Daily life as we know it may have screeched to a halt, but the outbreak of the coronavirus has not stopped the accumulation of household trash or the need for somebody to pick it up. While solid waste departments across Tampa Bay have made adjustments to their protocols to protect workers, residential trash services overall remain largely undisturbed.
“We’re letting our employees know, you’re part of that essential team, you’re kind of like a first responder,” said Tampa Solid Waste Director Mark Wilfalk. “In the midst of all of this if we can’t move garbage then we just compounded the issue of cleanliness and sanitation.”
Most trash collection is automated and can be done with one employee per truck, eliminating the need for social distancing on the road that would impact routes, officials from the Tampa Bay region’s three largest cities said.
But when Clearwater was looking for a way to reduce the number of employees in the field, solid waste director Earl Gloster said it made sense to suspend yard waste and bulk item collection. The majority of waste trucks are automated with one driver — except for the city’s bulk and yard collection, which is done in teams of three, with employees handling the items and sitting together in the cab of rear-load vehicle. “We’re doing everything we can to mitigate close contact with workers,” Gloster said.
In normal times, the city sends contaminated recylables that cannot be processed — on average about 30 percent of the 1,000 tons it collects each month — to Pinellas County’s waste-to-energy plant, where it is converted to electricity. Under the increased precautions for coronavirus, the city is now sending all of its recyclables to that plant.
To read the full story, visit https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/04/16/garbage-doesnt-stop-in-a-shutdown-how-sanitation-workers-are-dealing/.
Author: Tracey McManus, Tampa Bay Times
Photo: Times, 2009