Lots of ideas floating around the newsgroups and around town about trash collection in Altadena. The town council is considering a contract for one provider, as opposed to the "semi-exclusive" franchise now operating with Athens and Allied. What do you think? Is it better to have competition, or accountability? Flexibility? Bear-proof containers? Comments below.
Shannon said…
I think we need to look at cities like Olympia, WA with their Zero Waste Plan and model a new program after that. They have lots of information online:
http://www.ci.olympia.wa.us/cityutilities/garbage/
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 12:41 PM
Lisa Hastings said…
Hopefully, this will not include mandatory participation. There are many residents who recycle everything and don’t need trash service. Making us pay for something we don’t use or need is wrong. I have written to my town council reps Zack and Wasserman but they have provided me with nothing definitive about this.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 02:28 PM
Robby said…
Hear, hear, Lisa. Between composting and the EXCELLENT Caltech recycling center, I produce a miniscule amount of trash. Like, on the order of one 13-gallon bag a week…mostly critter wastes and meat leftovers, which I don’t compost.
The relative control we have over our local utilities is, in fact, one of the main things I appreciate about living in Altadena. I like having choice, and I am wary about getting locked into anything.
Why is there Council interest in refuse services, anyway? I must have missed any original discussions on the topic. Have there been issues with service or pricing?
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 07:27 PM
ed said…
The only thing that I don’t like about having to many trash companys is that they are not on the same schudule so it seems like there is a trash truck on my street daily and know one has the same trash day.
Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 10:26 PM
Snow said…
We moved in to Altadena in 2002, started out with BFI as our hauler. When they were bought out by AW (an Arizona-based company), I noticed a deterioration in service, especially late pickups. We switched to Athens (a more local company) and like them better. That said, I do realize that the process is not that we residents pick out the hauler, but selection is through a bid process. Things I have seen on the list of proposed services, such as large item pickup and ewaste collection are very appealing and largely lacking at the moment. Also, when we switched from AW, they never did pick up the large container that they’d given us – I’d hope for better all-round service. You make a good argument for the single server plan, and I think I’d favor that route.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008 at 08:16 AM