opportunities. So just make sure you’re giving us a call and following those guidelines and whatnot that are published on our city’s webpage.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. The College Station Curbside app, you can find that at cstx.gov/curbside. I use it all the time. My husband loves it. Because sometimes you forget like, “Oh, what day is that supposed to go out?” Especially with holidays. If you think your schedule is going to be interrupted, definitely check that out.
Caroline Ask:
It is a fabulous resource to have and we’re really happy to provide that to the citizens. And from what I’ve seen, everyone loves it, and it’s a great tool for us to get information out to all of our customers quickly.
Grace Hallowell:
Yeah. All righty. Well, we covered a lot of great things today. If anybody has any questions, cstx.gov/recycle. Call Caroline. She’d be happy to chat with you or anybody in Public Works if you guys have questions.
Thank you so much for being here, Caroline.
Caroline Ask:
Thanks Grace. Thanks for having me.
Grace Hallowell:
You’re welcome. And that’s What’s Up.
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