Trash collection in Orlando has become a semiweekly sci-fi encounter for its residents. New garbage trucks with hydraulic arms resemble a scene from the movie Star Wars.
“It’s cool and wacky-looking,” said Amy Yost, a resident of the Lake Formosa neighborhood. “It [the arm] comes down really jerky, and then it grabs the garbage can . . . and then shoots it up and over into the back of the truck.”
Yost, 36, and her partner, Shelly LaBerge, 39, received a flier in May about the city’s new garbage-collection system. The trash receptacle arrived in June, and shortly after that the program went into effect in their neighborhood.
Every neighborhood eventually will receive the black wheeled cans. Distribution started on the city’s eastern edge and is moving west.
For some customers, the adjustment hasn’t been easy.
Yost and LaBerge think there wasn’t enough information about the system.
“When we did get the garbage can, it didn’t spell out all of the problems that we could avoid, especially in regards to placement of the can” at the curb, Yost said. “It was just mayhem for the first month or six weeks.”
LaBerge thinks people are getting accustomed to the new system.
“Anything starting off is going to have its hiccups,” LaBerge said. “The funny part of the whole picture was the fact that people were tying bags to it [the can].”
Low tree limbs can be obstacles.
“I don’t like when the arm goes flying up with the can and hits the tree limbs,” LaBerge said. “It’s inevitable, because the oak trees are everywhere. Now we need tree-trimming people to cut the trees back.”
The city suggests placing the receptacles two feet away from low-hanging limbs.
Orlando’s new trash-collection system has been in planning phases for 12 years. The Solid Waste Management Division tested a similar semi-automated system in the Parramore area as part of a pilot project from 1994 to 2000.
“We had a regular garbage truck with two hydraulic lifters on the back,” division manager Mike Carroll said. “It was semi-automated because you still had to get the cart over to the truck.”
After tracking the Parramore pilot project and receiving positive feedback, solid-waste managers thought the time was right to install a cart-based system to help prevent work-related injuries and reduce the number of garbage collectors.
“The carts use an automated and mechanical method to lift a container, which is much safer,” Carroll said. The cans, the first one free to customers, have 10-year warranties.
Not everyone has one of the new 96-gallon receptacles.
“We have a little bit more than 40,000 residences and about 6,000 carts left to pass out, and we don’t know when those residents will be receiving their carts as of yet,” Carroll said.
Homeowner Toni Peck’s garbage route in Audubon Park is also taking part in the new trash-collection system.
“It has evolved and gotten better,” said Peck, Yost’s sister. “It started out really rough. The wheel on our can also keeps popping off.”
Peck, 36, said some trash also wasn’t getting picked up at her home. Hers apparently wasn’t the only one.
“I had a kiddie pool that was deflated, and it wouldn’t fit into the can,” she said. “It sat there [on the curb] forever, growing mosquitoes. That’s when we started noticing all of these amazing roadside sculptures.”
Peck’s son, Sam, 4, enjoys watching the new truck’s garbage-collecting gadget.
“The driver shows him how the arm works, and he has to watch it every time,” Peck said.
Carroll recognizes there have been some pitfalls with the new system.
“We had some problems initially,” he said. “We are focused on training the drivers to safely operate the truck and cover their route.”
City workers also noticed that the new cans apparently spurred some customers to clean house, he said.
“When we give somebody a cart, the funniest thing happens — for the next four to six weeks they give us 50 to 100 percent more garbage,” Carroll said. “We made them think about garbage probably for the first time in 20 or 30 years.”
