Drive and Drop spring cleaning

Fewer people participated in the city’s Drive and Drop spring cleaning program than they did in 2013, which was the last time that type of cleanup was done. 123DR-Ad-Long It meant fewer tons of material was collected, but it also meant a lower cost, city Public Works Director Sawley Wilde said. There were 553 vehicles that visited the three sites on each of three weekends in late April and early May compared to 740 vehicles in 2013. They dropped off 62.17 tons of materials, compared to 118.85 tons three years ago. Part of that decrease was attributed to a significant drop in yard waste — from 42.98 tons to 3.99 tons. Wilde said that was because city crews used to estimate the weight of the yard waste and this year they were able to weigh it to get an accurate measure. But in general, less was dropped off this year compared to 2013: 22.3 tons of debris compared to 25.4 tons 18.25 tons of demolition material compared to 22.17 tons 12.7 tons of metal items compared to 17 tons 4.93 tons of electronics waste compared to 11.3 tons But even those numbers pale in comparison to the tons collected for the past two years in the door-to-door curbside spring cleanup. In 2014, 251.2 tons was collected and in 2015, 412.44 tons were collected. The City Council chose to reintroduce the Drive and Drop program this year because of budget constraints. The cost of the curbside cleanup in 2015 was $184,967 compared to the $29,597 cost of the Drive and Drop this year, Wilde said. In both cases, most of the cost came in contractor services. Wilde said city crews were able to allow some “urban recycling,” which was popular when items were piled at curbside. People would come through and collect many of the items for themselves and keep them out of the landfill. “We had a lot more people coming through … wanting to get some of the stuff out of the pile,” he told the City Council last week. While people weren’t allowed to crawl into the large trash containers to retrieve items, staff would do it for them or set things aside that they thought other people might be able to use. “We had quite a few people come through and take advantage of that,” he said. “We had a lot of positive comments about that.” Litter numbers increase Sustainability coordinator Michael Foote said more people participated in the city’s annual Trash-a-thon last month than had the year before. He said the number of volunteers increased by about half to about 2,000 this year. There also was a 22 percent increase in the amount of bags of trash collected, with about 1,200 bags of litter turned in. Foote plans another Trash-a-thon in the fall — but only if money is found in the budget for it. Its $5,000 cost has not been budgeted, Wilde said.