Comments on: Yard Waste Pickup Ends on January 31st

By: Walker

Walker — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:00:56 +0000

City yard-waste pickup back? Not so fast
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 3:10 AM
By Robert Vitale
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Officials say they don’t plan to resume citywide, city-funded yard-waste pickup — a promise made in the recent campaign for a city income-tax increase — until early 2010.

By: Mez

Mez — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:14:40 +0000

The city does not want people to use their trash bins for yard waste. As the article in the Dipsatch stated, this would raise the City’s tipping fees at the landfill because of excess yardwaste. I am all for a mandatory recylcling program & not allowing yard wast into the trash. If the city needs it ,go ahead and charge a few bucks a month for trash pick up. FYI the article also stated that the cost was $6 Million dollars and they serviced 230,000 homes. This equals only $26.00 a household per year. This would be a lot less then having to pay for gas to drive the stuff to a center. Hope they can figure a way to keep this service going with some servicer.

By: CDS sherman

CDS sherman — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:18:26 +0000

for a small fee i can take anything away!

By: Pablo

Pablo — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:31:34 +0000

^^ Me too. I never had any trouble with Rumpke’s yard waste pick-up. I can compost the smaller stuff but I don’t have a truck to haul away larger limbs. I’ll bet most yard waste will just end up in the landfill.

By: Ebeth

Ebeth — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:08:23 +0000

I’m sad to see the pick-up service go. I’ve never really had any trouble with it though.
I’m glad to see that there is a contract for drop off at composting facilities, but neither of them are in very convenient locations.

By: michaels14

michaels14 — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:42:51 +0000

My Christmas tree is still out front… 4 weeks now. I did call 311, but Rumpke hasn’t been real responsive the last couple weeks as they discussed this with City.

By: lazyfish

lazyfish — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:44:03 +0000

Rumpke is one of the worst corporations in the area…not only are they violently anti-union, their workers are underpaid, understaffed,overworked,given minimal to no benefits…also their landfills have been repeatedly cited for leaking and other environmental violations. Good riddance assholes. This is a great excuse to start a compost pile of if necessary take your yard waste to one of the local community gardens for composting.

By: geigondis

geigondis — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:33:06 +0000

I know it is a necessary budget cut so moving forward, we’ll deal. But Rumpke still owes us for services we already paid for. My entire street has had our Christmas trees out for weeks. They should honor that contract and do what they should have done before the City opted not to renew.

By: Walker

Walker — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:03:06 +0000

Press Release from SWACO:

In regards to the statement released by the City of Columbus relased Friday January 30, 2009 on yard waste collections:

SWACO has 2 contracted compost facilities were residents of Franklin County can bring their yard waste free of charge. These locations are 2850 Rohr Rd and 4120 Roberts Rd.

SWACO also operates the Ã¢â‚¬Å“Nail-a-Dumper program where people can report illegal dumping in Franklin County. The 24-hour-a-day number to call to report instances of illegal dumping is 614-871-5322.

Dedicated loads of Yard waste are banned from all landfills in Ohio.

By: jodyNcolumbus

jodyNcolumbus — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:19:37 +0000

I too am disappointed. We mostly compost our grass clippings, but we have put out many branches after the various wind storms. I pay Rumpke directly for my recycling, so yes, maybe we could bump it up and have yard waste pickup too? Seems like people will just be putting organic material in the big green monsters. That seems like a backwards step. Where is the Green Spot now?

PS – I was VERY impressed that both Columbus Garbage and Rumpke picked up this week, even with all the snow.

By: berdawn

berdawn — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:17:31 +0000

I’m surprised by the poor pick up remarks, but I call 645-CITY at 7:05pm if mine is missed. I’ve never had them not come the next day.

By: chrisgillespie

chrisgillespie — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:54:20 +0000

I’m bummed about this, because I’m sure a lot of this will end up in the trash. However, I understand the budgetary issue. The pickup has been terrible the past year, anyway. I’d drive down my street and see the same bags sitting out for weeks before they were picked up. I kept thinking, the bags are breaking down on the bottom and will be difficult to lift. I compost all my leaves — with the addition of non-meat kitchen scraps to add “greens” to speed the process (altho, technically, I think we’re not even supposed to do that). My neighbor John doesn’t have as many leaves, and gathers some that neighbors leave out. However, not everyone is a gardener. Hope more folks get into composting — renegade as that is ;) But, I also hope we can renew this city program a few years in the future.

By: tinagoodman

tinagoodman — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:51:07 +0000

Last I heard, the new budget allowed for every other week pick-up ?? That’s too bad if even that got cut…

By: lifeliberty

lifeliberty — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:43:22 +0000

service used to be really good, but it really went downhill this past year. and after the wind storm we had, forgeddaboudit!

yeah yeah, shame on me, but I had to start throwing out all my yard waste. I don’t have much trash since I recycle so there’s plenty of room in my garbage bin.

edit: if they offered a pay to play plan I’d probably still throw it in the trash. I don’t pay for recycling either, I take it to the bin at the school about a block away.

By: joev

joev — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:41:35 +0000

I wonder if making this a paid service could revive this, along the lines of curbside recycling.