Republic Services Speaks

 

Overflowing green and brown garbage bins on some city streets have led to confusion and outrage regarding the new trash and recycling program, prompting an influx of phone calls at the trash and recycling centers regarding pickup schedules and questions on how the recycling program works.

When Republic Services prepared to switch to the new automated system, the company bought 10 new trucks with electronic pick-up arms, thus eliminating the need for manual assistants. Men who used to ride on the back of the trucks and physically empty the cans were transferred or promoted, and new routes and schedules for the entire city were implemented along with the new program.

Since the start of the system on Monday, many residents have voiced concern that their trash had been picked up but their recycling had not, or vice-versa. The issue is one the company is aware of and is working to correct, said Republic Services General Manager Ray Grothaus, who offered some insight into how the transition has been felt on his end.

“There are two different trucks that will go down [a specific] area,” Grothaus explained. “On each collection day, say Monday, we’ll run six trash and four recycle routes. The four recycle routes will pick up more containers than the trash routes because of the capacity of the capability, so they have a little more capacity on the recycle routes.”

The trash and recyclables are never placed in the same truck, he said, and since each truck has its own route and schedule, they may not arrive at the same time of day to collect.

“A lot of it is that it’s a timing issue,” he said regarding missed bins. “We’re coming by them that day, but it’s at different times, but they came home at lunch and one was dumped and not the other. In some cases, we potentially did miss [collection], but like I said, there’s new areas for our drivers that they’re getting familiar with…and each week we’ll have incremental improvement on that.”

Grothaus said that Republic is running extra support routes with the old, employee-assisted trucks to ensure that all garbage is collected while they wait for the remaining two of 10 new trucks to be delivered.

Addtionally, those who do not intend to use their recycling containers are urged to return them, while those with larger needs can rent a second trash cart from Republic for $5 per month.

“You can’t do one-for-one,” Grothaus said. “You can’t exchange it or swap it out for a trash can because we have to pay for the disposal. The idea of the recycling is that Butts is processing those materials and it prevents it from going to the landfill, and in lieu, we don’t have to pay for the disposals, so that’s what the extra $5 covers, is the disposal.”

Regular, personal trash cans will not be emptied once Republic switches to full automation.

Plastic Bottles, Not Bags

At Butts Recycling Center, President Sandra Preston says the transition has been going fairly well this week, despite a bit of confusion as to what can and cannot be recycled.

Prior to the contract with Republic, Butts Recycling handled exclusively commercial contracts, and their facilities needed an extensive overhaul in order to be able to take on the residential program. Part of that overhaul included the construction of a brand new 8,000 square feet building, plus new sorting equipment and an increase in staff.

The idea for the plant was conceived roughly two years ago, Preston said, but the green light to build wasn’t given by the city until May and the building was constructed in 61 days, including equipment installation. As of Wednesday the crew at Butts was waiting only on the final inspection in order to be able to open the new facility and use the updated sorting system.

A large conveyor belt will lift recyclables up approximately 15 feet, where workers on another conveyor belt will throw the materials down chutes leading to the bays below. (LIVE! Photo/Chelsea Reinhard)
“To process the product, we have a sorting line, which is a conveyer belt that brings it up about…15 feet and then it runs along a conveyor that’s flat and we have people standing on it and there are shoots right next to them,” Preston said, describing how it works. “Each person is assigned a product—you have aluminum, you have tin, you have paper—and they just drop it down the chute. Then at the bottom of that is a bay or a holding area and then it’s taken over to a baling machine and then it’s compressed and it’s ready to ship.”

Where the product ends up depends on the material, Preston said. Plastics are shipped to Arizona, while much of the cardboard is shipped to Oklahoma. Aluminum stays in the city and is taken to Acme Iron and Metal, while newspaper goes to Mexico.

What is accepted in the residential program and what is not has been decided by Butts, who decline items such as plastic bags and glass due to cost-prohibitive shipping fees and a low market demand, Preston said.

“…a lot of our plastics are shipped overseas and they put up a new guideline,” Preston said, referencing the Green Fence Operation. “That’s what stopped the plastic bags. It was exported to China and they said they will not take plastic bags anymore.”

While there are places that still accept plastic bags, Butts does not cater to that market, and the thin plastic of the bags gums up their machines, VP Kevin Butts explained. As for the glass, Preston reminded that the facility utilizes a hand-sorting system, and that most glass items tend to shatter and splinter during pick up, transport and dumping at the sorting site. Glass also weighs a lot, she said, and the cost of shipping the material to the closest plant in Brownwood outweighs the return. In a business that is already cost-prohibitive, accepting glass is just not a viable option for Butts at this point, Preston explained.

The processing plant on 11th St. is the first of its kind between Fort Worth and El Paso, and no other West Texas city has attempted to implement a citywide recycling strategy like San Angelo’s.

In seeking to set up the recycling initiative, Republic and Butts worked together to assess the needs of the city and determine what scale of equipment would be needed to handle such a vast intake of materials.

“It’s very cost prohibitive to return your funds,” Sandra Preston said. Without a partnership with Republic, they would not have been able to take on such a large project.

“The only way this could work is if we could come up with a hand sorting system, downsize and hand sort it,” Sandra’s husband, Fred Preston added. “Even with that, we’re lucky to break even with the product, depending on what the market’s doing and all that stuff. Republic—hand-in-hand—worked with us…they helped us with a little bit of equipment, gave us a good price on some of the equipment to kind of help us, but for the most part, this is all on us. That’s we threw that 50 cents in there.”

The 50 cents, Fred Preston explained, is a monthly charge added to the bill of every resident should the recycling plant not reach a pre-determined threshold of 500 tons per month.

“That’s our breakeven spot,” he explained. “If they’re bring us 300 tons, 200 tons, 400 tons, we’re not getting enough product to make our money back in a good market. Whether I run 100 tons or 500 tons, I’ve got to put that manpower and the equipment and everything out there. It’s that same cost to run that, so we looked at the value of our product coming back and that was our teeter-totter spot.”

Fred Preston said that the intake has been fairly high this week, presumably because the trash carts were delivered roughly a month ago and people have been collecting their recyclables for some time, waiting for the program to start. Next week, he said, they should have a better idea of how much they will be seeing in average tonnage on a regular schedule.

The first three days of the week, Butts was averaging just under 20 tons of recyclables per day. While that rate is anticipated to drop off some next week, Ray Grothaus is confident things will even out as people become accustomed to the new process.

“This is week one and we expected some hiccups, but overall, [it has been] very much a success,” Grothaus said. “This new system kind of changes the behavioral patterns of the citizens, and we’re kind of working through that. We’re trying to make it as effortless as we can for the community.”

For more on what and how to recycle, check out the five essential things you need to know now.

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I know the whole trash thing has been rehashed several times, but it is an issue that continues to grow thanks to the thoughtless council and mayor. As each day passes by people are more upset with the outcome of this whole deal. I know as a property owner of 17 properties I get to hear about it. I have some multifamily properties that have four families living in the complex. They delivered only one container for these facilities. Seeing it will be an issue, we started three weeks ago trying to get enough containers delivered. We have faxed in the forms, only to be lost, and then were told we had to bring them down. Every time we do what they tell us to do, it changes. We have agreed to the extra costs, since we had no choice in the matter and our tenants needed to be taken care of.
Driving around town shows another problem, the cans sitting on the side of the road as an eye soar. The city has millions of dollars’ worth of alley ways to hide the trash and now we put it on the curb. The majority of people I talk with have no plans on using the recycling bins so they are a waste of tax payers money. If the recycling would be actual recycling and not sort of recycling, then more people would be inclined in participating, but to expect every house to take part is foolishly wasting tax money. If the city wanted to embark on such a journey, then it should have been an option for people to choose. Recycle Cans should have been available to those who wanted to take part. If not enough people wanted to take part, then it should of not been done. Those who wanted to take part could of paid for it to happen. I am guessing that the pretty blue cans cost our city thousands of dollars. The leadership would say that the company paid for it all (I am guessing they did), but no business does anything without passing those costs on to their customers.
After weeks of trying to follow the procedures to get enough cans to provide for our tenants, we have yet to get them. Our tenants have nowhere to put their trash so it is picked up. The extra 569.00 (20 per can delivery, 13.25 cost per can, which is above the 5.00 per can they say it is) for us to get enough cans so that our tenants can have a place for their trash is a business expense we have been forced to take on. While we are not happy with this cost, we are extremely upset with them not getting the cans in place for our tenants. Calling in almost daily has resulted in nothing more than getting a new story each time we call.
As everyone knows, we pay more money now for less service, and have to live with trash cans along the curbs of our streets. The whole bid thing showed that our city leaders and council think the citizens are not intelligent enough to understand what a bad deal we got. I have talked with many citizens on this subject and to date I have yet to find anyone who likes this idea. While it might of sounded good with one sentence, “Automated trash pickup,” it certainly is not a good idea when the whole picture is looked at. Good thing the election was held prior to concept or many would not be on the council today.

NV5T, Sat, 07/25/2015 - 17:41

PUT THE TRASH CANS IN THE ALLEYS WHERE THEY BELONG!!! The pick up trucks block roads while they are picking up, the trash cans are a road hazard driving down narrow streets, overflowing trash looks horrible in front of our homes, we can line the trash bins up in the alley's on ONE SIDE so the new trucks only have to drive down them ONCE and put this problem to bed. USE THE ALLEYS!!!!

if the city insists on forcing us into their trash program, it is their responsibility to handle plastic bags and glass. The city should set up a transfer for the plastic bags and glass to SAFE. Especially plastic bags. They need to prohibit plastic bags use if they are not going to take care of the trash issues they present. Why does the city get to do thing half way? Why did the idiots running the city get elected in the first place? Money and politics - and we, like sheep, allow them to do what they want! If they aren't going to dispose of it, then don't allow it. BAN the plastic bags!

As far as the alleys....I think if they aren't going to use them for the intended reason, we should all get our property lines redrawn to include half of our alley ways. The city doesn't need the easement if they aren't going to pick up the trash back there - it will just become an overgrown jungle for snakes and critters to live in...I could use the extra land in my back yard for something, I'm sure!

I wish the people that think they are "saving the planet' would actually do some research about the recycling industry. You would most likely be shocked about how much extra pollution it creates. Metal such as aluminum is one of the rare examples of recycling that actually save resources. Most other items cost more in energy and create more pollution to reuse.

Now with that said most people will not believe it and just say its a lie. If you would do your research and look at independent studies you would be shocked at how much the average person has been scammed over the years. Believe me when I tell you its about money not the planet. The only reason companies like Republic do this is for 1. for good marketing 2. because they are paid extra to do it. 3. it helps save their resources ( note I said their resources).

I wish San Angelo Live would do a full report on this and not just take talking points given to them by a company making money off of this.

This entire mess with the trash collection has stunk from the first. There was no "bid", it was decided and that was that, and now, we the tax payers and property owners are paying the price!

We have ally ways in most all areas of San Angelo, and yet people on Beauregard have to place the cans on a major street??? And this is just one area! The cans not only look bad, but this is going to cause MAJOR problems with cans potentially being hit by cars since they are sitting in the traffic lanes, and thus trash spread all over peoples front yards and all over the street.

Why can't someone tell us why the people who live on certain streets CAN'T use the ally any longer, and yet people in Southland are still being told to place our cans in the ally? And charging us for an extra can when our services have been CUT? Was this done to increase the cost of service in a way that people wouldn't see it at first?

Really, one can and only one pickup a week when before we provided out own cans, and most people in our area had at least TWO, and they were picked up twice a week...

This is NOT going to work. Not at ALL.

NV5T, Mon, 07/27/2015 - 19:52

C'mon folks, force Republic to put our trash cans in the alley where they belong. This is outrageous! The alleys are going to become an overgrown mess etc. Use the alley for what it's for, SERVICES - seriously. Let's end this, put your cans in the alley, if Republic doesn't pick them up then they will become a mess and the city will be FORCED to allow the cans in the alley, grow some cojones people, it's what the alley is for. Let's do this!!! We just have to work TOGETHER!

NV5T, Mon, 07/27/2015 - 19:57

Who the heck decides everything for us and this city anyway, We The People, or Republic services and the city council????

blewis, Wed, 07/29/2015 - 22:56

Where can I find a list of what can go in the recycling bin, like on the top of the can, to put in the house?

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