Being a City Council member is often a dirty job, and it is never more true than when we have to deal with the issue of garbage. If I have learned anything during my five years on the Council, it is that the citizens of Dallas take their garbage and its collection seriously.

I never realized until I became a Councilman how many “garbage” issues there were. Think back, if you will, to all the garbage issues we have dealt with in the past few years. Garbage cans versus plastic bags, City pick-up versus private companies, grass-clipping pick-up versus no grass-clipping pick-up, alley pick-up versus front curb pick-up, manual collection versus automated collection, recycling versus no recycling, garbage pick-up twice-a-week or once-a-week with recycling pick-up, and the list goes on and on.

Sign up for our newsletter

* indicates required

Let me see if I can summarize where we are, especially in our neighborhood. The City has a plan to phase-in recycling in the next three to four years. However, in Sanitation District 4, which includes most of my and Council representatives Halstead, Wells and Fielding’s districts, Laidlaw Waste Systems is now picking up the garbage.

Unfortunately, during their first few weeks of their new contract with the City, there have been immense problems. Citizen complaints to my office have at times been overwhelming, and we have been working with Laidlaw in an attempt to correct those problems. So far, we have levied some significant fines and threatened them with the possible revocation of their contract. As of this writing, that has not happened, and if it does, I will let you know.

As part of Laidlaw’s contract, which began in April, they should begin recycling pick-up using blue bags on Oct. 3. The Council explicitly required that this service be provided in addition to the two days of regular garbage pick-up, so as not to send the citizens into shock or rage. If, and only if, the response to the recycling day is positive, will the Council consider going to a once-per-week garbage pick-up and a once-per-week recycling pick-up.

Currently, recyclable materials are collected in Dallas at drop-off sites. These “igloos” can be found not only in our neighborhood, but throughout the entire City, and they are generally sponsored by local neighborhood groups or churches. One negative aspect of City-wide recycling is that many of these private organizations will lose a source of revenue from the igloo program.

Another sensitive garbage issue that has arisen involves a pilot program in selected neighborhoods to test the automated garbage collection program. City staff, of its own volition and without consulting the City Council, decided that this pilot program was necessary in order to determine its effectiveness within the City. The problem was that the Council and the neighborhoods in the pilot program were not notified until the test was underway.

Further, the pilot program requires that garbage be put in the front yard, not the alley, to accommodate the automated trucks. Thirty- to fifty-gallon containers do keep the garbage more secured than the plastic bags, because they cannot be ravaged by dogs and cats, but they are bigger and must be rolled to the front yard by each homeowner.

I found out about this through angry calls from constituents in my district who live in the pilot program areas, on streets such as Mercer and Springhill. I immediately requested that our City staff have a community meeting and inform the citizens about what was going on, which was done May 10. Needless to say, this should have been done before the program commenced.

On the grass clippings front, it was no surprise to me that citizens were up-in-arms this spring when they were unable to have their grass clippings picked up by our sanitation crews during scalping season. Last year, I proposed an amendment to the grass clipping ordinance to allow grass-clipping pick-up during the scalping season – March 15 to April 15 – but the amendment was not successful.

However, due to citizen’s outcry during this year’s scalping season, the amendment is back on the floor and was tabled by the Council at our May 11 meeting. It was to be reconsidered in our May 25 meeting. I support the “Don’t Bag It” program, but between March 15 and April 15 it doesn’t make sense.

Needless to say, trash is a tricky business, and these efforts require the work and input of all of our citizenry. We are under state and federal mandates to reduce the waste going into our landfill by nearly 40 percent. That is why these drastic measures, such as grass clippings not being picked up and consideration of other collection measures, including recycling, are receiving serious consideration.

However, unless companies build plants that actually recycle the material, and unless companies are willing to use the recycled material, and citizens are willing to buy recycled materials, none of this is going to work. Presently, recycled materials are more expensive than regular materials. Until that problem is addressed, recycling is going to continue to be a big, uphill battle.