FCC Environmental Trash contract 2021

[OmahaFan]

What’s your views on the trash Contract? Are we getting newer trucks with self loaders?

[Omahacritic]

As I understand it, recycle is every two weeks vs weekly for trash. And half of the year Omaha is putting grass clippings in a landfill. It’s all so logical. But I admit, i was out of Omaha for a while.

Carts. Way easier. I’ve used them for 15 years with no problem.

But, I hardly ever filled my refuse bin. But I almost always filled the recycle bin (family of four). I rarely could have made it two weeks between pick-ups.

Hauling heavy grass clippings a long distance and then dumping them in a trench and then piling dirt on top. I’m not an environmentalist but even I can see how this is crazy. Extra truck trips. Extra wear on roads. But I’m betting the City wants you to fight Climate Change.

[jessep28]

Automated side loaders will be used primarily. For narrow streets and alleyways, rear end loaders with cart tippers will be utilized. Recycle will be bi-weekly, but people get a 95 gallon cart. That's over five times the volume of the current 18 gallon bin.

The city loses money on Omagro. I think that the dedicated yard waste collection campaigns are a fair compromise.

[Uffda]

With all these bins coming in If you are looking to start a business in Omaha

https://neighborhoodnewsonline.net/2018 ... ling-bins/

Scrub-A-Dub’s customers leave their bin out on trash day, after the truck has picked up their trash and/or recycling. That’s when Jennifer comes by, opens the bin and uses a grabber to pull out any trash left behind, then loads the bins into her truck, and the “magic” begins.
The bins are raised above the truck and centered around a head that spins and blasts 190-degree water. “It’s basically a high-pressure power wash that lasts about 30 seconds,” explains Jennifer.

[Greg S]

Looks to be a huge improvement over the current one.

Greg

[Stargazer]

The carts are somewhat of a pain for keeping in a garage... fortunately my Bennington home has a little side pad where I can keep them out of the way. I actually have weekly recyclable pick-up, but I usually only have enough to put out every other week. It's a little unfortunate that we're going to continue dumping yard waste with everything else. What's Oma-Gro doing these days?

[greenbuilder]

What's Oma-Gro doing these days?

According to the Mayor all it does is lose money! I don't believe her! Others cities are able to make composting work! Lincoln is a great example! Olathe KS lets residents dump yard waste free anytime and gives the compost away free, you just have to load and haul it!

[Omahacritic]

Hauling trash is a money loser. Why should hauling away grass clippings be any different? When you are dumping tons of yard waste into a trench you are still losing money. And, your landfill fills up quicker.

[greenbuilder]

Here is the Omagro operation.

[greenbuilder]

I think they should reopen the old State Street landfill and turn it into a composting operation. I know this would have people up in arms thinking not in my backyard! People composting does not stink!

Here is Olathe Kansas composting operation and its surrounded by homes and parks.

[Busguy2010]

If we are disappointed the city wont compost, then anybody that produces yard waste should compost it themselves. On a good size city lot, all it takes it a 4 foot cube of area to dump your grass clippings, raw vegetable scraps, leaves, sticks and other yard stuff, year round. When you get the final product, you can use it to grow food. Better yet, don't use the bagger on your mover and let the clippings feed the lawn. Never understood why or when most of society developed the idea that lawn clippings were to be bagged and thrown away.

[Brad]

Better yet, don't use the bagger on your mover and let the clippings feed the lawn. Never understood why or when most of society developed the idea that lawn clippings were to be bagged and thrown away.

Seems like 99% of the population under 70 does not bad their lawn. We have a 1/2 acre lot in the middle of town and I have never bagged my lawn. We also have 4 large silver maple trees have never bagged my leaves either. A nice mulching mower takes care of both just fine. The only yard waste we put out are sticks after a storm or a few flowers at the end of the season. I generate so little yard waste that I doesn't bother me when the little bit does go to the landfill. I also keep my mower deck about as high as it will go meaning we use little water and weed killer too. Our lawn looks great, dark green, lush, and weed free.

[jessep28]

I think that the unlimited collections from the spring and fall yard waste campaigns will be composted.

In severe overgrowth situations, bagging makes sense. But mulching blades and keeping the deck high should eliminate the need to capture clippings. Most people won't know the difference between a lawn at 2.5" and one at 3.5-4".

[Busguy2010]

Seems like 99% of the population under 70 does not bad their lawn.

At least In my neighborhood, I have observed that most do bag. Don't know their ages, but Id say at least half in my neighborhood bag.

[nativeomahan]

I haven’t bagged my grass in 20 years. But I often have bush trimmings, tree branches and even limbs that break off in storms. I cannot “mulch” such items in a “4 foot cube of area”. Some of the tree limbs are 5 or 6 inches in diameter. After a typical storm we seem to get once or twice a year I may have 6 or more of the lawn and leaf bags to fill, sometimes for a couple of weeks in a row.
I do mulch most of the leaves that fall, but I have 6 mature deciduous trees, so that is an awful lot of leaves, most of which do not fall before Halloween.
Why should OmaGrow show a profit? Police services don’t. Or the fire department. Or streets. Or Schools. Or the health department. We pay taxes and fees to pay for city services.

[GrandpaaSmucker]

Everybody wants everything. They want their streetcars and their new arenas. They want to give every mickey mouse scamming businessman handouts and Tiffs. They want the taxpayers to cover the firemen and the policemen's and the school districts stupid risky flopped pension investments. Who is going to pay for all these handouts? Maybe make us pay a dollar tax on every hamburger we eat since we are fat and need to quit eating out so much anyway.

In short there are too many leeches and scammers and not enough honest good hard working tax payers to make this heinously corrupt system work. If there is not enough money to go around its not going to be the connected scammers and businessmen that are going to get cut off its going to be the tax payers who have no connections or pull with the crooked politicians. Thus the street maintenance gets neglected and the garbage services get cut down and on and on.

[ita]

City of Omaha Waste Contract Ends a Month Early

Everyone ready for their new trash and recycling bins? You better be. The City is going to start distributing the new bins next month and the Waste Management contract ends in November. So, we will have new services come December.

[zippy]

Have they announced/discussed how we'll get rid of our current cans and recycling buckets?

[jessep28]

There will be collection points for old trash cans. You can also throw it away with the trash if it will fit in your new 96 gallon trash can. The city is encouraging people to keep and repurpose old green recycle bins, but they may be recycled. See the FAQ section on pages 4 & 6.

https://wasteline.org/wasteline-brochur ... blication/

[Omahacritic]

There will be collection points for old trash cans. You can also throw it away with the trash if it will fit in your new 96 gallon trash can. The city is encouraging people to keep and repurpose old green recycle bins, but they may be recycled. See the FAQ section on pages 4 & 6.

https://wasteline.org/wasteline-brochur ... blication/

Is it possible they are a standard size and it might be possible to buy lids that fit them?

[Brad]

Why are people freaking out about the new company missing trash on the first week of collection? New people, new trucks, new carts? I hope everyone else is perfect on their first day at a new job.

[nebugeater]

Why are people freaking out about the new company missing trash on the first week of collection? New people, new trucks, new carts? I hope everyone else is perfect on their first day at a new job.

Take your choice

A It is 2020
B It is an all about "me" culture any more
C Social Media
D Anything that government does or changes is bad

E Any combination of the above or come up with your own

[ita]

Why are people freaking out about the new company missing trash on the first week of collection? New people, new trucks, new carts? I hope everyone else is perfect on their first day at a new job.

Take your choice

A It is 2020
B It is an all about "me" culture any more
C Social Media
D Anything that government does or changes is bad

E Any combination of the above or come up with your own

Bingo. They picked ours up a day late and we were all excited just to see the new trucks.

[Brad]

Why are people freaking out about the new company missing trash on the first week of collection? New people, new trucks, new carts? I hope everyone else is perfect on their first day at a new job.

Take your choice

A It is 2020
B It is an all about "me" culture any more
C Social Media
D Anything that government does or changes is bad

E Any combination of the above or come up with your own

Bingo. They picked ours up a day late and we were all excited just to see the new trucks.

Lol, yep! It's such a non-issue.

Nebugeater, I would also add "People have very short term memories". There was a lot of trash missed over the past 2 or 3 years by the old company too...

[nebugeater]

Why are people freaking out about the new company missing trash on the first week of collection? New people, new trucks, new carts? I hope everyone else is perfect on their first day at a new job.

Take your choice

A It is 2020
B It is an all about "me" culture any more
C Social Media
D Anything that government does or changes is bad

E Any combination of the above or come up with your own

Bingo. They picked ours up a day late and we were all excited just to see the new trucks.

Lol, yep! It's such a non-issue.

Nebugeater, I would also add "People have very short term memories". There was a lot of trash missed over the past 2 or 3 years by the old company too...

Just wait for the first daily double.
They are late because they are new AND they are late because there was a major snowstorm. People will go bat oops crazy!


The other part of this whole transition that I shake my head at is the people who's lives are forever altered because of a "new" trash can. Never mind that in almost all Major metros these have been the norm for YEARS. I have not lived in the town over 200K since maybe forever and I have used this type of can since at least 1999

[S.O.Boy]

Why are people freaking out about the new company missing trash on the first week of collection? New people, new trucks, new carts? I hope everyone else is perfect on their first day at a new job.

Take your choice

A It is 2020
B It is an all about "me" culture any more
C Social Media
D Anything that government does or changes is bad

E Any combination of the above or come up with your own

Bingo. They picked ours up a day late and we were all excited just to see the new trucks.

Lol, yep! It's such a non-issue.

Nebugeater, I would also add "People have very short term memories". There was a lot of trash missed over the past 2 or 3 years by the old company too...

Just wait for the first daily double.
They are late because they are new AND they are late because there was a major snowstorm. People will go bat oops crazy!


The other part of this whole transition that I shake my head at is the people who's lives are forever altered because of a "new" trash can. Never mind that in almost all Major metros these have been the norm for YEARS. I have not lived in the town over 200K since maybe forever and I have used this type of can since at least 1999

How dare you talk about reality in Omaha.

[Busguy2010]

Those side load trucks are really really cool. They came on time in my neighborhood. I did notice there were a few random old trash cans out on the curb that they don't pick up. Some of the carts were too close to a tree and they were barely able to pick them up. Many cars parked on the street near carts. Just a variety of obstacles that might prevent them from grabbing them. Don't know if they're supposed to exit the truck to readjust or not, but I could tell you I wouldn't want to. Anyway, the arm has some pretty impressive reach

[jessep28]

Some of the inane citizen comments on the Wasteline and mayor's Facebook pages looks like something straight out of a Parks and Recreation episode.

[Busguy2010]

The other part of this whole transition that I shake my head at is the people who's lives are forever altered because of a "new" trash can.

I'll give em this... That can is way larger than what suits my needs, so I feel like I'll be on the short list for the smaller one. Cant imagine being old or disabled trying to lug that thing around.

Other than that, the simple fact that they may have missed some shouldn't be such a big issue. I think those perfect expectations are a bit unreasonable during the first week... Oh yeah, and they were the lowest bid too. So some people don't want to pay for it, but still will complain about it not being the best. Like buying dollar aisle chips and being mad that they don't taste as good as Lay's.

When I saw the truck go though my neighborhood, All I could think about was how efficient (and cool) it was. I thought it was quite alright.

[Brad]

The other part of this whole transition that I shake my head at is the people who's lives are forever altered because of a "new" trash can.

Couldn't wait to get rid of my old cans. 2 Went to the work dumpster on Monday and 2 went to the work dumpster on Tuesday.

I'll give em this... That can is way larger than what suits my needs, so I feel like I'll be on the short list for the smaller one. Cant imagine being old or disabled trying to lug that thing around.

It will be interesting to see how our family of 4 does with 1 cart. There was extra room this week and we were all home all week so there was more trash than normal. The new recycling cart is great because our green bin was always overflowing.

Oh yeah, and they were the lowest bid too.

Second Lowest Bidder. They threw out that bid from the Wisconsin firm because they thought they were too small.

[jessep28]

Minor nitpick, but the low bidder was West Central Sanitation out of Minnesota.

People who need extra trash bins only have to pay $91/year which is reasonable. Additional recycling bins are $45.50/year.

[jomaha9]

I am happy with the new service.

One issue I do see is related to homes in the older neighborhoods of Omaha. I live close to downtown and many of the houses have steep hills in the front yards where it can be challenging moving the newer trashcans from the curb to the house. Many people end up leaving the cans by the curb because they are too heavy to haul back up close to the house.

The city will eventually need to provide smaller cans for the people in older neighborhoods that have difficulty with the larger ones.

[zippy]

I live on a cul-de-sac with only 4 houses and driveways. It's a pretty short circle. The truck had to do a LOT of backing and turning to get to all of the cans.

[skinzfan23]

I live in Bellevue and they switched to the new cans and trucks about 5 years ago. I love it. The 96 gallon cans are plenty large for a weeks trash most of the time. I am amazed that there are numerous houses in our neighborhood that routinely fill 3-4 of these each week. Overall the trash service is much more consistent for the garbage men as well, which hopefully means quicker, easier collection once they get the "bugs" worked out.

[Busguy2010]

Many people end up leaving the cans by the curb because they are too heavy to haul back up close to the house.

I think this could continue to be an ongoing issue. An unintended consequence of the big cart... There are a fair number of people in my neighborhood that have yet to take their carts off the curb. In addition to that, there are some people who put their recycle carts out even though it's not our week. Some of those people have left their recycle cart on the curb, presumably to stay all week. Then there are those who have left both.

The smaller carts will be available, but Jean wants us to feel it out for a while. See if the big one might just be the right size, especially since they are for yard waste too. I have my doubts in my household at least.

[S.O.Boy]

The other part of this whole transition that I shake my head at is the people who's lives are forever altered because of a "new" trash can.

I'll give em this... That can is way larger than what suits my needs, so I feel like I'll be on the short list for the smaller one. Cant imagine being old or disabled trying to lug that thing around.

I had a curbside Rewards can over a decade ago and remember how difficult moving that can was. My yard has a slight slope going to the street, so to make it easier for the better half and myself. We wheel the empty bins to the curb and then dump the contents from our older smaller cans.

[BRoss]

Take your choice

A It is 2020
B It is an all about "me" culture any more
C Social Media
D Anything that government does or changes is bad

E Any combination of the above or come up with your own

C just really amplifies B and D and causes it to kind of feed upon itself.

But anyways, I watched the truck go by this week. They seemed to move much slower than the previous company, but I think it was getting used of the robotic arm. They were at a house down from mine messing with it for a few minutes. I bet once they get much better at that, things will flow much smoother.

[Busguy2010]

But anyways, I watched the truck go by this week. They seemed to move much slower than the previous company, but I think it was getting used of the robotic arm. They were at a house down from mine messing with it for a few minutes. I bet once they get much better at that, things will flow much smoother.

Gonna be variable for a while or indefinitely, but the truck I saw in my neighborhood was very efficient this week. The guy completed my side of the block in probably 90 seconds or less.

[PWL73316]

Most folks here are pretty reasonable, unlike Facebook or whatever - they missed a few culs de sac in my neighborhood, which is what we suburbanites get for intentionally making our neighborhoods confusing and hard to navigate. They'll get it sorted, no big deal. Here in suburbia, the truck was pretty fast and efficient, and the labor cost is half or 1/3, so I see the savings.

The bin is bigger, but how much does it really weigh, 10 pounds maybe? Much less than a full can of any size, so I don't really get this idea that there are tons of people who can't physically manage it. If you're really in that situation the city has programs to do it for you. Plus you have the half size eventually.

On the other hand, if you drove around my neighborhood and saw all the people who had the new can out with their old can, or only their old cans, or new can and old recycling bins (not our recycling week), new can with 10 yard bags piled on top of it - every possible combination - this is why we can't have nice things. The city couldn't have possibly done more to communicate and people still can't follow the direction of 'put this bin at the end of your driveway.'

[GrandpaaSmucker]

I can see it now. The sheeple don't care about the mayor lying for years about repealing the restaurant tax or her attending virus spreading late night Trump rallies or anything else but if shes going to mess up the garbage routine then she has to go. People are stupid and crazy!