HOT TOPIC: Solid Waste & Recycling Explained

The mission of the City of Perry Department of Public Works is to provide safe, prompt, reliable service to the residents and businesses of Perry.

The Department of Public Works is responsible for providing the following major services to the City and its residents:

• Proactive and responsive customer service
• General maintenance of all streets and rights of way
• Solid Waste pick up and disposal
• Aesthetically pleasing public facilities and grounds
• Well-maintained and efficient public facilities
• Effective stormwater system maintenance

In this episode, Public Works Superintendent Ansley Fitzner sits down with Inside Perry to discuss common solid waste misconceptions and what to expect with the suspension of the recycling program beginning May 2024.

Need to report missed trash pick up or other solid waste issues? Contact Public Works at (478) 988-2732 or submit a work order through Perry Points.

Learn more about the recycling services suspension.

If you like Inside Perry - subscribe and share the podcast with friends and family. The podcast is available on all major podcast platforms.

Visit us at perry-ga.gov.

We hope to see you around in our amazing community...Where Georgia Comes Together.

Transcript

Tabitha Clark: 0:00

Welcome to the Inside Perry podcast, where you get an inside look at Perry, Georgia's local government. We're glad you chose Perry where people make the difference. Whether you stay a few hours or a lifetime, your time in Perry will be rewarding and unforgettable. I'm Tabitha Clark, Communications Manager for the City of Perry. Welcome to the Inside Perry Podcast. This is Tabitha Clark, Communications Manager for the City of Perry, and I am with Ansley Fitzner, who is the Public Works Superintendent, and probably one of the busiest women here at the City of Perry. She covers a lot of ground, but today specifically, we want to talk about solid waste and some changes that we're making to the recycling program beginning at the end of April, 2024. So welcome Ansley.

Ansley Fitzner: 0:48

Thank you.

Tabitha Clark: 0:49

All right. So let's start off with talking about solid waste. So one of the misconceptions that we see here in the communications office, and I'm sure you dealing with the public and your staff is what the difference is between what the city does as far as solid waste collection and what we contract out.

Ansley Fitzner: 1:07

And it can be confusing because for most residents several trucks come by their house throughout the day on their service day for different functions and so the city does service the yard debris pickup and bulk item pickup which are two separate routes so that truck that you see will come by your house twice.

Tabitha Clark: 1:29

And that's the one with the Perry logo on the side, correct? Okay.

Ansley Fitzner: 1:32

And then household garbage and recycling, which we'll kind of talk about more later, is serviced by the city's contracted vendor, Waste Management. And so they come in separate trucks for that as well. So potentially, if you're utilizing all those services, you see some sort of Service truck come by your house four times in your service day.

Tabitha Clark: 1:52

I gotcha. So, so the actual garbage solid waste would be with waste management, and then the city's going to be doing yard debris and bulk waste, and that's where our trucks with our logo comes in. So talk, I know that the city of Perry is a little bit different than kind of our sister cities as far as bulk waste. So it's my understanding that normally if you put out like a couch or something really large, that we come and pick that up. Is that correct? That's

Ansley Fitzner: 2:20

right. No, no call ahead needed. Just place it curbside and it's picked up on your pickup day. It's really important though, to separate your yard debris and bulk items into separate piles, because those are serviced and transferred to the landfill as separate types of debris.

Tabitha Clark: 2:36

Gotcha, gotcha. So that's really cool is part of your city services bill with your solid waste is the fact that we do pick up pretty much everything. Now there is a list of things that we won't pick up, of course, but we you can find that out on the city's website. It's kind of an extensive list. So let's go over some of the frequently asked questions that we get with solid waste debris pickup, things like that. One of the questions that we get is why can't I leave bagged household garbage outside of my trash can.

Ansley Fitzner: 3:05

Sure, so our vendor that I talked about earlier, Waste Management. Um, services, household garbage with what we call automated side loader trucks. And so there's only one person on that truck, the driver, and then they use the mechanics of that machine to pick up your can and load it into the garbage truck. So there isn't someone on the back like you might would have seen in other places where they have a rear loader.

Tabitha Clark: 3:31

So basically it's kind of a different way of picking up trash than what we're used to, right?

Ansley Fitzner: 3:37

Right. That's where the market is moving to all these automated side loaders. It's more efficient, safer, any garbage that's left outside of that trash can there's not someone out there

Tabitha Clark: 3:47

That's going to pick it up. Gotcha. So sometimes trash gets missed or not picked up at all. So what should somebody do if that happens?

Ansley Fitzner: 3:55

Call us every time your trash is not picked up on your service day by 6 p. m. It may sound petty, but the City of Perry does a really good job of following up on all of these things. We keep data, we keep the contractor accountable, and so it's really important to give us a call.

Tabitha Clark: 4:13

Yes, absolutely. And then you can call Public Works and then of course you can also submit it through our Perry Points texting system as well. That information, the contact information for Public Works as well as Perry Points will be in the show notes. So of course sometimes we get a little trashy, so especially during certain times of the year. So what if there's more than the usual amount of trash and it doesn't fit all into the

Ansley Fitzner: 4:39

Sure. So you can call Public Works, um, if you feel like this is a one time thing. that you've just got extra garbage maybe you had an event or something. We can give you some guidance. But if if it seems like your household is producing more volume, you can call public works and request an additional trash cart. It's not the same amount is, you know, doubling your solid waste utility bill. But I would say just call because it'd be best to get pricing information by giving us a call.

Tabitha Clark: 5:09

All right. So we're actually going to starting at the end of April 2024, we're actually going to be doing a big overhaul as far as our recycling program. And I know that this is kind of, you know, a big issue with people because we want to help the environment. We want to do everything that we can, you know, to make sure that we're we're utilizing our resources and our waste as as best we can for the environment. Ansley, kind of give us an update on how the recycling program is going to work after April 2024.

Ansley Fitzner: 5:40

So we are suspending all city services that include recycling, curbside recycling, as well as the commercial accounts that would have previously had dumpsters for corrugated cardboard. And this has been something we've thought about really hard for a long period of time. We've done some data research and with our vendor and the recycling processors that are that are in our area, it's becoming increasingly difficult to create an efficient and cost effective program.

Tabitha Clark: 6:13

Absolutely. So I know that the city has done a lot of research as far as, you know, alternatives to recycling and things like that in a few things that we found that were issues about recycling, especially in today's age, was kind of surprising. So we did have several complaints from customers that recycling toters that are collected actually went into the, just the normal solid waste truck. And they were understandably getting upset about that. But when we talked to Waste Management, actually, there was a lot of things in there that contaminate in the recycling bin what can be normally recycled. I know there's the pizza box example.

Ansley Fitzner: 6:53

Any cartons that are wax coated aren't recyclable. Containers that still have food debris inside, the labels on them, only certain kinds of plastics can be recycled. And we stopped taking glass about eight months ago.

Tabitha Clark: 7:07

Yeah. And a lot of people don't know that because that market is constantly changing about what they will and what they won't take. And just like you said, fewer materials are being accepted for recycling and glass. Like you said, one of them and most plastic containers. And I know from the meetings that I've been in, you know, with the pizza boxes, if there's even like a little bit of cheese on there, they consider that contaminated. So the entire. toter and bin, recycling bin that it's in, is completely contaminated, so there's no way that they can recycle it.

Ansley Fitzner: 7:39

That's right.

Tabitha Clark: 7:39

I know Ansley, when y'all did your research, there was a very weak market for recycling materials. Um, you know, there's not, the market's not there as much as it was anymore.

Ansley Fitzner: 7:50

Right, yep, and because of that, you know, on a whim, these processors can change the items that they're accepting. Um, and they can change the rates that they're charging. Yeah.

Tabitha Clark: 8:00

Right, which will only go up, you know, of course, just like everything else. I know that there's a letter going out to both residential and commercial talking about this and explaining why the city is suspending their recycling program. So what can customers expect as far as when the suspension happens and what they need to do?

Ansley Fitzner: 8:21

Sure, that last week, full week in April will be the last service week for recycling. So you would place your cart out like normal. The typical truck will come through, service recycling, and then a third party vendor is going to come and pick up all those 35 gallon green recycling toters curbside. They'll be repurposed with the vendor. Nothing additional is needed from our customers in order to transition from normal recycling to the suspended period.

Tabitha Clark: 8:49

As of May 1st, 2024, recycling will no longer be accepted. If somebody wanted to recycle, we do have a couple of areas that are around us that do still take certain types of recycling. I know that City of Centerville has their recycling center, and then, of course, Happy Hour is also taking recyclables. I think they take cardboard and other certain ones. So you might want to call Happy Hour to see what they accept. So we are fortunate that we do have several places if people really do want to recycle that they have those places to go locally. If you have any questions, the website under solid waste under public works will have a lot of information about it. And of course you can always call public works if you do have any questions. So like I said, you know, we are very, aware about, you know, wanting to preserve the environment and we do that in so many other ways. But as far as the recycling, after a long time of research and looking at alternatives, we figured that this was the best way to do this for our customers to make sure that if people want to recycle, it's being recycled properly.

Ansley Fitzner: 9:54

Right. You know, some people may ask. I'm going to have more volume of trash now. What am I supposed to do? If you choose not to take those recyclables elsewhere and you are going to start discarding those as trash and you do feel like it's not going to be feasible to fit it in your current trash toter, additional toters are available and you just call public works. There is a fee associated with that, but it's a nominal fee. So just give us a call. We have more information there. And then it's imperative to remember to bag your garbage. We're talking about, um, you know. Preserving the environment and doing what we can, that's one of the best things that we can do to keep litter from blowing out of the trash trucks, from catching wind in between during disposals, and blowing away, so just please remember to bag your trash.

Tabitha Clark: 10:40

Yes, and not only is that, you know, kind of a biohazard, but also, like you said, with the wind and things like that, that gets into our sewer system, our stormwater, I mean, it, it's all connected.

Ansley Fitzner: 10:51

Yep, and we do have, you know, we have litter control staff out full time to try and help, but it's a team effort to keep Perry beautiful and clean.

Tabitha Clark: 11:00

Thanks for listening to the Inside Perry podcast, your inside look at Perry's local government. Take a look at the show notes for more information about today's episode. If you like Inside Perry, we encourage you to subscribe and share the podcast with your friends and family. We look forward to seeing you around in our amazing community where Georgia comes together.