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 collection schedules for trash and recycling and the best ways to dispose of large bulk items.
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Transcript
Grace Hallowell:
What’s Up, College Station? I’m Grace Hallowell, and I am joined once again by Caroline Ask, our Solid Waste Division Manager. Hi, Caroline.
Caroline Ask:
Hi, Grace. How are you doing today?
Grace Hallowell:
I am doing well. You are back to talk some more trash with us today.
Caroline Ask:
I am. Always exciting to chat with you.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes, so move-in season for the students is kind of coming to a close. They’re starting their classes, and they’re getting into the swing of things, but there are a lot of new faces in town who don’t know how our trash schedule works. So let’s kind of explain the do’s and don’ts of solid waste.
Caroline Ask:
Sure. So if you are in a single-family home, we provide single-family services. So what that means is you would receive a city-assigned garbage cart, and you can find your garbage cart collection day on our app, which is called the College Station Curbside app. It is free and provides tips, tricks, updates, and any type of service interruptions, and you can generate your collection days for the remainder of the year. So you can get an update on that.
You can also receive notifications, so if you don’t remember what your collection day is or forget to look, you can set it up so that it’ll send you a push notification the night before, so you remember to put out your cart.
Besides weekly cart service, we also provide bulk and brush service on a weekly basis. That schedule will also be generated through the app for you guys. And what we like to see for our bulk and brush services is those two piles separated out. So, bulk items on one side, brush items on the other.
What we like to do with our brushy items is take them to the other side of the landfill, and they’ll be composted, which is nice. As for bulky items, if we can keep them away from any type of stationary objects, or at least four feet away from mailboxes, parked cars, or underneath overhead obstructions, move them away from those, and we would be happy to get them on their regular collection days.
Grace Hallowell:
So give us an example of what a bulky item might be.
Caroline Ask:
So that would be chairs, mattresses, couches. We’ll even take refrigerators as long as Freon units have been removed. So what we’d like to see is there is usually a neon sticker that an HVAC technician will post on the item that we’re being collected so that we know the Freon has been removed. We don’t collect Freon because we only collect municipal solid waste. Freon’s considered HHW or household hazardous waste. And you’re more than welcome to bring that at our next HHW event, which will happen in October.
And I’m sure we’ll chat about that.
Grace Hallowell:
Get more into that later.
Caroline Ask:
In October. Yes, absolutely. So that’s kind of what we look at for bulk and brush. And then, you will receive a bi-weekly, so every other week recycling collection, which is through a third-party vendor of ours, and that is with a blue cart and is a little bit larger than our trash container, but you’ll also be assigned a blue cart.
Now, a little bit different. If you were to live in an apartment complex and you have communal containers, which are either going to be like those round giant 300-gallon containers or dumpsters, we would service them twice a week, and those schedules are usually not posted. The management companies or operators will give us a call if they need any extra collections what that looks like, and if they need any additional help. Those types of accounts do not receive bulk or brush collections, but their management companies can always give us a call, and we can provide options to them.
Grace Hallowell:
And regarding recycling, I know things can get a little complicated with what is recyclable, and what is not, but you guys have a really helpful recycling guide that will be sent out in the mail pretty soon, correct?
Caroline Ask:
Yes. So we send out a comprehensive solid waste and recycling guide every year, and it’ll be mailed out to everybody probably sometime in September. This year we’ve changed it to Aggie maroon, very exciting when we change colors. Last year it was navy blue, so this year it’ll be maroon. And for recycling it’s a little bit different from your garbage cart.
So for garbage, what we want to see is any items need to be bagged, everything needs to be bagged. So when it’s serviced by our automated collection trucks, which has a gripper arm on the right-hand side, it’ll grab your container, and it’ll pick it up on the side, right-hand side, and it dumps it into the packer body. That means no individual, no operator’s actually getting out of the vehicle. And the reason that we moved to automated services quite a while ago is it increases efficiency, and it increases operator safety.
So bag those items, and don’t leave items loose in the cans. If we service something and litter falls out, there’s really not much we can do. We have a very small amount of staff to service the city.
Now for recycling, which like you mentioned is a little bit different, we like for all the items to be loose in recycling. The reason for that is any type of soft plastics, plastic bags get caught in the sorting facility equipment. So no loose items, no soft plastics, or loose items, no soft plastics. So don’t bag anything in your recycling bins.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes, not even the blue recyclable bags. Just keep all the items nice and loose in there, and make sure they’re clean and dry; it’s best for our machines. If the machines break, then that interrupts your service, and you will have to hold onto those items for an extra week or so.
Caroline Ask:
Yes, absolutely. I will say ourselves, so if solid waste or our recycling contractor sees anything that we deem may be a safety issue or something that’s a prohibited item, or for recycling, or if items are bagged, again, we can’t take soft plastics on recycling. What they will do and what we will do is tag the containers. It’s not to cause any type of inconvenience, it’s just to let you know there are some items that we cannot collect and the reasons why we won’t be able to collect them.
So just to kind of give you an example, for cart services, whether that’s your garbage cart or your recycling cart, some of those items maybe it’s not your collection day, or there may be an obstruction if you’ve placed your cart too close to a parallel parked car. The reason that we ask for four feet on either side of a cart is because that gripper arm is pretty wide and the hydraulics on it move pretty fast, we can cause some property damage. So if you see that tag on your bin, that’s why.
As for bulk and brush collection notices, these are actually not tags because there’s no actual cart to tag. These are door hangers. So what you’ll see is if the stacks are too far away for us to reach, if there’s any household waste, so we don’t pick up bagged waste for your bulk and brush days.
Also, we know that this is kind of the end of summer, even though it doesn’t feel like it, and people are starting to shut down their pools and close them off for fall and summer. So just a reminder, we don’t collect pool chemicals. They’re considered hazardous waste, so please don’t put them out for your bulk and brush days or hide them in piles.
I know the last time we talked we had some truck fires.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. That was not fun.
Caroline Ask:
No, and we did find the cause of those is some of them having to do with pool chemicals. So wait until our HHW event to dispose of those.
Grace Hallowell:
Right. And that event is great even if you don’t have pool chemicals, but you have cleaners or aerosols or paint or anything just lying around your garage that you’ve been meaning to get rid of, but you’re not sure. Anytime you’re unsure, “should I throw this in my regular bin?” Definitely check out the HHW website.
Caroline Ask:
Yes.
Grace Hallowell:
Twin Oaks Landfill is who puts it on, correct?
Caroline Ask:
Yes. It’s Twin Oaks and the Brazos Valley Solid Waste Management Agency. They put it on for all of the Brazos Valley, which usually happens in October. You can find their information in our Waste in Recycling guide on the very back, as well as on our webpage, and give them a call. They’d be happy to help you. There’s also a complete list that they have on their webpage as well, and they’ll advertise that.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes, and best practice, if you’re unsure, don’t put it in your can. Just err on the side of caution.
Caroline Ask:
Absolutely. Keep our operators safe so we can continuously service you guys.
Grace Hallowell:
What else can you share with us today?
Caroline Ask:
So besides tagging, we have seen an influx of contractor-generated waste. So if you have a contractor coming out to do remodeling, any type of demolition, they’re cutting down trees or any type of replacement in fencing, I know we’ve been in this major drought, we’re seeing a lot of trees dying. I know at least on my personal property, we’re having a lot of stuff turn real crispy.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes.
Caroline Ask:
So if you do utilize a contractor, please make sure that the contractor is taking their waste with them. We are not permitted to haul construction and demo waste, so we would like that contractor to please go ahead and take that with them.
If you do have a missed collection, maybe you’re new, and you haven’t heard of the app, and you haven’t received your guide just yet, which will be sent out in September, give us a call. We’d be happy to take care of you, and we’ll take care of you as quickly as we can.
We’ve got lots of contact information and different ways that you can contact us. So, you can call us at 979.764.3690. That’s our public works main line. You’re more than welcome to email us, which is pubworks@cstx.gov. There are multiple options to send items through SeeClickFix, through our webpage. We have a button at cstx.gov/recycle if you have a missed collection, and you can actually submit a request through the app. The College Station Curbside app.
We’ve got many ways to communicate, and they all go into a bucket, and they will all go to my administrative staff or our solid waste staff or public works, and we sort it out as fast as we can.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes, you guys are very responsive whenever there’s a problem to ensure it gets taken care of quickly.
Caroline Ask:
Yes. Well, thanks so much. I appreciate the time and if y’all have any questions I’ll be happy to come back out.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes, well thank you for being here. It’s always a pleasure to talk trash with you.
Caroline Ask:
Yes.
Grace Hallowell:
And that’s What’s Up.
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