Upper Arlington Trash Debacle

So, earlier this year, our city abruptly disbanded the municipal waste department and outsourced trash and recycling services to a private company based in Texas.

From what I recall, UA laid off the city’s workers and auctioned off the garbage trucks and those neat little dump truck scooters that zipped by every Tuesday. They city’s leaders decided it would be more cost efficient to outsource that service, but they enacted the change with an emergency hearing. They claimed some emergency process was necessary because if they didn't get this company, Inland Services, to handle our trash there would be an immediate public health crisis. Um, yeah, it is only an emergency because you are making it one by laying off the garbage men and not having anyone to pick up our trash. Public health crisis, my ass.

So now there are all these Upper Arlington residents up in arms and they want their little buggies back!

The buggies were really awesome and very clever and efficient. They would split the buggies up by commodity - one for trash, one for paper, one for plastic/glass/metal. They would zip along the street, pick up their commodity and throw it in the back. When they were full, they'd drive over to the big garbage truck (sometimes on another street) and empty out the buggy, then continue on. It seemed wasteful with all those trucks and workers, but it was really clean and efficient and quick.

Anyway, they are gone now and Inland Services uses plain old white garbage trucks.

So, every week in our weekly Upper Arlington News the letters to the editor fill 2 pages griping about the trash. The gripes are:

• The trash pick up is slow.


• The garbage men do not neatly place the empty receptacles on the curb upside down (what??).


• It is a burden for me to drag my trash to the curb once a week.


• It is expensive for me to pay $30 a year for trash pick up (what??).


• And then the ongoing argument that the city council acted inappropriately when making an emergency decision and approving the contract in the first place.
  

Fine. I agree that city council acted very inappropriately, they were not fiscally responsible, they even tried to deceive the public in some ways. It was a really stupid thing to do and it is not okay that they acted this way.

BUT now the group of UA residents has submitted a few thousand signatures on a petition to the county board of elections to bring this issue up to vote. In November. The city didn't like that and now they have hired a lawyer and are taking the issue to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Can you imagine? Because everyone is whining about who picks up their trash and whose right it is to determine that? How much time and energy and money is going to be wasted on this "fight"? And to what end?

Let's say the opposing residents win. Then what? We re-create a trash department? Buy garbage trucks and hire people and handle all of the administrative burdens associated with creating a new group in an organization? And what kind of penalty will we have to pay Inland Services for breaking their contract?

It's really amazing how passionate people are about this issue, on both sides. They can't let it go.

There is even a website now documenting the residents' side of the story, complete with neat photos and online donation capabilities! http://uatrash.org

I really don't want to fight for the right to decide who picks up my trash. Just pick it up at least once a week. I'm worried about what is coming next - State Supreme Court fights for the right to vote on the rezoning of the two lots on Tremont Road? Maybe my parents will sue the city for the right to plant their two little spindly trees on the lawn near the curb. Surely the Lane Avenue redevelopment is going to become an issue, and we may need to vote on who does the new roof at Barrington Elementary. We'll be tied up in litigation for years at this point.

Personally, I was satisfied with the past trash pick-up and I am satisfied with the current trash pick-up. I have not seen a change in my service or any significant change in my expenses. So, I don’t feel strongly one way or the other. Privatization of services has worked very well for many communities and was role-modeled by Indianapolis in the 90s to great success.

The one thing I’m pissed about is during this whole drawn-out drama, I’ve learned that for the last five years that we’ve been residents of Upper Arlington, we could have left our trash and recyclables outside in our backyard by our garage and the little scooter trucks would have come up our driveways to get the trash.

Well, someone forgot to share that with the people living in River Ridge, because everyone on my block has always dragged their trash and recycling bins to the curb every Monday night. Driving to work every Tuesday morning I saw the garbage cans and recycling bins stacked up at the curb in front of every house in River Ridge.

So, guess what? My husband and I want compensation for all our time and energy back that we wasted once a week for five years dragging those nasty, heavy, stinky, 33-gallon trash cans all the way down our long driveway to the curb. We made many trips back-and-forth over the years, in rain, snow, even dragging the barrels across ice to get them to the curb.