COLUMBUS, Ohio — Since 2018, the city of Columbus has been transitioning away from large communal trash bins to individual trash carts. That transition is set to be complete by October of this year.
The city decided to make the transition away from the 300-gallon containers to combat illegal dumping and the amount of time consumed by picking up spilled garbage.
“We realized we were getting a lot of illegal dumping in them. A lot of that trash overflowed,” said Tim Swauger, Columbus Refuse Administrator. "When residents came out to bring out their trash, the can was already overflowing, so then we were getting debris around the can that was leading to a lot of litter and debris in the alleys especially."
He said this transition to carts has slowed down the trash crews, but it comes out as a wash since they aren’t spending time picking up stuff around the bins.
“The amount of time we spent picking up the illegal dump material or spillage has gone away. It’s just reallocating those resources. It takes a little longer to pick up those cans but we have less to pick up on the backside,” he said.
The entire west side of Columbus has been finished and the city’s public services are now working on the east side.
One area currently transitioning is Harrison West and Victorian Village.
While people in the neighborhood didn’t want to talk on camera, they did express concerns about the cans cluttering up the alleyways, still dealing with people dumping garbage illegally in and around cans and the cans blowing over. Others liked the transition and said it is more convenient.
Swauger said people should bring their trash carts back onto their property from the alley and secure it. As for illegal dumping, he said the best this is to report it.
“If you have the illegal dumping, contact us. We have solid waste investigators here. That’s all they do is investigate illegal dumping,” Swauger said. “We charge them either civilly or criminally depending on what occurs. We have cameras we can hide in the alleys to record that kind of stuff.”
Another resident told 10TV that while a can was dropped off on his side of the duplex, the neighbor missed out.
Swauger said the transition has been mostly smooth, but they’ve ran into some hiccups along the way.
“We’re finding some flaws. Some people that were utilizing services that weren’t intended for them and some areas where we should find some containers for those who need them,” he said.
He said some apartment building that should have always had a private trash bin was relying on the city’s neighborhood trash bins, which is not allowed if it is more than five units in a building.
As for litter still blowing around in the alleyways, Swauger said that will soon be mitigated by altering the trash trucks once the conversion away from the large containers is complete.
“We’ll be able to put a litter chute on top of that, which will actually stop debris from blowing out of the truck as we’re dumping,” he said. “We currently can’t use them because the 300 gallon container can’t fit with the litter guard on it.”
For people with questions, are missing their cans or have concerns about illegal dumping, they should call the city’s 311 public service line.