City begins deploying poly carts

New blue dumpsters have begun appearing throughout town as the City of Olney proceeds with plans to change the way it handles waste disposal for businesses and residents. The City has been switching the old green side-loading dumpsters at businesses and the Olney Housing Authority for new blue front-loading dumpsters to accommodate Waste Connections’ new trash trucks. The next step will be removing the alley dumpsters that have served residents and delivering 90-gallon green poly carts to each household, City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon said. The poly cart implementation could begin at any time, she said.

“Public works have gone through and cleared out all the alleys to make sure the brush is clear and they put gravel down to fix the potholes,” she said. “When we are ready to send the poly carts to the residences, we will send a letter … saying you are going to be getting your new poly cart, and giving instructions on where to put it and what to expect,” she said.

The poly carts cost $23 per month, and residents can pay $37 per month for a second cart, she said.

Residents who were hoping to winnow their weekly trash by recycling will have to take those items to the Waste Connections recycling center in Wichita Falls, after the company removed the pink recycling dumpsters from the parking lots of Stewart’s Food Store and the Shell station due to misuse, she said.

“The recycling was removed because people – and we don’t know who – were not respecting the fact that those bins were for recycling only. They were throwing away their household trash in the recycling bins,” she said.

Waste Connections had been offering the recycling service to the community for free, and incurred costs when drivers had to remove the mixed load of recycling and trash from the recycling center and drive it to a landfill, she said.

“It was at their own expense and every single time they would drive to [the recycling center] and dump the contents and then gather it back up and take it to the dump,” she said.

She said the City has discussed the possibility of offering recycling at the Olney Convenience Station, but Waste Connections “is not interested.”

“It’s still an extra service that they are not interested in providing for us,” she said. “It’s impossible to catch people when they illegally dump. Waste Connections has been warning us for years.”