Published: May 08, 2008 08:43 pm            

Pilot program, bumpy flight

First week’s experiences not unusual for new effort

The pilot program testing once-a-week trash pick-up in Corsicana has had a rough start, but it’s continuing, according to officials with Allied Waste.

The program calls for a three-month trial period to see if automatic residential garbage collection is feasible in the city.

“The whole pilot program is going pretty good,” said Kevin Abbot with Allied Waste. “For the most part.”

The hiccups in the routes have been where people have either not brought the bins all the way to the curb, making them unreachable by the robotic arms of the truck, or have put trash around the bin, which can’t be picked up by the arms.

“Most of the problems were because people didn’t read the guide,” Abbott said. “It will take a couple of weeks to knock off all the bumps.”

Of the 2,200 people in the city that received big blue bins for the pilot program, at least two residents who also experienced first-week problems were Councilman Stephen Andrews, who helped organize the pilot program; and Mayor C.L. “Buster” Brown.

Andrews said he didn’t realize which group he was in, and panicked when he saw the truck coming.

“And I’d stuffed that thing full, to see how much I could fit in there,” he admitted, laughing.

Brown, on the other hand, wasn’t aware when the regular pickup left off, and the pilot program began.

“A bunch of us assumed that since the new program started on Tuesday/Thursday they would pick up conventionally on Monday (before the program began),” Brown explained. “Which was an incorrect assumption.”

Schedule confusion, incorrect bin placement, and piling trash on top of the bins or around the bins were the most common mistakes for the first time, Abbot said.

Still, he believes it’s all part of the learning curve.

“Thousands of other towns have done this, I don’t know why it won’t work in Corsicana,” he said.

From the standpoint of Allied Waste and the city, the goal is to become more efficient. The city is in the fourth year of a five-year contract with Allied Waste for trash service. Over the last several years, the cost of diesel for the trash trucks has increased from $1.25 per gallon to $4 a gallon, but the price of trash pickup hasn’t increased to residents. However, in September 2009, the city will have to negotiate a new contract, and the price of garbage service could go up to reflect the higher diesel costs if a more efficient system isn’t found.

With the automatic service, pick-ups are done once a week, and only one man is on each truck, instead of the current three person-crew. He operates the robotic arm from inside the cab, never touching the trash cans.

Initially, each pilot program customer will receive a large, wheeled 95-gallon plastic bin with a lid. The truck grabs the bin around the middle and dumps it into a compactor.

For the first two weeks, each house will only have one of the bins. After two weeks, residents can request a second bin, but they will be charged an additional $5 a month.

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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com.

        

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