With the stay-at-home order in place, many communities are seeing an influx of trash. Crews in the field are seeing a lot more residential waste, which is raising concerns about the potential for exposure to the virus. Work is being done right now to ensure that crews stay safe over the 58-square miles the trash and recycling collectors cover while they provide the essential service. “I use a lot more hand sanitizer in the truck,” said Mark Holznagel. “We’ve always carried hand sanitizer with us, but we use it a lot more often.”
“I think that the awareness is there that this is a serious issue,” said department Director David Herberholz. Herberholz says, so far, daily operations have gone unchanged. “This is more of a people-transmitted virus and not the material that we’re collecting, so I think, from that end, it’s business as usual with the materials that we’re collecting,” he added.
The department is advising workers who travel in semi-automated vehicles to maintain distance and face masks will be the newest addition to their arsenal of personal protection equipment. “Once we get masks, we’ll make it mandatory that when for individuals are in tighter proximity than six feet where it’s necessary for them to be riding in the cab of a truck that they be required to wear masks,” Herberholz.