We should pay more for curbside service.Although some valid points and some good suggestions regarding residential refuse collection were made in a recent letter, there are certain facts that the writer was obviously not privy to. Since I actually worked in the Solid Waste Division billing office for several months, I can confidently say that the decision to close over 1,000 delinquent accounts was neither a new practice by the division, nor was it hastily enacted. The key word here is “delinquent.”
The billing for Jan. 1 to June 30, 2008, was mailed out in December of 2007. Solid Waste Division did not start closing down accounts until last month. It’s safe to guess that if someone has not paid a bill they have had in their possession for over five months, they either do not intend to do so at all, or they no longer live at the residence and neglected to close the account. Or maybe the property owner has a tenant that was supposed to take care of the trash bill. Any number of factors could come into play here. Trash service is one of those things that gets ignored—until it isn’t being done anymore. If our route crews miss one single house just one time, you can bet they hear about it immediately.
As for additional costs out-of-pocket, I agree it would be nice to see them included on the sewer bill or something, saving everyone a lot of time and hassle. However, the fees still would have to be processed separately by somebody. Tax dollars do cover the lion’s share of refuse collection, equipment and processing costs already, but those costs are increasing all the time, as more and more residential areas emerge on the island. The more rubbish that’s generated, the more it costs to do something with it. I don’t think that paying a few more dollars a month for convenient curbside service is unreasonable. If you’d rather save that money, though, you can always carry your rubbish to the landfill yourself. It’s “free” to all residents (paid for by tax dollars). And I’m sure our route crews wouldn’t mind a bit if they didn’t have to deal with your garbage for you.