Columbia city logo bags to be required for residential curbside trash pickup
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia's Solid Waste Utility will require all curbside trash to be in city-issued bags with the city's logo starting next month.
The move is meant to improve working conditions for staff as the city has struggled to hire trash workers, utility officials say. The city cites the number of injuries those workers suffer on the job as one of the primary challenges to keeping enough staff.
“As you know we’ve had some challenges with the operation and collections of solid waste with staffing level challenges. We’ve had a very difficult time recruiting and retaining employees to collect garbage at the curb and recycling at the curb and I understand that, that’s been very trying and painful for the community that we’ve had to actually cease recycling for a while and we’re looking at options on that.", said Dave Sorrell, Columbia's Director of Utilities.
Requiring customers to use only the city-approved bags will reduce large items being put out for pickup, the city says.
"We converted to a more equitable pay as you throw type of garbage collection system which means the people who use the city’s service on average or less than that pay just a flat rate but people who use it more will have to pay more to use that service and it makes it more equitable it makes it more like an electrical utility or water utility where the more you use the more you pay and the second phase of that is to change our collection system to require the use of a city branded logo bag and that goes into effect February one.”, said Sorrell.
Starting Feb.1 all trash left curbside for residential trash collection must be in city logo bags in order to be picked up. Residents can put out as many bags as needed for curbside pickup but they must be city logo bags.
Columbia city trash customers will receive two trash and two recycling vouchers this month and again in June. Customers will exchange the vouchers for city logo trash and recycling bags. Vouchers will be mailed out to residents Monday. Residents will receive vouchers for 104 trash bags each year with extra bags available for purchase if needed.
Bags will be sold at local grocery stores and customers can buy more bags there. Bags will be sold in a roll of five for $10. The utility says the cost is meant to help pay for landfill fees, salaries and vehicle maintenance.
Vouchers can be redeemed for bags at Gerbes, Hy-Vee, Menards, Moser's, Schnucks and City Hall. The city has created a contactless drive-thru event for the public to redeem their vouchers without having to go into stores.
Bags will be available at Cosmo Park from Jan. 19 through Jan. 22 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and again Jan. 23 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The city has not allowed for curbside recycle pickup since July, again citing staffing problems. Curbside recycling pickup has not resumed and the city tells residents to dump their recycling at city drop-off sites.
Steve Hunt, the city's Solid Waste Utility manager says staffing issues began long before the pandemic. “We’ve been struggling with this attracting and retaining staff since 2015, initially we believed it was just a compensation issue, so we worked through the budget process to try and some of those compensation issues doesn’t have seemed to improve the situation.”, said Hunt.
Hunt believes the physical demand of the job is the cause for issues with staffing. "The nature of the work being outside in the weather in the hot and cold out in the rain in the snow, it’s just not very desirable it’s a physically demanding job.”
Hunt says currently 16 of the 28 residential curbside pickup positions are filled, and currently 2 of those staff members are unavailable, leaving the department with only 14 employees available for work.
Dave Sorrell, the city's Director of Utilities, said they are currently having to use a staffing agency in order to complete their daily routes. Sorrell hopes that the new trash requirements will lessen the load on workers.
