Municipalities around Genesee County have been asking residents to put out only their weekly trash and recycling during the COVID-19 pandemic. If anyone in the household has had the virus, they’re asked to not put out their trash at all.The Genesee County branch of Emterra Environmental USA expected to see increased waste during the stay-at-home order due to further product use in households, said Dan Garman, spokesperson for the company. “We expected it in normal household waste but we didn’t expect massive cleanups,” Garman said. “More than anything, it just slows you down because each stop is putting out four times more than normal and it just slows down the day and you don’t have enough workers to get it done.”
Emterra covers 80 percent of Genesee County municipalities including the city and township of Flushing, city and township of Grand Blanc, Davison Township, Mt. Morris Township, Genesee Township, Richfeild Township and Argentine Township, Garman said. “We’ve got to keep our people healthy so they can provide that service we all need,” he said.
People should keep their waste contained in bags and preferably in a can and try their best to not do garage and basement cleanups or put out any loose waste or bulk items, he said. “They think it’s OK to put out a ping pong table or whatnot — those slow us down considerably,” he said.
Recycling items cannot be taken in a plastic bag, so people must put loose recyclables in a recycling bin, washed and properly handled. “If people could hold their compost as long as possible or until this is over, that’d be great, too, just because the waste volumes are so high at home,” Garman said. “If they have to put out their compost, keep it to reasonable numbers.”
The job is tough right now but it is essential to the health of the community, Garman said. “People think they magically take the garbage to the curb and it’s gone and that it doesn’t take too much to do,” Garman said. “Now with this they’re seeing the importance of those people who are essential, in the way we do our week-to-week around the house, our week-to-week things in our yard.”
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Author: Winter Keefer, mlive.com, MSN
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