[GreenYes] RE: garbage/recycling alternate pickups

["Lacaze, Skip" <Skip.Lacaze@no.address>]

When I first looked at "automated" and "semi-automated" cart collection in
the '80s, I remember hearing that some German cities had a modified
alternate-week collection system using three carts per house and one fleet
of packer trucks to collect as follows: garbage, paper recyclables, garbage,
other recyclables (cans & bottles).  I don't know what they did on the four
extra pickup days per year for each route--they may have used them for
maintenance, in which case garbage would go three weeks between pickups, or
they could have done an extra garbage pickup.

The reason that this was tied to a cart deployment was that the new carts
with attached lids were expected to keep the fly population from exploding.

Another modification to consider would be doing yard waste on Monday, with
whatever volume limitation and frequency that was practicable with your
equipment.  Then you could do alternate-week collection of garbage and
single-stream (or use the modified system above) Tuesday through Friday.  

One thing to remember is that switching to bi-weekly or semi-monthly garbage
collection will result in a slight increase in actual stops made per day,
since there will be a lower percentage of stops without a setout.

Skip Lacaze
Civic Services Manager
Integrated Waste Management Division
Environmental Services Department
777 N 1st Street, Suite 300
San Jose, CA 95112

voice:	408/277-3994
fax:	408/277-3669
mailto:skip.lacaze@no.address
www.sjrecycles.org
100% San Jose. Recycle where you Live, Work and Play

-----Original Message-----
From: Brenda Platt [mailto:bplatt@no.address]
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 9:29 AM
To: greenyes; Recycle; Anne Lankenau
Subject: garbage/recycling alternate pickups

...I am trying to find out what cities/towns/communities have a pick-up
recycling program where they alternate between garbage and recycling
pick-up. This means that garbage and recycling are collected every other
week with one week for "garbage" and the next for recycling. We are
considering such a schedule because we have only one truck and driver to
pick up each week. ...